Buzz Williams calls Missouri's scoring issues a 'statistical anomaly'

Texas A&M extended their win streak to five games on Saturday when they defeated Missouri on the road 69-60. The Tigers are known for their fast-paced and efficient offense, and despite the Aggies not playing their best game, they contained Mizzou well. Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams knows Missouri’s outing was a rare one, and spoke about just that following their win.

“I think it’s a statistical anomaly what happened, I told our guys that at halftime,” Williams said. “It was a little better in the second half, not dramatically better.”

Missouri is averaging 80.3 points per game this season and were held 20 points below that mark on Saturday. Williams also shared all the facets of offense that Missouri excels in that just weren’t working for the Tigers despite a disappointing defensive performance from the Aggies in his eyes.

“Fastest team in the league, eighth fastest team in the country, 44% of their shots have been from three in conference play, they’re second in the league in three-point field goal percentage, one of the lower turnover rates in the country, top 10 efficient offense in Division I, and we were feeding that at a very high rate,” Williams said.

The Aggies were feeding the Tigers by way of turnovers, ending the game with a season-high 21 turnovers on the night. But Missouri wasn’t able to capitalize on them, especially in the second half where they scored just 25 points and found themselves down 14 points at the break.

The Tigers had a much improved second half where they shot 52.4% from the field, but the Aggies held them off, leading in the game for all but 1 minute and 32 seconds.

“I thought we did do a good job in a broken floor of at least trying to get back. When we didn’t turn it over we were fine,” Williams said. “Our offensive rebound percentage was good, we eventually got to the bonus first in the second half, which helped us, but if you just look at the numbers I think it’s a statistical anomaly that we were able to be in a position for this to be a game.”

The Aggies once again leaned on the offense of Wade Taylor, who notched his third 20-plus point scoring game in their last four games. Hopefully for the Aggies, they can continue to rely on him and improve on defense, as they face No. 11 Tennessee in their next matchup in one of their biggest games of the regular season.