Mizzou Links, 11-24-08

Puerto Rico links!

• Mutigers.com: Mizzou runs away from No. 19 USC 83-72
• LA Times: Missouri rallies past Trojans: USC can't maintain lead after Cunningham injures a knee
• The Trib: Carroll leads Tigers over USC
• The Missourian: Carroll leads Tigers to comeback victory
• KC Star: Missouri knocks off USC
• PowerMizzou: Tigers get big win over Trojans
• Post-Dispatch: Missouri upsets USC

And to our USC friend who showed up in the live thread and called our players thugs for Cunningham's knee injury...you clearly were not watching the game.  It was very evidently a non-contact injury.  At worst, he nicked Keith Ramsey's knee, but even if he did, that would have caused a bruise, not a serious injury.

Oh yeah, and Xavier beat Memphis last night.  They won their three games by a combined 10 points, but power to them for 125 minutes of clutch play.  They earned the tourney title.

Here's the Mizzou-USC box score.  As I mentioned in the live thread yesterday, we won't get a 6-for-6 effort from Demarre Carroll and JT Tiller very often, so it's good that we didn't waste it.  It's also good that we've got a lot of options at SG/SF when Matt Lawrence is off.  His minutes are going to be interesting this year--some games, he'll play in the 25-30 minute range if his shot it on and he's not a liability on defense.  Other games (like yesterday's), his shot will be clearly off, he will be a defensive liability, and he'll get 11 minutes.

LOTS of offensive rebounds in this one.

And I think Mizzou will have a very high win % in games where they have 20 assists.

Upon Further Review, a KC Star blog, takes a further look at the win over USC, asking, Was this Mike Anderson's finest hour?  I'm trying not to overreact--we looked great in a win over Maryland at this time last year, and it turned out Maryland wasn't all that good--but win Anderson's system wears down an opponent and the last 10 minutes go all Mizzou's way, it's a lot of fun to watch...that's for sure.

To football...where Dave Matter ponders what he saw on Saturday night.

What an absolute obliteration Saturday night in Norman, Okla. It didn’t matter that two of OU’s best defensive players were on the sideline in Auston English and Ryan Reynolds. It didn’t matter that only nine of the 11 defensive starters from last year’s Big 12 championship game were on the field for the Sooners. There are new stars on defense for Bob Stoops team: defensive ends Jeremy Beal and Frank Alexander, linebacker Travis Lewis and corner Dominique Franks.

Now, let’s not go overboard with declaring Oklahoma the hands-down best team in the country, or even the Big 12. Don’t forget the lesson of 2003 when the Sooners were hailed as one of the great college teams of all time after blowout wins over Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Then, of course, Kansas State drilled OU 35-7 in the Big 12 championship game — in Kansas City, of all places. Don’t think Mike Gundy won’t have his Oklahoma State Cowboys ready for next week’s Bedlam game in Stillwater. Would anyone be surprised if OSU plays its best game of the year and knocks off the Sooners?

...

My guess is a lot of voters will be so enthralled by Oklahoma’s demolition of Texas Tech that Texas’ lead in the polls will shrink. This potential controversy brings up a great point that several writers have been pushing for recently: The ballots for the USA Today coaches’ poll that shape the final regular-season BCS standings — the one that could determine who plays in the Big 12 championship game — should be revealed to the public. The end-of-the-season ballots are released, but not the ones that are more influential. Without having to disclose their ballots, what would keep Texas’ Mack Brown and Texas Tech’s Mike Leach from voting their respective teams No. 1 and leaving the other two South rivals unranked? Brown would have every incentive to put the Horns at the top of his poll and completely leave OU and Texas Tech off his ballot. Because no one would ever know. OU's Bob Stoops declined to vote in the poll this season to avoid that very potential for turmoil.

Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch's Vahe Gregorian marvels at how OU's win over Tech propelled Texas into (temporary) position for the Big 12 and BCS title games.

Finally, the Trib has a nice article on a redshirt freshman doing good things for Mizzou Wrestling, Dorian Henderson...