Thursday, February 28, 2008

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. 

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Mizzou one of the most hated teams in America

CBS Sportsline has conducted a poll to determine the most hated college basketball team in the nation and our beloved Tigers finished fifth. 


The reasons? If I had to guess I would say a lot of it is still residue left over from the Quin Snyder regime. It's easy to hate a guy with as high a profile as Quin's was and when you combine that with the NCAA violations and underachievement on the court, well that just equals hate (same thing appears to have happened to Michigan who finished fourth, thank you Fab Five). Plus it's just easier to blame things on Quin.

But nonetheless, screw you America. 

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Ouch!

OSU 73 MU 71.


This one kinda hurt. So many times this season the Tigers have teased fans and tricked them into believing that they could have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. I had given up on that idea after the Manhattan Massacre...or so I thought. 

Then I wake up today and see this headline from the Post-Dispatch: "Tourney birth for Tigers isn't out of the question." I laughed that headline off, but then as I watched Mizzou trade punches with OSU (who happens to be one of the hottest teams in the country) I started thinking, "Well, if we pull this out and then somehow upset Baylor on the road (which I realize would have been highly unlikely but we're dealing in hypotheticals here) then we play Iowa State at home, which we should win and then we're playing OU in a season finale that could put us on the bubble if we win." 

Then of course Byron Eaton hits a last second shot and now we're probably going to have to win a road game just to have a shot at making the NIT (we've already dropped to the last no. 4 seed according to NIT-ology and that was before tonight).

Despite the disappointing finish I thought this may have been the second best overall performance by the Tigers all season. I thought they played a more complete game tonight than they did when they beat K-State earlier this year. My only complaint would be the team perimeter defense. They allowed OSU to shoot nearly .60% from behind the arc. Several of those were guarded shots by Eaton that weren't in rhythm at all but fell because he's a great shooter. But an even larger number were wide open uncontested looks.

I really can't single out a single Missouri player that played poorly. And Leo Lyons completely WENT OFF. 27 points while hitting 12 of his 13 shots, 18 rebounds three blocks and two assists. I knew he was talented but he has the potential to be a first round NBA draft pick. This is back to back solid performances by Leo. He usually plays well when he gets off to a good start offensively but on Saturday he never really got going and still worked hard on the boards. I don't want to speak to soon, but maybe he's turned the corner? He's really the X-factor for next season because he could easily be an All-Big 12 selection. 

As disappointing as this game's ending was it had to make you feel good about next season.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Basketball, baseball, Dave Matter and crack

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.
The baseball team got off to a good start, winning their first three games this weekend. It's hard to really assess their performance without having seen them play. Unfortunately I was only able to listen to a couple of innings of the three games but it sounds like Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson were as good as you would expect them to be and the offense got off to a great start scoring 30 runs over the weekend. 

Now onto a few links:
  • 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.
  • 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. 

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Yet another update on Athenagate

Unfortunately even more rumors are swirling around our beloved Athena 5. Now please realize as you are reading this that all the information included in the links in this blog post are from someone who I don't know, haven't met and have NO IDEA how credible a source he is. 


Two days ago blogger George Savaricas made a post to his blog "One Bad Century" claiming that the entire Athena fracas was caused by Stefhon Hannah's demand for chicken wings after the restaurant had already closed. 

I came across a link to this blog yesterday on Rock M Nation and elected not to mention anything about it because I had no way of verifying its validity (and I still don't).

But yesterday there was yet another post on "One Bad Century" in which blogger Anthony Atencio claims to have interviewed the workers of Athena about the conduct of MU basketball players at the nightclub.

In the story Athena workers claim that players engaged in "constant marijuana smoking" and said there were always issues with paying.

Atencio says that he has been interviewed by the Columbia Tribune and if these rumors prove to be true then the roof is about to be blown off of the MU basketball program. I don't want anyone to accept these rumors as truth because there is absolutely no way to verify them, but I'll definitely be checking the Tribune for the next few weeks.



Now to some more credible news from the past two days courtesy of the Missourian:
  • It is still unknown whether or not Stefhon Hannah will return to MU to finish his degree but Mike Anderson thinks he will probably withdraw from the university.
And from the Post-Dispatch:

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Opening Day approaching for Mizzou baseball


The Missouri Tiger baseball team will begin their season Friday against Connecticut in the Stetson Tournament at DeLand, Fla. They will play two more games in the tournament against Michigan State and Stetson before traveling to Orlando to face Central Florida on Monday. 

