It is Mizzou Nash here. I have created this video for anyone to enjoy. Mizzou 2012 Believe Please I would love everyone's feedback. I am currently in process of creating a site for Mizzou Fans to pretty much post how they feel whenever they want. I would like anyone's comments, advice articles to post etc... Please email me at mizzounash@gmail.com if you are interested in writing a post, want to give comments etc. Any players out there who want to get something off their chest can also do so discretely through my site. Follow me on Twitter @mizzounash I hope you all like this Rock M Nation. I love Mizzou.Please Email that video link to all of your Mizzou friends. Thank you for your time on this post. If you like it recommend it and like it.

"Champions are not born, but they are made from the beliefs they are champions and a support system that lifts them up to reach their superiority."-Mizzou Nash

Here we go gang. This is my version of the revised Guide to Columbia. Since the idea of revising it has been kicked around on various threads, I figured I would take this snowy Monday to put everything else off and give it a go.

Some of these opinions are mine or shared from my friends, but I did try to stay in line with the picks from the previous guide. I also tried to be well rounded in the selections, since the main purpose of this guide is to help visitors to COMO. I also updated broken or outdated links when possible. I hope you all find it helpful and informative.

This information can be copied, edited, etc:

FOOD:

Best Burger: Popular Pick: Booche's; Other Suggestions: Flat Branch, Shiloh

Best Pizza: Popular Pick: Shakespeare's; Other Suggestions: G&D Pizza, Kostaki's Pizzeria

Best Mexican Food: Popular Pick: El Rancho; Other Suggestions: Tequila Mexican Restaurant, Taqueria El Rodeo

Best Italian Food: Popular Pick: Sophia's; Other Suggestions: Bambino's, Babbo's

Best BBQ: Popular Pick: Buckingham's; Other Suggestions: Smokin' Chicks

Best Wings: Popular Pick: CJ's; Other Suggestions: D. Rowe's, Truman's

Best Sandwiches: Popular Pick: Sub Shop Other Suggestions: Pickleman's

Best Breakfast: Popular Pick: Broadway Diner; Other Suggestions: Ernie's

Best Semi-Upscale Dining: Popular Pick: Addison's; Other Suggestions: CC's City Broiler, Bleu, Mackenzie's

Best Casual Dining: Popular Pick: Flat Branch; Other Suggestions: D. Rowe's

Best Dessert: Popular Pick: Tiger Stripe ice cream at Buck's; Other Suggestions: Andy's Frozen Custard, Upper Crust Bakery

Best Coffee: Popular Pick: Kaldi's

Best Late Night Food Stop: Popular Pick: Broadway Diner; Other Suggestions: El Rancho, Gumby's Pizza

"Can't Miss" Food Item in Columbia: Popular Pick: Booche's hamburgers; Other Suggestions: Flat Branch Texas Burger, Sub Shop Sausage and Kraut sandwich

BEVERAGE/NIGHTLIFE:

Best Drink Specials: Popular Pick: Bengal's; Other Suggestions: Shakespeare's, Shiloh, Truman's, Campus Bar & Grill

Best Drink Selection: Popular Pick: Flat Branch; Other Suggestions: Tropical Liqueurs

Best Bartender's: Popular Pick: Willie's/Field House; Other Suggestions: McNally's

Best Gameday Bar: Popular Pick: Harpo's; Other Suggestions: Shiloh, Campus Bar & Grill, Stadium Grill

Best Bar for "Scenery": Popular Pick: Quinton's/Tonic; Other Suggestions: Shiloh

Best Bar for Dancing: Popular Pick: Tonic; Other Suggestions: Whiskey Wild Saloon, 10 Below

TOURISM:

Best Thing to See on Campus: Popular Pick: The Columns on Francis Quadrangle; Other Suggestions: Museum of Anthropology, Campus Walking Tours

Best Thing to See off Campus: Popular Pick: The District; Other Suggestions: Rock Bridge State Park, Finger Lakes State Park

Best Day Trip: Popular Pick: Isle of Capri Casino, Other Suggestions: Les Bourgeois Vineyards, Osage Beach Premium Outlets, Missouri State Capitol

Best Movie Theater: Popular Pick: Hollywood - Stadium 14; Other Suggestions: Rag Tag Cinema, Forum 8

Best Golf Course: Popular Pick: Eagle Knoll GC; Other Suggestions: A.L. Gustin GC, Lake of the Woods

Best Free Parking Location: Popular Pick: 5 Free On-Campus Garages; Other Suggestions: Parking Along Stadium or Providence Roads

Best Tailgating Location: Popular Pick: Lot X; Other Suggestions: Future Site of Tiger Town?

