Just in case someone is either a) single, b) not very romantic, c) freaking exhausted or d) some combination thereof, here's an evening live thread for you. Tech-A&M is on ESPN2, if you're up for some masochism...

First off, a Happy Valentine's Day, both to my wife and to HyVee for being open at 3:30 AM today when desperate teething measures were needed. And a happy nap time to me this afternoon.

Mizzou Basketball Links

• So ... Good Season, Huh?
  PowerMizzou: Mizzou's road to a top seed
  The Missourian: Missouri moves up to No. 3 in rankings
  Post-Dispatch: The contrasting fates of Bruce Weber and Frank Haith
• Flip, Etc.
  The Trib (Steve Walentik): Haith talks Ricardo Ratliffe's offense, Phil Pressey's defense and rematch with OSU

  On the defensive play of Phil Pressey against Baylor’s Pierre Jackson on Saturday …

  "He was outstanding. He was outstanding. We challenge him. We challenged Phil to get back to guarding the ball the way he’s capable of because Phil can be just a terror on the ball, and he was great — and without gambling. I know Phil’s the steal leader or one of the steal leaders in the Big 12, but those steals will happen if you just stay solid and keep guys in front of you, and we wanted all of our guards to do that, a much better job of that so the ball doesn’t get on our big people. As I said in the press conference, when the game is stretched out and pushed away from the basket, it’s to our advantage. But when it’s closer to the rim, it’s too our disadvantage. So we did a nice job at the frontline of our defense, and Phil spearheaded that with how he was able to contain and guard Pierre Jackson."

  On where Pressey ranks as an on-ball defender …

  "He’s as good as I’ve been around. Phil has great hands, too. He’s got big hands for a little guy. If you’ve ever watched Phil, he palms the ball. That’s a quality that he has that’s very unique for a guy his size, but he’s as good as I’ve been around — a guy that can control the game from a defensive standpoint, and we need that because we don’t have that backline shot-blocker and whatnot. And creating turnovers, we’re not playing helter-skelter type defense, but he can still have the same kind of effect playing solid. It’s a nice quality to have on your team."

  The Missourian: Phil Pressey's defense inspires Tigers' defensive thinking
• The Grind
  Men's Health: The Missouri Tigers' Surprising Turnaround
  Post-Dispatch: MU tries to balance hard workouts with staying fresh
• Oh Yeah, Shapiro
  The Trib: Bitter ex wants to ruin Haith honeymoon

Other Basketball Links

Mizzou reaeeeeeally needed K-State to win last night. Alas.

• Kansas > KSU
  Rock Chalk Talk: Jeff Withey With Another Big Game As Kansas Sweeps Kansas State
  KC Star: KU holds on for 59-53 win over K-State
  KC Star: Self, and Withey, show off more surprises
  KC Star: Jamar Samuels has big game, but leaves discontent
  Lawrence Journal-World: Toughened up, Jeff Withey 'fabulous'
  ESPN.com: HIGHLIGHTS: Kansas 59, Kansas State 53
• Baylor > ISU
  Our Daily Bears: Overreaction Central: Iowa State vs Baylor Recap
  ESPN.com: HIGHLIGHTS: Baylor 79, Iowa State 64
  

Mizzou Football Links

• Recruiting
  SB Nation: Tigers Hold Successful Junior Day
  PowerMizzou: Kurzu the traveler
  PowerMizzou: Zeke Elliott takes off
• Pros
  We Are Mizzou: Tigers in the NFL Come Home

Other Football Links

• Guess This Means I Have To Respond At Some Point
  MGoBlog: Football is not Baseball: Why You Should Ignore Success Rates
• Agree With Most Of These Potential Changes
  Birmingham News: NCAA takes a crack at slimmer, more efficient rulebook
  

SEC (And Expansionapalooza)