I've never been able to get real excited for Tiger baseball (I'm more of a basketball/football guy anyway and college baseball is so hard to follow) but this season is a little different. I've had about all of the basketball team that I can stomach and it doesn't hurt that the Tigers were ranked No. 6 in Baseball America's Preseason Poll

Head coach Tim Jamieson is on record saying that this team could have 6 first round draft picks in this year's MLB draft with junior RHP Aaron Crow being a potential No. 1 overall pick. Crow is the ace of a staff that figures to be the strength of the team. The Tigers' weekend rotation should include Crow, sophomore RHP Kyle Gibson (who is 6'6" and just looks like a big leaguer on the mound), and junior LHP Rick Zagone. 

The Tigers also have 5 regulars returning, which should give MU a formidable lineup. Senior OF Jacob Priday and sophomore Trevor Coleman should provide the biggest bats for the Tigers. Priday is a two-time All-Big 12 Selection and Coleman was the 2007 Big 12 Freshman of the Year and was selected to the Freshman All-American Team.

All things considered, the Tigers appear to have a very good chance of making a run to the College World Series in Omaha, which is one of the most underrated sporting events in the U.S. It would certainly be nice to have something to follow while waiting for college football season.

For more information on Tiger baseball check out mutigers.com's five-part season preview. 

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Links

There were several interesting stories in today's area papers:

  • The Post-Dispatch is reporting that long-time Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons has admitted to spending more than $25,000 for an apartment for two of his players to live in. I don't think this story will surprise anyone. Everyone knows that Irons is a crook and hasn't been running a clean program for years. I don't usually buy the argument that the PD has an anti-Mizzou agenda, but you see all the investigative reporting that they did on Athenagate, the Snyder era, etc. and yet it's taken them this long to uncover how corrupt Vashon's basketball program is? This story is at least 25 years overdue.
  • KC Star reporter Kent Babb takes a sociological look at the attraction that college athletes have to bars and night clubs. Interesting stuff. The whole question as to whether or not of age players should be allowed to go to bars/clubs is a tricky one with a lot of variables. You can try to forbid them from going to certain ones (like Athena and the Moon Bar in Lawrence) but how do you determine which bars or clubs are "too dangerous." Personally, I don't really have a problem with a coach forbidding his players to go to bars or clubs altogether. As student athletes you're held to a higher standard whether that's fair or not. It's even like that in most high schools. And if you take away bars and night clubs from them it's not like they're going to have a shortage of things to do on Saturday night. I'm sure they'll find something. 
  • I LOVED Bill Self's quote in Babb's article about the curfew he has set (or hasn't set) for his players: 
    Self says players usually are not allowed to be out past 11 p.m. on a weeknight during the season, and "not ever after midnight." On this night, midnight was nearly an hour ago. After Self learned Friday the four KU players at The Hawk were there after midnight, he changed his earlier statement to say players’ curfew Wednesday was 1 a.m. Then he said it was 1:15 a.m. He finally said players had no curfew because the Jayhawks had no game. "I’m not positive we had one or not," Self said.
So for the record, Bill Self doesn't know whether or not his team has a curfew. And we thought Mike Anderson's zero-tolerance policy lacked consistency.
  •  And finally, an inspiring column by Joe Posnanski on K-State guard Clint Stewart whose mother passed away a couple weeks ago. After reading the column Stewart immediately became one of my favorite players in college basketball. There aren't too many sports columnists better than Joe Pos.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Manhattan Massacre


Wow that got out of hand in a hurry. The K-State Wildcats absolutely annihilated the Missouri Tigers 100-63 on Saturday. There's not much I can say about this one. I expected the Tigers to get blown out but I thought they could at least keep it interesting for a half. But they couldn't even keep it interesting for 10 minutes. I'll just make a few quick observations and then try to erase this game from my memory as quickly as possible.

