The Missouri Tigers will try to take full advantage of Jeremiah Tilmon’s internal strength by hosting South Carolina on Tuesday in Columbia, Missouri.
Tilmon registered 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks with 17th-placed Tigers (8-2 overall, 2-2 at the Southeast Conference) won a 68-52 victory at Texas A&M on Saturday.
“I am very happy for him,” said Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin. “The way he is playing, the pace, the balance, the maturity, the things he says in conversations and all that, just makes you feel proud as a coach because he has progressed each year. You start to see his work hard to make up for. “
Gamecocks (3-3, 1-1) returned from their last coronavirus outage with a loss of 85-80 at LSU on Saturday. They led for much of that game – the first since January 6 – before fighting late.
“We were a little stagnant and the ball started to stick too much, and we were making the first pass,” said Bruce Shingler, who served as South Carolina coach while Frank Martin recovered from COVID-19.
“All we emphasized throughout the week was moving the ball. … I thought that in the last six or seven minutes of the game the ball was stuck in the hands of our players.”
Like South Carolina, the Tigers returned on Saturday from a pandemic break that prompted them to postpone two SEC games.
Tilmon continued where he left off before the break. He scored 55 points and had 27 rebounds in his last three games.
“If he’s that guy, there aren’t that many in America that are better,” said Martin. “There may be some who are just as good. But top players on both sides of the ball, and doing it efficiently, without getting dirty. Really impressive.”
On the other hand, Tigers need more point guard Mark Smith. With an average of 17.3 points in his first four games, he scored just 6.8 points per game in the last six.
“If it opens from three every time, we need the ball to go up,” said Martin. “Because he can do the kicks. We need the ball to go to Mark because he is a guy who works hard, works in the game and presses himself if the kick doesn’t fall.”
South Carolina is led by point guard AJ Lawson, who has scored 77 points in the last three games. He has averaged 18.5 points this season.
Striker Keyshawn Bryant returned on Saturday and scored 26 points in his first game since December 5. Gamecocks still lacked strikers Alanzo Frink and Jalyn McCreary, and Shingler was unsure whether they would face Tigers at Mizzou Arena.
The Gamecocks want to put point guard Jermaine Couisnard back on track, after he scored the lowest five points of the season at LSU in a 1 to 8 shot. He averages 12.5 points and 3.7 assists per game.
“Jermaine is a main ball handler and he got into trouble at the beginning took his pace and got him out of the stream,” said Shingler. “At the beginning of the second half, he scored a three to regain momentum and then a foul shortly after three. His pace has always been interrupted. He’s our guy. We believe in him and I know he will improve.”
– Field-level media