LEAVE YOUR TRIFECTA PICKS IN COMMENTS.

Consider it fortuitous scheduling. Before next week's killer combo of @Texas-Kansas, Mizzou gets a recovery game at home against the conference's worst team. They are really, really young and, for now at least, really, really bad.

Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-12)

I have no idea if Billy Clyde Gillispie will succeed to any degree in Lubbock, but I do know that a) no coach in the country would be able to make much of his current squad, which is made up mostly of true freshmen and Pat Knight leftovers, and b) he can still coach a pretty good defense. Despite a lack of individual talent, they play decent team defense, especially in the halfcourt. Like OSU, they force reasonably poor shots and rebound pretty well. They don't force any turnovers, and they foul like crazy, but they still rank close to the Top 150 on the defensive side of the ball, as you'll see below. That isn't great, but compared to the offense, it's something around which Gillispie can build.

The offense, meanwhile, is truly awful. Freshman Jordan Tolbert is a genuinely solid talent, but he has almost no offensive talent surrounding him. Tech is undersized and inexperienced, and their second-best player (a freshman, like Tolbert) has missed most of the last two months to injury.

Ken Pomeroy Stats

Where the Red Raiders are weakest

Take your pick. They rank 338th (out of 345) in Off. Turnover%, which, to say the least, could be an issue at Missouri; they also rank 323rd in Off. Steal%, meaning that a high portion of their turnovers are of the "ball stays in play" variety. It is quite possible that Tech's halfcourt defense won't matter, as Mizzou could be running up and down in transition all afternoon.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. The Red Raiders don't hit the offensive glass very hard (or very well), and they are one of the least experienced teams in the country (325th). They really don't shoot the ball that poorly (175th in 2PT%, 100th in 3PT%), but a ton of possessions come and go without a shot, and if they miss, they probably aren't getting the rebound.

Oh yeah, and they don't really force turnovers either. They are aggressive, and they foul a ton (330th in Def. FTA/FGA), but with very little payoff (290th in Def. Steal%, 250th in Def. TO%). Gillispie is clearly attempting to institute a physical style of play, but he just doesn't have the pieces right now.

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Mizzou Football Links

Sometime this afternoon, one of the bigger -- if not the biggest -- official visits in Missouri's history begins. Some believe Dorial Green-Beckham has already made up his mind regarding his school of choice (though they disagree as to which school that is), but to say the least, a great visit will go a long way. We'll see what happens; I'm sure we'll be getting to-the-minute updates and rumors on Twitter and at PowerMizzou...

• OMG MIZZOU IS SO SELFISH
  Senator Blutarsky: Chuck Neinas does not believe in enlightened self-interest for anybody else
• UCF
  The Trib: UCF Knights to host Tigers this fall
• DGB
  Austin American-Statesman: Horns make their final recruiting pitch to Dorial Green-Beckham
• Other Recruiting
  Rivals.com: VIDEO: Mizzou commit Rickey Hatley
  
• Eggo Holding His Own, I Guess
  New York Times (Mike Mayock): Top 5 at Every Position for 2012 Draft
  

Other Football Links

• Recruiting
  SB Nation: How-To Signing Day, Part Three: The Recruiting Cycle of Emotion (But Mostly Angst)

  Statement: "We addressed every single one of our needs with this recruiting class."

  Translation: "You're right, that IS a lot of two-star recruits in one class." [...]

  ***

  Statement: "I guess he's not a Michigan Man/USC Material/ Ohio State Proud/ Alabama Ready/ whatever."

  Translation: "I will now openly start baseless rumors of this recruit's drug use on message boards with no basis in reality whatsoever. Also, please ignore the part last week where I said this recruit was the epitome of everything this university stands for. He is not."

  ***

  Statement: "I'm sure he's going to be the next in our long line of awesome [position goes here]."

  Translation: "My expectations for him are already wildly unrealistic, and this recruit is already a disappointment. Should he fail to be anything but a freak in his first year, I will demand his immediate transfer, and question his character in no uncertain terms. I'm not a very nice or realistic person."

• The Downside Of A Playoff
  Dr. Saturday: The New York Giants can teach college football a lot about how not to conduct a playoff

Mizzou Basketball Links

• Wednesday Wasn't Much Fun
  The Trib: No dice in Stillwater, but no dis
  Post-Dispatch (Bernie Miklasz): Looking at Mizzou, SLU
• On Deck
  MUtigers.com: No. 2 Tigers Return Home to Face Texas Tech
  KBIA Sports Extra: It's bounce back time for No. 2 Tigers
• MPressive
  The Missourian: Matt Pressey's lockdown defense helps Missouri basketball
• Similarity Scores
  Team Rankings: At This Point: 10 Past Teams Most Similar To Missouri

SEC

Arkansas, LSU and Texas A&M? DO NOT WANT. OKAY, MAYBE WANT A LITTLE.

• The Future
  Outkick the Coverage: SEC's Future Will Include 16 Teams, Four Divisions of Four
  

Other Mizzou Links

• Mizzou Wrestling
  MUtigers.com: No. 15 Wrestling Set for Quad-Meet at SIUE
• Mizzou Gymnastics
  MUtigers.com: Tigers Look for Road Win at No. 4 Nebraska
• Mizzou Track & Field
  MUtigers.com: Tiger Men Wrap up Day One at Bergan Combined Events

Other

• Great Writing
  Grantland (Brian Phillips): The Boxing career of freed American slave Tom Molineaux
• Mmmmmm...
  Spin.com: So Fresh, So Green: SPIN Test Drives Andre 3000's Kale Recipe
• Oof
  Kegs 'n Eggs: This Moment in Unfortunate Online Advertisement History

Your Trifecta: Ratliffe-PPressey-Denmon, strangely enough. Though really, it was Ratliffe-Ratliffe-Ratliffe. Regardless, your winners: mizzou2396, K2theT, and leeaustex.

Between these two tweets and a text from a friend last night, rationalizing that he would rather have the Baylor win and the OSU loss, and not the other way around, I didn't feel too bad about this loss for too long. Things happen, and your team loses sometimes. As long as the response is strong, then you just move on. Of course, certain things are trending in the wrong direction with this team, so we'll still need to talk about that.

Oklahoma State 79, Mizzou 72

Expectations And Reality Disagree Sometimes

For Missouri last night, Ricardo Ratliffe took 17 shots, Marcus Denmon took 16, Kim English and Phil Pressey took nine, Matt Pressey took seven, Mike Dixon took five, and Steve Moore took two. Using season-long per-shot averages for each player, that combination should have resulted in 96.2 points for Missouri.

For Oklahoma State, Le'Bryan Nash took 18 shots, Keiton Page took 12, Brian Williams took 11, Markel Brown took seven, Philip Jurick took three and Michael Cobbins took one. Using the same season-long per-shot averages, that combination should have resulted in 62.6 points for Oklahoma State.

Needless to say, that's not how things played out.

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