  • I said Missouri would need a big game from either J.T. Tiller or Keon Lawrence and they combined to shoot 3-17 from the field for a grand total of 10 points. Tiller only played 12 minutes due to foul trouble. Mizzou has no chance of beating anybody when these two guys play like that.
  • Matt Lawrence regained his shooting stroke knocking down 6 threes and finishing with 20 points. That was nice to see. Lets hope he keeps it for the rest of the season.
  • You can tell that DeMarre Carroll's ankle injury that he has been battling all season is really affecting him. He is getting very little elevation when he jumps. There have been several instances the past few games where he has had an opportunity to throw down a dunk but has been forced to lay it up instead. I think he's a much better player than he's showing us this season. Last year all you heard about was how talented this guy was and he really hasn't been much better than Kalen Grimes was. He's gotta get healthy in the offseason.
  • After seeing him play in Columbia I thought Michael Beasley was overrated and felt that the Kevin Durant comparisons needed to stop. But after he matched the numbers he put up in that game in the first 10 minutes tonight and finished with 40 points and 17 boards I changed my mind. But I still think he lacks the heart, desire and maturation of Durant. 
It's a pretty embarrassing day to be a Tigers fan. Sure K-State's a good team but losing by almost 40 points to ANYONE is just unacceptable. The Tigers now have a week off before their next game at home against Colorado. I'd expect coach Anderson to use this week to make his players' lives a living hell during practice. 

Former Mizzou star running for Congress

The Associated Press is reporting that former MU star running back Brock Olivo is running for Congress.

"Put the ball in my hands. I want to be the citizen's politician," Olivo said.



Friday, February 15, 2008

Athenagate update

New details have emerged surrounding the Athena Night Club incident and they do not reflect favorably on Stefhon Hannah or Jason Horton. A probable cause statement issued to the Associated Press stated that Hannah was unhappy with the service he had received at Nikai Mediterranean Grill and confronted an employee about it. If the statement is accurate then Hannah was clearly the instigator and Horton had no business throwing punches. 


Team spokesman Dave Reiter said that no further punishment will be handed down to Horton despite being charged. 

Links and keys to Manhattan

A few links before I get to the keys to tomorrow's game against K-State:

  • There have been some rumors swirling the past week that Mizzou football will travel to South Bend, Ind in 2012 to play the Fighting Irish. According to Graham Watson's Friday chat session this is a realistic possibility:
"The Mizzou/LSU game was a rumor and I'll leave it at that. Another good rumor is MU/Notre Dame in like 2012, I think. That one might actually happen, though."
  • Miles Smith, son of Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith, has accepted an offer to become a preferred walk-on at MU. I don't know what a "preferred walk-on" is, but it would be pretty sweet to see Lovie in the stands at Faurot.
  • Apparently several KU players took exception to the "refusal" of several Tigers players to take part in pre-game handshakes and fist-pounds when the two teams met in Lawrence...cry me a river. 
Now onto the keys to Saturday:

The Tigers will be huge underdogs heading into Manhattan against the No. 24-ranked Wildcats. It's hard to imagine them containing freshman sensation Michael Beasley better than they did in the teams' first meeting  (he scored 17 and grabbed 10 rebounds). But they can't let him explode. If Mizzou can hold him to 20 and 10 then you have to be satisfied. 

Either J.T. Tiller or Keon Lawrence have to step up and bring their A-games. When these two have played well the Tigers have almost always ended up with a victory. It would also be nice if Leo Lyons could play hard for the entire game. Leo had a big second half against K-State two weeks ago after he got his mid-range game going and really stretched the Wildcat defense. 

Mizzou will also need a little luck to upset this team again. Shooting a decent percentage from behind the arc will be a necessity and if they could get Beasley or Bill Walker in foul trouble again (both had four fouls in Columbia) it would obviously be nice. 

To be honest, I don't like the Tigers' chances at all. I have zero confidence in Mizzou's ability to give two solid efforts, on the road no less, in a row. But while the odds are certainly against the Tigers, they do have A LOT to gain if they can pull it off. A win and suddenly the whispers about the Tigers NCAA Tournament hopes becomes a murmur and we can begin to seriously talk about what it would take to send the Tigers dancing. 

My prediction: MU 71 K-State 88

Lets hope I'm wrong.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Scoop on Stefhon

ESPN's Scoop Jackson wrote a heartbreaking story on Stefhon Hannah's fading hoop dreams that ran today on espn.com. I have read Scoop since his days of writing for SLAM Magazine and even though his opinions are often controversial they are always written in an eloquent prose that is rare in sports writing. 

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tigers down Huskers in OT


The Jekyll and Hyde act that the Missouri Tigers have been performing all season continued on Wednesday night as they defeated Nebraska 86-78 in OT.


Keon Lawrence and J.T. Tiller came up huge for the Tigers. Lawrence led MU with 19 points and also pulled down 6 rebounds. Tiller added 14 and four assists and came up with several key plays down the stretch. These two guys struggled against Texas A&M on Saturday, but excluding that game they have stepped up in a big way since the Athena Night Club incident. 

