Do the Bears need a go-to guy?

We’ve all had it happen. We’ve been in meetings, catching some heat from upper management in a staff setting or maybe catching a verball beatdown from your direct boss, whether in a small, group setting, or a one-on-one grillfest. Maybe it came out of nowhere. Maybe you knew it was coming. Maybe you let your foot off the gas and started checking Facebook, Twitter, or possibly this Web site. (Thanks, if that’s the case. We’ve got your back. Shirk away.)

Either way, you or your co-workers had to do something to stop it. More sales from your group? Better results? More copy? Something to stop the competition is wiping the floor with your sorry effort, right?

All of those scenarios aren’t that different from what happened to the Missouri State Bears men’s basketball team Tuesday night. In case you missed last night’s 99-92 overtime victory, the Bears built a 52-28 lead with 16 minutes, 20 seconds left in regulation. It was a nice break from a recent stretch of four losses in five games, made possible by getting in early deficits, thanks to corpse-like flat starts. This one should have been an easy coast to the finish, a low stress Missouri Valley game, which are hard to find.

Instead it got tighter. And tighter. Guys who wear Tap-Out and Affliction T-shirts thought the tension was constricting in JQH Arena around 8:45 p.m.

For all those shots Indiana State missed early (8-of-25 first-half shooting), the offense turned into MVC replicas of Craig Hodges, Steve Kerr and Reggie Miller, hitting 11-of-14 3-pointers in the second half, including Harry Marshall’s leaning 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds. (Marshall, gave a MJ-Kobe stationary fist pump, afterward. It was bone-chilling. You can see it in Brett Johnston’s video package from the game.)

The reason I bring up the upper management scenario is because when something goes wrong, someone has to make a change, right? Maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s someone in your sales group, one of your co-workers that has brilliant ideas and knows how to navigate his or her way out of the doghouse. Maybe your coworkers know how to coerce high performance out of you. Either way, that’s how stars are made, by reacting to adversity, whether it’s the workplace or the basketball court.

That may be the problem with this year’s Missouri State team. In short, there is no go-to guy.

Sure, they’ve increased the talent level immensely from last year’s 11-win team, but they’re almost all newcomers — seven new guys, as Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin pointed out in the press conference. On the floor in crunch time, it was a rotation of Jermaine Mallett, Nafis Ricks, Caleb Patterson, Kyle Weems Adam Leonard, Keith Pickens and Justin Fuehrmeyer. Only JF, the lone senior, and Weems were on this team last year. Remember that seniority thing? Weems is just a sophomore and Fuehrmeyer isn’t an offensive creator. When you look at it, this team doesn’t have a seniority hierarchy.

So, it begs the question: When they need a bucket, who do they turn to?

Patterson finished with 17 points and got some touches in the paint, but the points didn’t come in crunch time. Actually, in the game’s final three minutes, all seven points came from Ricks and Mallett, two juco guards. Mallett’s 3-pointer with 2:16 left made the lead 79-69. Three turnovers, plus a host of missed free throws plagued the Bears and let the Sycamores back into it.

Offensively, you can see what Martin is doing. He had Patterson in the post, with Mallett, Leonard, Weems and a fifth player surrounding him, looking for a double-team and a kick out, or for Patterson to go to work on the block. The Bears did finish with six players in double figures, but, no one seemed to want to be that go-to guy. It wasn’t until overtime when Mallett decided to assert himself, scoring eight of his game-high 18 points in overtime, including two dagger-like 3-pointers. Actually, Mallett only had four points until that three-minute mark in regulation. That’s 14 points in eight minutes of play, compared to his four points in the first 36.

He seems reluctant to take over. I don’t know if it’s his personality, or if he still feels like he’s finding his way, if he’s hesitant about disrupting some type of understood team pecking order, despite having 19 games under his belt this season.

When I asked Martin is he was concerned about his team’s lack of a go-to, crunch-time player, he said he wasn’t worried.

“One of the areas I wanted to address from last season was we had to have guys who could make plays,” Martin said. “I don’t think we have a go-to guy. What we have is guys feeling good tonight because you saw what (Patterson) did on the blocks, Will Creekmore did a great job, so we have so many guys who are capable of scoring the basketball, it’s great. I don’t think we have a guy right now. (Leonard) is the one guy who we have that we run plays for coming off screens.

“(Weems) is our leading scorer, but he’s one of those guys that has to pick and choose his spots, he’s not a guy who you run a lot of plays for. … I wouldn’t necessarily say we have a guy, we have guys who are able to make plays and I think in that situation like that, you’re harder to defend. ”

In theory, Martin’s right. But I believe you need guys who are willing to step up and win the game in the end. The only way I say it’s not a problem, is if one emerges naturally. Maybe that’s what Martin meant, because I don’t hardly buy you don’t need a leader in crunch time. Martin doesn’t seem like the type to micromanage, or grip over every aspect of his team, at least not publicly. I do like that and maybe the organic approach will work in the end. Balanced scoring is one thing, but you need someone to be the guy down the stretch. Will someone emerge by the end of this season? By the beginning of next season? Or, was Mallett’s final eight minutes, including a steal and a dunk that sealed it, that moment?

When I asked Mallett is this was his statement, he didn’t exactly shy away from it.

“We tried to throw it into the post, but it wasn’t working, Coach told me to shoot the open shots and be ready, so that’s what I did. So, I guess you could say that (it was my moment),” Mallett said.

Maybe the MVC management has something new to take notice about. Or, maybe not. If not, the rest of the season could be a continuation of this roller coaster ride that almost made Bears fans ill last night.