Missing from the Missouri basketball team’s motion offense in a humbling loss to Illinois on Tuesday was the motion that had made it so difficult to defend earlier in the season.

Parker Eshelman photo

Hustle plays like this one are what Zaire Taylor, right, does to steer Missouri in the right direction. His foul trouble hurt the Tigers in the loss to Illinois.

Whereas the Tigers had played so unpredictably during a 9-1 start, moving the ball around and attacking opponents from all over the floor, they were stagnant against the Fighting Illini, settling for jump shots that refused to drop. Bruce Weber’s team held MU to 59 points - its lowest output of the season and more than 27 points below its average in the first 10 games.

Illinois and its rugged defense deserved credit for the discrepancy. And blame could be placed at the feet of Missouri players such as Leo Lyons, DeMarre Carroll and a host of others who weren’t attacking with the same vigor as in previous games.

Overlooked in that analysis was the fact that junior point guard Zaire Taylor spent all but seven minutes of the decisive first half stuck on the bench because of foul trouble. The Delaware transfer might only be 11 games into his MU career, but he already seems to have become an invaluable member of Mike Anderson’s rotation. The Tigers were at a loss without him on the floor at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

"He’s kind of like our veteran point guard, but he’s really not a veteran," Carroll said. "It puts a lot of pressure on him. But he creates, and he can do a lot of things. His assist-to-turnover ratio is ridiculous. It hurt not to have Zaire out there."

Taylor’s true impact doesn’t come across on a stat sheet. He is averaging a mere 4.8 points - seventh-best on the team - entering today’s 3 p.m. tip-off against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. He does have that sparkling assist-to-turnover ratio - a Big 12 Conference-leading 2.92 to 1 - but he’s only contributing 3.18 assists per game, 14th in the conference.

All of that’s fine with Taylor.

"I don’t really chase the stats," he said. "If they come, they come. Maybe I might get a pat on the back or something."

But it doesn’t take Anderson long to recall times when Taylor’s play was key to the outcome of a game.

Like in Missouri’s blowout victory over California, when the Tigers held the Golden Bears’ leading scorer, Jerome Randle, to 15 points, five below his season average.

"We do it by team, but I think he was the guy that spent a lot of time guarding him," Anderson said.

The coach just as quickly pointed to the frantic finish in Missouri’s victory over Murray State. The Racers had fought back from a 17-point deficit and were trailing by only four points late in the second half, but Taylor came up with two steals and converted a three-point play in the final 41/2 minutes to hold off the rally.

"He just does a lot of the little things that show up in the column of winning," Anderson said. "He’s done a great job in terms of defensively guarding some of the better guards that we’ve played. … It’s not about scoring. It’s not about the stats. It’s about winning."

Taylor has impressed even Anderson with how consistently he’s played in his first season on the floor for a Big 12 team, and the coach said he’s quickly become a role model for the Tigers’ five freshmen. That’s why Missouri can’t afford to have him on the sidelines because of foul trouble, especially against the better opponents on its schedule.

And Taylor knows it.

"It’s been happening the past couple of games for me," said Taylor, who committed four fouls and played only 13 minutes against Stetson. "It’s just being able to play hard and play smart at the same time.

"I’m just finding myself trying to do so much out there as far as making plays. … Pretty much, I’ve just got to clean it up and get smarter because I feel like I can help the team, and I can’t help them on the bench."

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