Nebraska center Aleks Maric absolutely destroyed the Tigers scoring 32 points and pulling down 16 boards. But not one of those points came in the overtime period. 

This was a great win for Mike Anderson's team and really a solid all-around effort by just about everyone that played. But I would not be doing my job if I didn't point out two strategic decisions made by coach Anderson that left me dumbfounded. 
  1. Justin Safford gets only 6 minutes after how well he's played the past few weeks? Really? And he doesn't even check in until the 9-minute mark in the first half? Maric is eating DeMarre Carroll, Leo Lyons and Vaidotas Volkus alive and you don't even give Safford a chance (whose help defense on Maric was outstanding when these teams played a couple weeks ago)? And why did Gary Link not bring this up in the postgame interview with coach Anderson? How does Darryl Butterfield get more minutes than Safford (even if the difference is minimal) at this point? Inexplicable.
  2. With 5.1 seconds remaining Anderson called a timeout following a free throw by Nebraska that tied the game. He had enough time left on the clock to draw up a play that would get his team a great look at the basket. His quickest player (and one of his only players who has shown some ability to create his own shot), Keon Lawrence, had been on fire all game. But what happens? The inbound pass goes to Jason Horton, who nearly dribbled out the clock before throwing up an off balance three that doesn't even sniff the rim. What's worse is the play appeared to be designed to go to Horton. Keon was nowhere near the ball at any point during that play. I just don't understand. 
But I also have to give credit where credit is due. Coach Anderson had his players ready to play tonight and they gave a resilient effort. When the game went into overtime with the Tigers missing Carroll (who fouled out) and the way Maric was dominating I didn't think there was any chance Mizzou would be able to pull out a victory, but they proved me wrong.

If you had visited Tigerboard after Saturday's loss you would have found a plethora of posts calling for coach Anderson's head. But tonight the discussion is centering around whether or not the Tigers still have a chance of sneaking into the NCAA Tournament with an upset win or two. That's been this season in a nutshell.

Tigerboarder's opinions aside, what does this win really mean for the Tigers? Do they have a legitimate shot at the Dance? Come on. This team has proven time and time again this season that consistency is not really their thing. I guarantee you'll be reading tiger_boi08's pleas for the dismissal of Mike Anderson again before the season's over.

What this win does do is keep the Tigers off the NIT bubble for the time being. As of Monday NIT-ology has the Tigers "solidly in" at a No. three seed. And I suppose there is a glimmer of hope for those Tiger fans who still have NCAA Tournament dreams. 

And to quote Andy Dufresne from the Shawshank Redemption, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."

MU to charge for reserved parking and modernize priority seating plan

MU Director of Athletics Mike Alden has sent out this letter to Tiger football season ticket holders:


Dear Tiger Fans,

Without question, we are excited about the successes of our programs academically and competitively at Mizzou. With 20 sport programs and 487 student-athletes, it is certainly gratifying to see our men and women performing so well. As we continue to build our program into national prominence, it is also clear that we could not do so without the support of our students, faculty, staff, alums, fans and friends. We have great appreciation for all that you have done and continue to do for the Tigers.

In the fall of 2008, the Tigers will again be positioning for national accolades in football. Coach Pinkel, his staff and our student-athletes are working hard in the off-season to ready the Tigers for an even better season this fall. Coach Pinkel is building a long-lasting, successful football program at Mizzou and we are looking forward to the coming year with great anticipation.

As part of our efforts, we will be focusing on our football seating and parking improvements in and around Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field. In surveying Tiger supporters, season ticket holders, student-athletes, staff and others, we were able to gather information that will help us improve our fan experiences while also generating additional resources for our program.

Our seating plan at Faurot Field has been in place since 1983. That plan is the same today as it was when it was instituted; the plan asks for those people sitting between the 20 yard lines in both the east and west stands to be members of the Tiger Scholarship Fund. While that plan has been in place for 25 years, and has served Mizzou well over that time, a few inconsistencies have developed in the donor sections. It is our goal to eliminate those inconsistencies and make the program as equitable and fair as possible for all donors, long-term and new, in 2008. If you sit between the 20's, please be reminded that we will ask you to be a member of the TSF at the necessary per seat giving levels. As part of that consistency, we will actually be LOWERING the donation requests for those areas on either side of the 50 yard line in sections I through L and II through LL (from $500 minimum donation/seat to $400 minimum donation/seat). This will assist us in ensuring that all ! fans are contributing consistently. We also will be extending our priority seating plan to include season ticket holders on the east and west stands who sit between the 10 and 20 yard lines. We are asking folks who have season tickets between the 10's and 20's (in sections F, FF, O, and OO) to join the TSF at a minimum of $25/seat. While that is a minimal level and associated increase, we also recognize that it represents a change in policy and we wanted to alert you as early as possible regarding this modernization in our program. Our hope is that you will see this as an opportunity to be a member of our TSF and help our program even more than you have. For those that do not want to join the TSF, we will have seating available outside of those designated areas.

