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Matter describes MU changing O, moving on
Posted on: November 23, 2017 at 15:45:50 CT
Macgrantt MU
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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/martin-tigers-move-on-without-porter/article_0d03221f-d667-57fd-af84-0737e7d7d625.html
ORLANDO, FLA. • By the time Missouri’s basketball players stepped on the floor Thursday against Long Beach State they had two days to digest the news that Michael Porter Jr. won’t be playing with them any time soon — and likely for the rest of the season.
For the Tigers, though, the show goes on. Porter’s decision to undergo lower back surgery brought some sense of closure to what had been the dominant storyline surrounding the program for 11 days.
For Martin, whose team opened play in the Advocare Invitational with Thursday’s 95-68 win, life without Porter becomes a game of sudden adjustments. For months leading up to the season, his coaching staff had installed an offense centered around the 6-10 forward.
“You move on because it is what it is,” Martin said Thursday in his first public comments since Porter underwent surgery Tuesday in Dallas. “Now as a staff there are certain packages we have if Mike’s on the floor and now we make adjustments and put guys in position to do other things. That’s fine. But that’s why we try to hang our hat on defending, rebounding and playing hard so if the offense isn’t where it needs to be every night we can rely on these things defensively.”
Speaking for their teammates Thursday, guards Jordan Geist and Blake Harris sounded sorry to lose a teammate but upbeat about the team’s future without him.
“We wanted him, but prayers to him. Everything’s going to be great,” Geist said after scoring a game-high 16 points. “Everything’s going to work its course. God’s got him in his hands.”
Harris, Porter’s roommate, said he knew Porter’s surgery plans before they became public Tuesday.
“It was super sad. He told me before it was out, so I knew for a while,” said Harris, after an 11-point, nine-assist game. “He texted me after the game, so I just told him I’m playing for him. He told me to keep playing like this.”
On Tuesday, Dallas surgeon Andrew Dossett performed a microdiscectomy of Porter’s L3-L4 spinal discs, which is a common procedure for a herniated disc.
Porter had undergone treatment for a sore back in the weeks leading up to Mizzou’s first game Nov. 10 against Iowa State and minutes before tipoff he told Martin he couldn’t play because his leg was bothering him. Martin took him out of the game at the first stoppage, 127 seconds into the Mizzou victory. Porter spent the next game against Wagner in the locker room where he was more comfortable lying down icing his sore hip and leg. He didn’t travel to Salt Lake City for MU’s Nov. 16 game at Utah and missed Monday’s game against Emporia State while visiting Dossett in Texas. Porter didn’t join his teammates in Orlando for this week’s tournament and it remains unclear when — or if — he’ll rejoin them on the sidelines for games while he continues his recovery.
For Martin, though, with the Porter question answered, the focus shifted to his healthy players. Without a high-volume scorer in the lineup, Thursday’s balanced output might become the new normal as seven Tigers scored between eight and 16 points.
“If Mike was here it’d be a little different,” Martin said. “Our offense isn’t necessarily built for a guy to get 25-30 shots. We play in space, share the ball, hit the open man. That’s how we try to play. It could be a different guy every night.”
FOUL MOOD
The Tigers were in control throughout Thursday’s game but pulled away for good early in the second when a couple technical fouls put Kassius Robertson on the free throw line for four easy points. Long Beach forward Temidayo Yussuf drew his second technical, followed by one for 49ers coach Dan Monson for arguing with the officials.
“We didn’t prepare well. We didn’t compete very well. We didn’t defend very well,” Monson said. “We didn’t shoot very well. We didn’t take care of the ball very well. But other than that we were very close.”
For the record, the 49ers also lost the opening tip.
JORDAN RULES
Geist’s 16 points, on just six shots from the field, came two short of his career-high, set last year against Lipscomb and Mississippi State. Martin was more impressed with his defense.
“He played with energy,” Martin said. “I thought he set a tone defensively. He came out and made shots, made plays. He wreaked havoc on one of their best perimeter guys. That’s what we need from him every night. We’d like to have it from all our guards and set that tone. The thing about Geist is it doesn’t matter if the guy he’s guarding is 5-10 or 6-7. He’s going to defend him the same way. He’s going to battle and compete.”
Geist’s development as an effective combo guard at the point or off the ball and relegated former starter Terrence Phillips to the end of the bench. The junior has played just 10 minutes the last two games combined and didn’t enter Thursday’s contest until 5:34 was left.
TIGER TALES
Freshman guard C.J. Roberts did not join the team in Orlando. Martin gave redshirting players Roberts and sophomore Mitchell Smith the option of traveling with the team or going home for the holiday break. Smith stayed with the team while Roberts went home to Texas. … Senior walk-on guard Brett Rau sat out for a third straight game with a lower-body injury. … Mizzou outscored LBSU in the paint 24-20, on second-chance points 17-5 and on fastbreak points 15-4.