HOTELS/ACCOMMODATIONS:

Best Hotel Close to Sports Complex: Popular Pick: Hampton Inn & Suites; Other Suggestions: Stoney Creek Inn, Courtyard by Marriott

Best "Cheap" Hotel: Popular Pick: Comfort Suites; Other Suggestions: Quality Inn

Best "Upscale" Hotel: Holiday Inn Executive Center; Other Suggestions: Hilton Garden Inn, Residence Inn

Camping/RV Options: Popular Pick: Cottonwoods RV Park; Other Suggestions: Finger Lakes State Park, RV/Bus Parking Lots near stadium

Marcus...Kimmeh...Cardo...Matt...Flip...Michael...and Steeeeeeeeeeeeeve. Together, they are The Magnificent Seven.

Of course, that means any highlight film from this season can only be accompanied by music from Elmer Bernstein.

M7 Theme Music

Who would be which character from the film? And are they fighting to save the Big 12 from Jayhawk domination? I guess that makes Bill Self take Eli Wallach's role as Calvera.

Personally, I think our guys would all be fighting to take James Coburn's spot as Britt. Why? Because he's the one who's so good with DAGGERS.

Hey everyone,

I have created a reddit for all mizzou sports. I know Rock M is a great place for discussion and posts but this could offer something fresh for all those redditors out there. Hoping this can grow into a great mizzou exclusive reddit for a lot of great things to be posted that might be missed otherwise.

Check it out and help the mizzou sports community grow!

http://www.reddit.com/r/mizzousports

Been reading on here for a long time. Work finally allows me to post (long story). Love the interaction on here and the great info led by BillC. I'm more apt to only chime in with off-the-wall or more obscure musings.

As has been mentioned in today's thread, we are the only team in both the RivalsRPI & SagarinRatings to have 9 wins against the top 50 in those rankings. That fact is surely helping us in our long climb up in these types of rankings. Our SOS is starting to come in line with some of the other "traditionally dominant" programs. But before we start to complain about being slighted in favor of those "dominant" names, let's make sure we appreciate just how far we've come in terms of numbers and rankings.

The flip side of being the only team in the RivalsRPI with 9 wins, is the fact that we have 7 of our wins coming from the +200 crowd. For perspective, The 'Cuse only has 4 wins from that group, Duke only 2. Unfortunately we fit more into the mid-major category for +200 games, with this year's top mid-majors having the following records vs top 50; vs +200:

UNLV (6-3;7-0) Gonzaga (3-4;8-0) St. Mary's (3-2,12-0)

Southern Miss is actually getting some love from these rankings as they are 23-4 overall, 2-1 vs top50, and 4-0 vs +200.

As impressive as our run has been recently against the top 10, we were buried so far down with our earlier schedule that we are only starting to catch up with the perceived "big boys". Remember, though the selection committee gives some emphasis on the final 10 games heading into the big dance, the majority of their evaluation is based on the ENTIRETY of your schedule.

If we widen the scope out to games vs the top 100, our RivalsRPI record is 10-1...Syracuse is 13-1, Kentucky is 10-1. Those two teams are probably the consensus #1 & #2 overall seeds at this moment. I don't care how the coaches and AP vote us...#3 would be nice come Monday for brand recognition purposes...but my focus right now is how do we get to a #3 seed overall for the tournament (to ensure a #1 seed in the St. Louis regional). I'm afraid that a #4 overall seed would land us in the West regional as a No.1 seed. I'd rather be a No. 2 seed in the St. Louis regional.

How do the other teams around us stack up? Who do we really need to root against the most before selection Sunday?

Duke is my main concern because they have the 2nd best rated SOS (ours is currently 66th via RivalsRPI). They are 12-4 vs top 100, with only 2 wins in the +200 crowd. Ohio St. dropped quite a bit after their home loss and have a tough schedule remaining. N.C. & Mich St. have 4 & 5 losses respectively against the Top 100, with both having 5 wins vs. +200 teams. Baylor is still ranked high (because only 4 losses are vs top 10 teams) but I don't see any way that the committee puts them above MU or kU at this point.

Which brings us to kU. Though their SOS is 3rd, they seem to be behind Duke because of a 9-5 record vs top 100, with 5 wins vs +200 teams. Obviously, the upcoming head-to-head means that either MU or kU will have another loss. But so could all the other teams around them. I'm just kind of weird in analyzing who we need to lose the most. It makes the other college games more interesting (I couldn't stop watching the Ohio St./Mich St. game).

And finally, if you really like to look at numbers and rankings and ratings, oh my!...then take a look at a couple of these links.

http://lrmc.isye.gatech.edu/~jsokol/lrmc/ This Georgia Tech algorithm claims to have been the best at predicting the highest percentage of NCAA tournament games vs all the other ranking systems.

http://masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm Massey does a pretty cool thing here by compiling all the major ranking services, listing them out in a tidy format complete with links, and then averages all of them into a compilation ranking of their own. This is updated every Monday.

I wish I was around for the live thread for this game. How exciting. Thank goodness for ESPN3 though.