Parking has also been a major point of discussion for a number of years, and was a focal point from our survey respondents. For 2008, in donor and non-donor lots, there will be a charge to park. Non-donor lots with close proximity to the stadium will be $15/game/car (increased from $10/game/car in 2007). In regard to the reserved parking in the donor lots, beginning this season, season-long parking passes will cost $100 each (an average of $16.66/game) above and beyond the necessary TSF giving levels needed for lot priority and assignment. While we recognize this will be an additional cost to you, it is our intention to address the overcrowded lots, traffic control, restroom facilities and other amenities for parking that our fans are requesting and deserve and, in turn, make the gameday experience more enjoyable for our valued customers. These revenues also will help assist with other departmental projects including our plans for a new sound system/video replay board f! or Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field for the 2009 season.

We know that changes are difficult, but at times they are also necessary. These efforts are being implemented to be fair and consistent and to continue to improve our program. We are the last school in the Big 12 North to implement charges for reserved parking in the donor lots and to modernize our priority seating plan. We know that these will be additional costs to you, and hope that you understand our intention to continue to build this nationally recognized department. Any and all questions on season tickets, seating plans or parking for football can be directed to the Tiger Scholarship Fund offices by email to: tsf@missouri.edu; by phone to 573-882-0704 and you may visit our website at: tsf-mizzou.com.

More information will be arriving to 2007 donors and season ticket holders in the coming days further detailing these initiatives. If you were NOT a donor or football season ticket holder in 2007 you may sign up on-line at http://mutigers.cstv.com/tickets/08-footbl-ticket-info.html to receive the necessary information and order forms in time for the much anticipated 2008 season.

We appreciate everything that you have done and continue to do for the University of Missouri. Without our loyal fan base, alums, donors, faculty, staff, students and friends, there is no way that we could have had the successes we have...we just want to keep it going. Thank you for your generous and loyal support of the Tigers.

In Black and Gold Spirit,

Michael F. Alden
Director of Athletics

Tonight's game to be televised on tape-delay


Tonight's game against Nebraska will be aired on a tape-delay basis. Unless you are a subscriber to ESPN's Full Court package you will have to wait until 8:30 to watch the game that will tip-off in Lincoln at 7 p.m. 


I am going to try to avoid hearing or seeing a score until then and after watching the delayed broadcast I will post my thoughts on the Tigers' performance. 

On a side note, Ric Bucher named former Tiger Linas Kleiza to his First Galaxy Non-Star Team (this is actually a good thing). Here's what he had to say about Linas:

"He's scored 20-plus seven times, including a 41-point burst against the Utah Jazz. But he's just as capable of committing all his energy (and considerable athleticism) to playing lockdown defense, even if it means bodying up LeBron. No wonder the Kings asked for him as part of any deal for Ron Artest. Equally no wonder the Nuggets said forget it."

Where was that lockdown defense during his tenure in Columbia? I can remember seeing Kleiza getting abused by some relatively average big men in the Big 12. 

Linas might have been the most gifted player to ever put on a Tiger uniform but I always thought he saw Mizzou as nothing more than a stepping stone that he could use to advance his own career. He was not a very team-oriented player and often clashed with Quin Snyder (although that's not saying much). Nevertheless, it's good to see a former Tiger having some success in the League. 

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sayonara Stef


Stefhon Hannah's career as a Tiger is officially over. Coach Mike Anderson announced that Hannah will be dismissed from the Missouri Tiger basketball team for displaying a lack of academic commitment after missing 12 consecutive days of classes following his involvement in the Jan. 27 brawl at Athena Night Club.

There had been some speculation that Hannah's absence from classes was putting MU at risk of losing a scholarship but that appeared unlikely. 

