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They’re saying the SEC could end the year as one of the most dominant conferences in the history of the college basketball.
Well, you won’t find many arguments from Missouri basketball after its first run in on the road.
Missouri basketball lost its Southeastern Conference opener against Auburn 84-68 on Saturday afternoon in Neville Arena, which is a 21st straight loss in conference play for Mizzou dating back to the 2022-23 postseason.
Here are three takeaways from MU’s road loss:
Combo of Broome, 3-point shooters too much for Missouri basketball
Can you really handle Johni Broome, a frontrunner for national player of the year?
The big man worked Missouri on the inside, escaping frequent double-teams for plenty of damaging paint touches. Auburn fed him high in the post and typically turned that into points. He got to the line. He kicked it out to share the offensive wealth, and there was plenty to go around for Auburn.
Broome, who finished with a game-high 24 points, did just about everything.
Pair that with his surrounding cast? It was early curtains for Mizzou.
Mizzou’s real downfall came when Broome was off the court and it was unable to hold Auburn from lighting up the court from 3-point range.
Some looks, like Miles Kelly’s mid-first-half logo shot, you can’t defend. Others, like leaving Chaney Johnson by failing to switch out in zone or by losing track of kick-outs, you can. By the end of the game, seven different Auburn players had connected from behind the arc.
Defensive, Broome was dominant. He finished with four blocks, a steal and seven defensive boards. He was Missouri’s biggest individual challenge of the season, and he dominated.
Mizzou strayed too far from offensive strengths
With the way Auburn was shooting, MU had to play catchup.
Spoiler: Mizzou did not catch up.
While Auburn was connecting on just about everything it touched, Mizzou opened the game with a 2-of-17 mark from 3-point range.
The Tigers flung up three hopeful triple attempts to open the second half, missed them all, and let Auburn go on a 12-1 run that drove home the last nail. Mizzou had just three points in the opening 6 minutes, 38 seconds of the half.
That’s far from the norm for this MU squad. Missouri’s strength has been getting to the rim and drawing fouls; being a persistent pest to opposing defense. For a while, that was its strength, as it put itself in the first-half bonus after just 10 minutes of play. On the road, that’s ideal.
From there, though, that plan was either forgotten or changed. MU only got to the line three times in the final 10 minutes of the half. The paint touches were seldom easy, too, as Mizzou went 7-of-20 on layups.
Even MU’s best 3-point shooters had an off night. Caleb Grill was 0-of-3. Tamar Bates was 0-of-4. Trent Pierce was 1-of-3.
Drives into the paint started running into walls. Fastbreak attempts were getting picked off. The deeps shots were loose and the results followed suit.
Tack on that Auburn was impeccable capitalizing on turnovers — Missouri had seven, and AU converted that into 14 first-half points — and there’s not much you can point to that can be marked as a success for Mizzou.
Should MU fans be worried about SEC play?
A road trip to Auburn was never going to yield anything easy. Bruce Pearl’s Tigers are one of, if not the, best teams in the country. Mizzou is not the first and won’t be the last team they make light work of.
But … Mizzou has now lost 21 straight SEC games, dating all the way back to the 2023 SEC Tournament. Should that worry MU fans?
Not immediately, no. But Missouri turns around with two home games it would do well to win.
LSU and Vanderbilt, two of the lower-ranked — for whatever that’s worth in this loaded league — teams in the SEC, visit Mizzou Arena.
MU isn’t going to get docked by any selection committees for a loss at Auburn, and its resume doesn’t look any worse for wear for dropping its contest at Auburn.
But now? The wins have gotta start coming.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 3 instant takeaways as Missouri basketball falls at Auburn to open SEC play