Edited by Macgrantt at 18:20:53 on 11/23/17
ORLANDO, FLA. • By the time Missouri’s basketball players stepped on the floor Thursday against Long Beach State they had two days to digest the news that Michael Porter Jr. won’t be playing with them any time soon — and likely for the rest of the season.
For the Tigers, though, the show goes on. Porter’s decision to undergo lower back surgery brought some sense of closure to what had been the dominant storyline surrounding the program for 11 days.
For Martin, whose team opened play in the Advocare Invitational with Thursday’s 95-68 win, life without Porter becomes a game of sudden adjustments. For months leading up to the season, his coaching staff had installed an offense centered around the 6-10 forward.
“You move on because it is what it is,” Martin said Thursday in his first public comments since Porter underwent surgery Tuesday in Dallas. “Now as a staff there are certain packages we have if Mike’s on the floor and now we make adjustments and put guys in position to do other things. That’s fine. But that’s why we try to hang our hat on defending, rebounding and playing hard so if the offense isn’t where it needs to be every night we can rely on these things defensively.”
Speaking for their teammates Thursday, guards Jordan Geist and Blake Harris sounded sorry to lose a teammate but upbeat about the team’s future without him.
“We wanted him, but prayers to him. Everything’s going to be great,” Geist said after scoring a game-high 16 points. “Everything’s going to work its course. God’s got him in his hands.”
Harris, Porter’s roommate, said he knew Porter’s surgery plans before they became public Tuesday.
“It was super sad. He told me before it was out, so I knew for a while,” said Harris, after an 11-point, nine-assist game. “He texted me after the game, so I just told him I’m playing for him. He told me to keep playing like this.”
On Tuesday, Dallas surgeon Andrew Dossett performed a microdiscectomy of Porter’s L3-L4 spinal discs, which is a common procedure for a herniated disc.
Porter had undergone treatment for a sore back in the weeks leading up to Mizzou’s first game Nov. 10 against Iowa State and minutes before tipoff he told Martin he couldn’t play because his leg was bothering him. Martin took him out of the game at the first stoppage, 127 seconds into the Mizzou victory. Porter spent the next game against Wagner in the locker room where he was more comfortable lying down icing his sore hip and leg. He didn’t travel to Salt Lake City for MU’s Nov. 16 game at Utah and missed Monday’s game against Emporia State while visiting Dossett in Texas. Porter didn’t join his teammates in Orlando for this week’s tournament and it remains unclear when — or if — he’ll rejoin them on the sidelines for games while he continues his recovery.
For Martin, though, with the Porter question answered, the focus shifted to his healthy players. Without a high-volume scorer in the lineup, Thursday’s balanced output might become the new normal as seven Tigers scored between eight and 16 points.
“If Mike was here it’d be a little different,” Martin said. “Our offense isn’t necessarily built for a guy to get 25-30 shots. We play in space, share the ball, hit the open man. That’s how we try to play. It could be a different guy every night.”
FOUL MOOD
The Tigers were in control throughout Thursday’s game but pulled away for good early in the second when a couple technical fouls put Kassius Robertson on the free throw line for four easy points. Long Beach forward Temidayo Yussuf drew his second technical, followed by one for 49ers coach Dan Monson for arguing with the officials.
“We didn’t prepare well. We didn’t compete very well. We didn’t defend very well,” Monson said. “We didn’t shoot very well. We didn’t take care of the ball very well. But other than that we were very close.”
For the record, the 49ers also lost the opening tip.
JORDAN RULES
Geist’s 16 points, on just six shots from the field, came two short of his career-high, set last year against Lipscomb and Mississippi State. Martin was more impressed with his defense.
“He played with energy,” Martin said. “I thought he set a tone defensively. He came out and made shots, made plays. He wreaked havoc on one of their best perimeter guys. That’s what we need from him every night. We’d like to have it from all our guards and set that tone. The thing about Geist is it doesn’t matter if the guy he’s guarding is 5-10 or 6-7. He’s going to defend him the same way. He’s going to battle and compete.”
Geist’s development as an effective combo guard at the point or off the ball and relegated former starter Terrence Phillips to the end of the bench. The junior has played just 10 minutes the last two games combined and didn’t enter Thursday’s contest until 5:34 was left.
TIGER TALES
Freshman guard C.J. Roberts did not join the team in Orlando. Martin gave redshirting players Roberts and sophomore Mitchell Smith the option of traveling with the team or going home for the holiday break. Smith stayed with the team while Roberts went home to Texas. … Senior walk-on guard Brett Rau sat out for a third straight game with a lower-body injury. … Mizzou outscored LBSU in the paint 24-20, on second-chance points 17-5 and on fastbreak points 15-4.
Edited by Macgrantt at 18:20:53 on 11/23/17
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Matter describes MU changing O, moving on - Macgrantt MU - 11/23 15:45:50
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