Hannah has received an enormous amount of criticism over the past few weeks from fans, media and coaches alike. Despite his apparent character flaws you can't question the talent that Stefhon had. It's a shame to see it all go to waste. Anderson has given Hannah the option of keeping his scholarship to continue working on his degree (a very classy move on the part of coach Anderson).

I have heard that Stefhon was very cocky and standoffish with both the media and the younger players on the team. But the few times that I have seen him in a public setting he appeared to be a very happy and fun loving guy. Unfortunately he has developed the nasty habit of hanging out at the wrong types of places with the wrong kinds of people. Hopefully this serves as a wake up call for Stefhon and he is able to finish getting his degree (but after missing 12 days of classes the odds of that happening can't be good). 

This has little to no impact on the rest of the season as Hannah was likely going to miss the rest of it to begin with. If you ask me, it will actually benefit the team. I thought our offense was too reliant on Stefhon in late game situations. Since he was the only player with the ability to consistently create his own shot the other players tended to stand around and wait for Hannah to do his thing. With him being gone it will force some of the younger players to step up and make plays even if that takes them outside of their comfort zones. It might mean a few more losses this season but could pay dividends down the road. 


Monday, February 11, 2008

Beginning of the Week Links

A few links I ran across this afternoon:

  • In Bryan Burwell's Sunday column he mentions that Justin Safford has been raising eyebrows of a few NBA scouts who think he might have some potential as a late round draft pick in a few years. If you would have asked me in December what the chances were of that happening I'd have told you Jason Horton had a better chance of averaging in double figures. Safford has suddenly become the brightest spot in an otherwise gloomy season for MU.
  • Burwell also wrote a superb piece in today's edition of the Post-Dispatch on the past of Stefhon Hannah. I never understood why so many Tiger fans bash Burwell so often. I've always loved him. At any rate, he's much better than "Jaba the Miklasz." But really great reporting here by Burwell. You can tell he put a lot of work into this article. Hannah's reputation sure has taken a hit in the past year. Everyone I've talked to that has covered the team has told me he's rude to the media and coach Anderson has publicly questioned his leadership and character in the past. I don't like labeling a player a thug just for trying to stay true to the people that have been with him from the start but I think Anderson's quote at the end of this article might reveal a lot about the kind of person Stefhon is: 
    "Sometimes it ain't the place or the culture. Sometime's it's just the person."
  • Nice blog post by Graham Watson. MU's underclassmen could learn a lot by looking at what the seniors on the football team did in their four years to change the culture of the football program.
  • This is late but Dave Matter's breakdown of signing day last week was excellent. You gotta love Matter. His coverage of the football team this season was probably about as good as it could have possibly been and it's continued into the offseason. I found Gary Pinkel's quote about how his staff evaluates players particularly interesting: 
    "I believe in how we evaluate. I can’t express that more clearly. I believe in our evaluation system, my staff and how hard we work at this. We go through 18 tough questions to find out everything internally about that player. We get a physical rating, a height-weight-speed rating, a high school coach’s rating, a Missouri position coach’s rating … an athletic ability rating. We get all these things to present all this information to each coach, and we vote whether we’re going to go with it. One thing we never do is ask if he’s all-state, all-county, all-conference or if he’s a nine-star or one-star. It never comes up. We do what we do and believe in.”
  • Another Matter piece, this one on Tiger's five-star QB signee Blaine Gabbert. I've been hesitant to buy into the hype surrounding this guy because of his lack of success in actual games but the more I read about him the more I believe he's got what it takes to succeed at the next level.


Sunday, February 10, 2008

NIT-ology


For some reason I was looking at NIT-ology today trying to get a read on what Mizzou's chances are of receiving an invitation. I was somewhat surprised to see that they had us in as a No. 2 seed. Bryan Burwell wrote a column a couple weeks ago and in it he said something to the effect that the NIT had become a long shot for the Tigers so I didn't realize we were in as good of shape as we are. 


It's hard to believe that it has been almost three years since MU has played in any kind of postseason tournament (excluding the conference tourney). If this team could get an NIT bid and win a couple of games then that would be a significant accomplishment considering all the turmoil this season has brought. 

The fact that I would actually be excited to watch Mizzou play in the NIT might be even more depressing than the fact that it's been 5 years since the Tigers have made it to the NCAAs. I don't think a lot of current MU students realize how good Missouri basketball used to be. I first started following Mizzou basketball closely around 2000 and didn't really think there was a possibility that there would be seasons where we didn't at least get an NCAA Tournament bid. They didn't always have much success once they got there but they were going to be in the Tournament. 

