Missouri Basketball: Takeaways from heartbreaking loss against No. 1 Auburn

#2: Game Management

The most controversial and head-scratching decision of the night came from Martin who opted not to foul in the final seconds of regulation.

"“There were certain people we didn’t want to foul,” Martin told reporters after the game."

Supposedly, the game plan was to either wait for the right person to foul, or get a defensive rebound and use the separation between shot and game clock to make a last-second shot.

Well, the right person never got the ball and Auburn forward Walker Kessler got three offensive rebounds within the last three seconds.

At some point, there has to be an awareness of the game. If they get an offensive rebound, you aren’t getting the ball back. In other words, you are left with no other option but to foul.

Even if you get down by three, Pickett was shooting 66.7% from three. It could have been dished to him for a last-second shot if nothing else.

While it can be easy to focus on this questionable decision from the game, this certainly was not the reason that Missouri lost the game. That would be attributed to their defense (which oddly also happens to be the reason it was so close).