Sorry it's been a couple days since my last post. Exams and papers coupled with a nasty little cold have slowed the momentum of Big MO. Despite my inactivity it was a big weekend for Mizzou with Colorado coming to town and baseball getting their season started. I'll start with a few observations on the Colorado game although they'll be brief since the game was very uneventful and I think most people in attendance were hoping to make it home in time for the second half of the Memphis-Tennessee game.
- Keon Lawrence looked great. Aggressive with the ball, shot it well and was able to create. Keon's starting to remind me a little of Jimmy McKinney in how he will show flashes of brilliance one game and then disappear for the next three.
- Workman like effort from Leo Lyons (7 points 10 boards). When was the last time Leo pulled down 10 boards?
- DeMarre Carroll has become completely ineffective with his ankle in the condition that it is. But the way he has been battling through it has really raised my respect level for DeMarre. Even though he's not doing much more than taking up space at this point (0 points and two rebounds in 25 minutes) he's still playing hard every game. If the Tigers weren't so undersized to begin with then you would have to wonder if it would be better to just shut him down for the rest of the season. But if it was Leo whose ankle was hurting like this do you think he would still be out there? Because I don't.
- Overall I guess it was a pretty solid effort by MU. They took care of the basketball (4 turnovers), didn't put the Buffs at the line (not once), and did what they had to do to win. It's kind of frustrating to think that if we had not lost that home game to Nebraska (when we only had 6 scholarship players available) we would be in a tie for fourth place in the Big 12 and might have an outside chance of making it onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. Oh well, we're another step closer to next year.
Now onto a few links:
- A nice feature in Baseball America on Aaron Crow and another in the P-D on MU's starting rotation.
- Another piece on the Tigers' starting rotation by Mike DeArmond that gives Tiger fans a pretty good reason to head out to Taylor Stadium to catch a few games: "'This probably won't happen,' [Baseball America] analyst Jim Callis wrote, 'but the Tigers theoretically could have the No. 1 overall picks in 2008 (Aaron Crow), 2009 (Kyle Gibson) and 2010 (Nick Tepesch).'" In layman's terms, this Tiger team has some pretty good talent on its roster.
- Yet another article from Dave Matter, this one on MU's new seating and parking plans. Also be sure to check out Matter's most recent blog post on the Tigers' early morning bootcamp sessions. Is there another Big 12 beat writer that reports on offseason workouts like this? Seriously, Dave Matter is to Tiger fans what crack cocaine is to drug addicts.
- And finally, be sure to check out Rock M Nation's Mizzou 25 Tournament. A great idea to determine the best, most influential, most likable Mizzou athlete of the past 25 years. My only complaint with the idea would be that it needs to be more specific on what you are voting on. For example, it's hard to say how influential an athlete Chase Daniel will end up being for MU because his career's not over. If he leads Mizzou to a national title or wins the Heisman Trophy then he has to win, but who knows.
4 comments:
Memphis/Tennessee was the best game I've seen all year. Great tempo and I'm a big Bruce Pearl guy.
Granted, Mizzou 25 is extremely vague, but I think it's fair to say you can go ahead and determine the legitimacy of Chase Daniel's influence on the program regardless of what happens next year.
Name the Mizzou quarterbacks who led their team to a Big 12 Title game appearance (Daniel). Name the Mizzou QB whose presence helped lock down the border on the recruiting front, bringing in Gabbert, Kemp, etc. (Daniel). The combination of Larry Smith, Corby Jones, Brock Olivo, and Brad Smith brought Mizzou out of hell. Chase Daniel put Mizzou on the national map. To think a Heisman or National Championship is the only way to affirm that is short-sighted at best and ignorant at worst, given the depths this program has emerged from.
Great stuff, the rotation did look very solid.
I'm not arguing that Chase Daniel has not had a TREMENDOUS impact on MU athletics regardless of what happens next year. But I'm saying if he takes us to a national title or something next season then he wins this contest hands down. But we don't know so it's a little harder to determine who the greatest Mizzou athlete of ALL-TIME is. That said, I'm still leaning toward voting for Daniel at the moment.
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