If the Tigers shoot a decent percentage from the charity stripe in that Elite 8 game against OU in 02 (or Clarence Gilbert doesn't do his best John Starks impersonation) then Quin Snyder takes that team to its first Final Four in school history and Quin receives a lifetime contract. 

The following season Ricky Paulding and Arthur Johnson nearly carried Mizzou past Dwyane Wade's Marquette team that went on to the Final Four and Mizzou appeared to be one of the nations up and coming programs. But the following season was when this year's senior class arrived on campus and the Snyder regime began collapsing under its own weight.

So I went from expecting the Tigers to become a perennial national title contender to breaking down their NIT chances. It's hard to believe things could change so drastically. Thank God I have Chase Daniel to take my mind off of this.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Texas A&M Observations


Saturday brought more disappointment in a season that has been full of it for our Missouri Tigers. Ol' Mizzou fell 77-69 to the Aggies and in all honesty it wasn't that close. The Tigers actually led 30-25 at halftime but it seemed like the A&M players were moving in slow motion. MU opened the second half with a crippling scoring drought and fell behind as much as 17 before the Aggies turned on the cruise control and almost made things interesting.


I have to say I was not all that impressed with this Texas A&M team. The way they opened the game it was like they expected Mizzou to roll over and lose by 20 and then they were incredibly careless with the basketball as the Tigers tried to rally back in the final minutes. If you were just looking at Joseph Jones and Bryan Davis you would expect them to be able to trade punches with the KUs and the Texases in the Big 12, but come Tournament time this team is going to miss the heart that Acie Law IV gave them last season.

Here are some observations I made about the guys wearing the Black and Gold:
  • What happened to Leo Lyons in the final 5 minutes of the game? For the first 35 minutes Leo was drifting through the motions as he has done for the majority of his disappointing career when a light seemed to finally turn on. Lyons looked like a future NBA draft pick in the final minutes and finished with 24 points (10 in the final 2 1/2 minutes). Thank you Leo for finally playing an inspired game when it was way too late for us to have a reasonable chance at winning. Talk about a player I'm sick of watching. Has there been a player in MU history that has wasted more talent than Leo Lyons? Some might argue that Mizzou's only McDonald's High School All-American Travon Bryant was more of an underachiever. But I would argue that the expectations for Travon were unreasonable from the start. It's impossible to predict how some high school players are going to be able to adapt to the college game and Travon fell into that category. Leo is easily the most talented player on our roster and could be one of the more versatile big men in the Big 12 if he could focus for 40 minutes every game. Unfortunately he's more interested in becoming the next Jay-Z than he is in becoming the next Kevin Garnett.
  • Where was the J.T. Tiller that we saw the past three games? After capturing Big 12 POW honors for his play following the suspensions of the "Athena 5" Tiller mutated back into the erratic player that we've grown all too used to. Tiller finished with only 5 points and four turnovers and showed no sign of the swagger that he had the past week. With Stefhon Hannah gone, the rest of this season is going to be an opportunity for J.T. to assert himself as a leader on this team and if the Tigers are going to have any shot at going to the Big Dance in the conceivable future then he's going to have to step up to the plate.
  • In addition to Tiller, Keon Lawrence has also gone MIA once again. I thought Keon was the ballsiest player the Tigers had last season and felt like he had a chance to be the best guard at Missouri since Kareem Rush. That player made a brief reappearance last Monday when he scored a career high 25 against the Squaks at Allen Fielhouse and I thought that might have been the end of his sophomore slump but it looks like I was mistaken. I never would have thought the words tentative, hesitant and unconfident would be used to describe Keon Lawrence after watching his freshman campaign but those are the words that best describe his play this year. Keon comes from a very rough upbringing and I have read that he has been going through some personal problems this season (his older brother was shot and killed recently and both his grandmother and father are battling health problems) and I would imagine those have been weighing very heavily on him. Lets hope he's able to overcome them and become the great player that he has the potential to be.
  • Matt Lawrence: 23 minutes. 2 rebounds. 3 fouls. 0 assists. 0 points. Thanks for playing Mateo.
  • To end this on a positive note Justin Safford continues to impress since his playing time has increased. He finished with 10 points and four rebounds in 19 minutes. He also played some pretty solid defense on A&M's big men. I'm still trying to figure out how much potential this guy has. There is virtually no scouting report on the guy since he rarely sniffed the floor through the first half of the season so opposing defenses have not had a chance to prepare for him. His game is a little awkward but I can see him developing into a very solid role player that can bring a lot of energy off the bench and will fit in nicely in coach Anderson's system. At least he always  plays hard and he's not Darryl Butterfield, which might actually be the best thing he has going for him.
Next game for the Tigers is Wednesday when they travel to Lincoln to play the Cornhuskers. A huge game for Mizzou if they want to keep their NIT hopes alive. 

