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

#1: Defense

Unlike Missouri’s last home upset (92-86 against No. 15 Alabama), Tuesday night’s game was characterized by the defense, which held the Auburn Tigers to 55 points (their lowest of the season).

The biggest way this presented itself was Jabari Smith, who despite leading the team scoring with 15.2 ppg a game, only put up five points on the board. That gave him a 13.3% shooting percentage, a collegiate career-low for the NBA prospect.

"“Give Missouri a lot of credit for playing so inspired,” Pearl said in the opening to his post-game presser. “They had a great defensive game plan.”"

Martin had been talking about the team’s ‘defensive DNA’ throughout the season, but this was the first time we really got to see it on full display.

"“[Our defense] was as good as any in America tonight,” said Martin."

That being said, there are still areas that can be improved upon when it comes to defense. Namely rebounding.

Remember those three offensive rebounds that Kessler got to end the game? Well, that unfortunately was not an isolated incident.

Sure, Missouri was outsized in almost every matchup. However, the team failed to block out when a shot went up, and Auburn was given free second-, third-, and even fourth-chance opportunities constantly.

When it came to offensive rebounds, Auburn outrebounded Missouri 2.5 to 1. Had there been more attention to detail on the rebounding front, this would have been a much different story.

All this being said, if Missouri can continue to defend teams like they were able to Tuesday night, and clean up their rebounding game, they will be in a much better place by the time the conference tournament comes around.