Mizzou Links, 1-12-09

Really, Wake Forest fans?  You have the #4 team in the country, and you rushed the court for beating the #3 team?  I realize rushing the court jumped the shark about eight years ago, but that's not going to stop me from posting this:

We try not to linger on losses too much here, but here are a few "Mizzou is 0-1 in conference" links....

• The Trib: Tigers get chilly reception in Big 12 opener
• The Trib: Starting ugly
• The Missourian: Nebraska still has Anderson's number

Steve Walentik shares some additional thoughts at his Trib blog:

The Tigers need to do a better job of recognizing what their strengths are. One thing that is not is perimeter shooting. They are only shooting 35.1 percent from 3-point range -- eighth best in the Big 12 -- after Saturday's 5-for-21 performance. Yet for some reason, Missouri didn't hesitate to hoist long-range in the last 11 minutes instead of getting the ball inside the way it had during its rally earlier in the half.

It's one thing if Matt Lawrence is presented with an open look and misses it. At least he was shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc coming into the game -- though he struggled most of the day on Saturday. But J.T. Tiller, Miguel Paul and Marcus Denmon haven't shown themselves good enough shooters to try some of the shots they did when the Tigers really needed a basket. I thought Tiller's 3 with 47 seconds left came way too quickly -- there were still at least 20 seconds on the shot clock -- and it cost Missouri the chance to put pressure on Nebraska by tying the score.

And the KC Star's "Upon Further Review" blog chips with a succinct MU-NU summation: a big pile of stink.

So it turns out Chase Daniel injured his thumb in the Big 12 Championship game and was having to use a different grip on the ball in the Alamo Bowl.  That makes some sense...hell, if you'd told me he'd injured his thumb in the OSU game and had to throw differently the rest of the season, I'd believe that too...

Lots of football recruiting updates from Rivals today: Ronnie Wingo, Alex Sanders, Terrance Lloyd, Blaine Dalton, Ty Phillips, Cobi Hamilton...lots of stuff.  I won't give much away, but...it sounds like Wingo a) loved every second of his visit to Fayetteville and b) didn't commit.  So we've got that going for us.

The Trib takes a look at Mizzou Wrestling's struggles in Cedar Falls, and how a red hot Mark Ellis really couldn't do anything about it.

Finally, this is a pretty neat story: Mizzou Soccer took a "mission trip" to Brazil...and won two games!

 Another note...no Monday Musings today, they will return tomorrow in a special "Tuesday Thoughts".