Opinions on OSU game proving to be very divisive

In the days following Mizzou's loss to Oklahoma State Tiger fans have been unable to come to a consensus on how well the Tigers performed. There seems to be one segment of fans that think the Tigers played a great game and were the victims of bad luck, and another faction that thinks MU simply suffered another embarrassing loss. 

Immediately after the game I wrote that I thought this may have been the Tigers second best performance of the season and I stand by that statement. Sure it was a home loss to a fairly mediocre 15-12 team, but give OSU some credit. They're arguably the hottest team in the Big 12 right now and were coming off three big wins against Baylor, at A&M and KU. They have some serious momentum right now. Don't discount that. 

Mizzou outrebounded OSU, shot a better percentage from the field and charity stripe, committed fewer turnovers and only put the Cowboys at the line 8 times. The only area that the Tigers were lacking was their perimeter defense, which gave OSU too many open looks for three. For all intents and purposes the Tigers should have won this game. They outplayed OSU but failed to put them away in the second half when they were up 8 with 11 minutes left and had momentum going their way. They lost a tough game to a hot team, but the effort was certainly there, especially by the younger guys (Leo, Tiller and Keon).

I agree with Gabe DeArmond in his article "Hope is back." In case you (like me) are not a subscriber to Power Mizzou here are some clips courtesy of Rock M Nation:

"I don't want to go overboard and say Tuesday night was a turning point or a revelation, but I think it was something good for the Missouri basketball program. For maybe the first time since I started covering this team again four-and-a-half years ago, I walked out of Mizzou Arena feeling pretty darn good about the direction this program is headed."

"Next year's Tigers, no disrespect intended to the incoming recruits, are going to go as far as Keon and Leo and J.T. can take them. This is going to be their team next year. Combine them with a healthy DeMarre Carroll and a Matt Lawrence that will have more depth around him and won't be asked to do more than he's capable of doing and you've got a solid nucleus for the 2008-09 Tigers."

• DeArmond wasn't the only sports writer beaming over the Tigers' effort. The Tribune's Steve Walentik wrote a Dave Matter-like blog post and called Leo's performance the best individual performance he's ever seen in person. About halfway through the second half I leaned over and told my roommate that Lyons' stat line was the most impressive one we've seen since Thomas Gardner hung 40 in the "Moody Game." I still think Gardner's performance was much more impressive considering he nearly single handedly beat the Jayhawks, but nonetheless, unbelievable game by Leo. And by the way, I would love to see more blog posts like this from Walentik. The reason I love Dave Matter so much is for the work he does on his blog. Walentik's capable of this but he usually just does those useless "What you should know about Mizzou's next opponent" posts. Give me some actual analysis. 

• Meanwhile the other DeArmond delivers a disturbing vlog entry on Lyon's performance.

• So Jeremy Maclin's knee was less than 100% last fall. WOW. I wonder what his 40-time will be now that he's completely healthy. Matter also speculates that this could be his final season wearing the Black and Gold.