I'm out like Matt Lawrence's jump shot.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Analyzing Athenagate


The last two weeks the University of Missouri's mens basketball team has come under fire due to events that transpired on the morning of January 29 at the Athena Night Club in downtown Columbia.


Stefhon Hannah, Jason Horton, Darryl Butterfield, Leo Lyons and Marshall Brown have become public enemy nos. 1-5 for Tiger fans thanks to their presence at the club past the team's curfew. The facts about what exactly happened are still unclear but it ended with Stefhon Hannah suffering a broken jaw that will likely end his college career and eventually resulted in Jason Horton being arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault after he allegedly punched a kitchen worker several times. 

MU head basketball coach Mike Anderson immediately suspended the "Athena 5" indefinitely. Brown and Lyons were back in action last Saturday as the Tigers upset K-State and Horton and Butterfield returned for the game against Kansas last Monday.

In the aftermath of "Athenagate" many fans and members of the media have been quick to brand the 5 players involved as thugs and have called for their dismissal from the team. Unfortunately that is the same undeniably racist attitude that led to the disaster surrounding the Duke Lacrosse team.

I suppose there is a possibility that all 5 players do deserve to be let go, but the bottom line is we don't know because we don't have the FACTS. Here is what we know:
  • All 5 players broke curfew by going to the night club.
  • A fight broke out while the players were there and some of them were involved (whether by choice or by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time is still unknown).
  • Jason Horton has been accused of assaulting a man.
So all we can say with absolute certainty is that the players broke curfew and somehow got caught up in a brawl that left their star point guard seriously injured. If Matt Lawrence, Nick Beradini and Justin Safford were the players implicated would the word thug even be uttered? I don't think so.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident as has been well documented and the Columbia Daily Tribune recently reported that this is not even the first time that players have broken curfew and been at the "wrong place at the wrong time" since the start of the season. 

The Tribune reported that Hannah and Horton were interviewed regarding a shooting that took place outside a local gas station in December. Neither player was considered a suspect but they were breaking curfew. Athletic department spokesperson Dave Reiter said that the matter was handled internally.

I find it interesting that the Tribune waited until now to publish this story when the information being reported is almost all at least two months old. I'm not saying that it's not a story because players repeatedly breaking curfew and going directly against Anderson's "zero-tolerance policy" is a major problem that needs to be addressed. But all the information in the story could have been reported a long time ago well before the "Athena 5" partied their way into our lives. 

Are there problems within the MU basketball program? Without a doubt. But other than Butterfield (who is a repeat offender and quite honestly probably needs to be let go) should anyone be kicked off the team? I think it's too early to tell. Do we have enough evidence to label them thugs? No. 

Is it fair to label Marshall Brown, a guy who wants to become a schoolteacher and spends time reading to kids at local elementary schools, a "gangsta"? You tell me.

It's obvious they're hanging out with the wrong types of people at the wrong types of places and that coach Anderson's rules don't mean a lot to them, but he has punished them and is now giving them a shot at redemption. 

Due to the suspensions that Anderson gave these players (most of them seniors) their legacy is most likely going to be that they didn't give a damn about Mizzou basketball. So would it benefit the program to cut ties with these athletes who have proven that they consider basketball to be a luxury? Maybe. But I'll let coach Anderson tell you why that's not something you do:

"I think the most important thing is that kids need to learn from it. The ignorant thing to do, is to throw someone under the bus, and you'll ruin that kid's life."

You'll RUIN that KID'S life.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

HELLO

This is the first blog post of my life. The purpose of this blog is for my online journalism class and it will be updated throughout the semester. The name of this blog of course comes from the famous drum that is present on the sideline of the University of Missouri's football games that is affectionately named "Big Mo." I am going to try to focus this blog on sports within the state of Missouri although there are a lot of topics outside the world of Show-Me State sports that I would also like to sound off on and will probably use this blog to do so. So until next time, I'm Shawn Garrison with Big MO Sports...