1. Mizzou has what Clark Kellogg calls "spurtability". I'm one of those people who thinks the NCAA tournament, as unique and as wonderful as it is, degrades the regular season a little. I'm doing my level best to enjoy this truly magical season for what it is without looking too far ahead to "brackets" and "seeding" that only end up sending my anxiety skyrocketing and taking my focus off what is going on right now. Fortunately, with Kansas on the near horizon even the fans--much less the players--can't get too terribly far ahead of what's going on right now. Having given that preamble, I'll give one little nugget that leaves me hopeful about Missouri's tournament chances. It isn't the "senior leadership" that commentators love to go on about. We've seen experienced teams play tight when the moment becomes a little too big, while some inexperienced teams play great precisely because they're "too stupid" to know how big the moment is. It isn't talent either. Missouri is plenty talented, but I doubt there is a first round NBA talent on the roster. Nope. What leaves me hopeful about Mizzou is spurtability--that ability to get on runs that, for the most part, the other team can't really defend, only try to limit. I remember Kellogg coining this term with the '97 Arizona title team. As evidenced yesterday, in a game that is sputtering along without much flow, out of nowhere Missouri can hit you with a run--and all a defense can do is try to keep it from getting out of hand. To my mind, the biggest component of wading through the opening weekend minefield is the ability to spurt against "inferior" opponents. 14-0, 15-0 runs are harder to come by against quality defenses, but as a high seed in the early rounds you need separation if for no other reason than to keep the upset vultures at neutral site arenas from circling.

2. Don't weep for Baylor. They are built for tournament play. I'm not so sure that I agree that their problem is toughness. They're not the toughest team around for sure, but they're not punks. I think their issue--such that they have "issues" with losses to KU and Mizzou--is that their talent isn't the most complimentary. It's hard to be great in the regular season with a front court-dominated team in college hoops, which is so guard friendly. (It's not impossible--KU and UNC does it all the time.) Their guards are turnover prone, not only do they personally turn it over, they put their bigs in situations where they are likely to turn it over. For all the barbs thrown at PJIII, it really is kinda easy to take an inexperienced big out of his comfort zone. (That's no excuse for his disappearing acts on the boards and on defense.) A team that can't figure out how to involve a young big man, especially when they don't run, and they don't have guards who limit turnovers, isn't terribly uncommon. Having said all that, come March they're likely to look a lot like they did in non-conference. They're not going to see many teams that can match their perimeter quickness like Mizzou or leverage them into horrendous shots AND keep them off the glass like Kansas--both of whom know the Baylor playbook as well as Baylor. Don't be shocked if they make a run, maybe even farther than us. Tournaments aren't about overall quality. They're about matchups.

Inspirational article....follow up to football article. @mizzounash on twitter

http://mizzourah.webs.com/rant.htm We need to rise up Mizzou nation. I want to hear you...Link up to my twitter or post your comments below. It is time to awaken the sleeping giant. MIZ ZOU. Who cares what others think. I want to hear all of Mizzou Nation. We are strong and winning comes from a winning attitude. This is a read and will take a few moments so please read to end though....

First off, nice crowd. Fortunately one of the guys I went with had the idea to go into the auditorium early and I’m glad he did. We sat stage left and who sat right in front of us? Coach Kadlec. We got up and talked to him for a few minutes before it started. Coach had had a knee replacement but was doing fine. Coach Kadlec got up and started the night off. When he did, Coach Pinkel sat in the seat Coach Kadlec vacated so we chatted a bit with him. Howard Richards got up next and spoke of his recruitment by Coach Kadlec and he spoke a bit about now being with the U doing radio. I guess he was nervous cause he finished and walked off without introducing Coach Pinkel. Coach Kadlec jumped up and interrupted Pinkel who’d already introduced himself and started talking to introduce him and Richards came back up obviously embarrassed. Then Coach Kadlec came back down and sat by us the rest of the night. Pinkel came out and staunchly defended Mike Alden saying that everyone that ripped on him needs to send him an email or letter, lots of them, apologizing for all the crap he got over the Frank Haith hiring (though he didn’t actually say Haith’s name).

[Bumped to Front Page.]

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I'm pretty wrapped up in the basketball team's success right now, but I couldn't help but stumble on some Mizzou Football articles on ESPN.COM. Apparently today is the day that the Mizzou Football blog is moving to the SEC section. To commemorate the move they have a few articles about the team, the upcoming season, and of course DGB.

My favorite part has to be the interview with TJ Moe. Especially this little nugget:

How big of a step do you think it will be for Missouri in the SEC?

TJM: I think it’s going to be a rigorous transition because of the bottom teams in the SEC. They’re basically what the mid-tier teams were in the Big 12. The top teams in the Big 12 are every bit as good as the top teams in the SEC. But we get to play Kansas every year in the Big 12, and there’s no Kansas in the SEC. It’s almost like you have off weeks in the Big 12. You can’t say that about the SEC. You have to bring your "A" game every week.

I love his ability to bash the beakers whenever he is given a chance!!

Check out the rest of the articles here:

ESPN College Football

As most of you know, or understand, my wife is a saint. She however is not a huge fan of celebrating valentines day because we're pretty good about doing stuff for each other year round. Anywho I'm going to make an awesome dinner as a surprise, thought I'd share it with you all. Heres what I'm doing, I've also linked a google doc so that you can check it out instead.

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