• Mount USA
  CBS Sports: C-USA, MWC dissolving to form new league
  

Other Mizzou Links

• Mizzou Gymnastics
  MUtigers.com: Tigers Move Up in National Polls
• Mizzou Baseball
  SimmonsField.com: Hi Notes: Big 9, SEC, Recruiting & Silliness
• Mizzou Women's Basketball
  KBIA Sports Extra: Low attendance has little impact on Mizzou recruiting
  The Missourian: For Missouri women, men's success frustrating and inspiring
  
• Mizzou Swimming & Diving
  MUtigers.com: Missouri Sees Success in Final Day of Grand Prix
  

Other

• Perhaps You Can Relate
  Vanquish The Foe: How Twitter Changed My Sports Fandom
• SETTLING FOR MEDIOCRITY
  Go Comics: Today's Calvin and Hobbes

Notes:

• I am still weighting Pomeroy data pretty heavily; as I mentioned last week, that lends both an evaluative aspect and a predictive aspect to the proceedings. As mentioned, I will phase him out to a degree as we approach Selection Sunday.
• Ohio State's loss means three of the four 1-seeds are virtually automatic right now -- Kentucky, Syracuse and Missouri. Honestly, Kentucky and Syracuse would probably still be easy 1's with another loss. Missouri is treading quite a bit closer to the edge.
  
• Kansas gets the fourth No. 1 seed over Duke, Ohio State, Michigan State and North Carolina right now. That's a pretty easy call for me right now. Yes, Kansas has lost five times, but two of the losses were to fellow No. 1's away from home, and their loss to Duke is countered by their win over (an admittedly Jared Sullinger-less) Ohio State.
• Speaking of Kansas ... you were looking for a KU-KSU preview for tonight, right? Good! (And since I'm getting this up so late, consider this your KU-KSU live thread, I guess.)
  

Who's overrated?

Cincinnati (17-8) - SBN bracketologist Chris Dobbertean had Cincy a 10-seed this morning, but right now they're not even at the top of my "out" list. They're one of those weird teams with a couple of nice wins (Notre Dame, @UConn) blanketing the fact that the rest of their resume is pretty terrible. They rank 92nd in RPI, and they have home losses to St. John's, Marshall and Presbyterian. Oh and they've lost four of six. The good news, however, is that they finish the regular season with five consecutive Top 100 (according to Pomeroy) teams (Seton Hall, Louisville, @USF, Marquette, @Villanova). Perform well down the stretch, and you're in; play poorly, and you might not even be on the bubble anymore.

San Diego State (18-4) - They have four losses, and they are ranked in the RPI Top 25. Good things. Not as good: they are 56th in Pomeroy's ratings, and their win over Long Beach State probably qualifies among their top five wins. They barely escaped a dreadful USC team, they barely beat Boise State at home last week, they beat lowly Chicago State by just eight points ... their resume shows us all of the ways that a points-and-possessions system like Pomeroy tells us infinitely more than "who did they play, and what is their win percentage?" (a la RPI). Jerry Palm had them a 3-seed on Friday, and I kind of had to talk myself into giving them a 6 instead of a 7.

Colorado State (14-8) - They're 15-8, 4-4 in the Mountain West, their second-best win was over Colorado, they've lost four of six ... but Palm still had them in the field on Friday thanks to their strange No. 30 RPI ranking, and both Dobbertean and Joe Lunardi have them on the bubble. They're nowhere close to mine.

Continue reading this post »

And here we go with the rest of the weekend's links.

Other Basketball Links

Kansas State is kind of a mess right now, but it probably goes without saying that it would be lovely if they would get it together and pull an upset tonight.

• UT > KSU
  Burnt Orange Nation: Texas Basketball Roars Back, Rolls K-State 75-64
  Bring On The Cats: K-State @ Texas - 64-75 (L) - Post-Game
  Austin American-Statesman: Down by 15, UT men rally to beat Kansas State, 75-64
  Austin American-Statesman: Texas defense has Rick Barnes smiling
• KU > OSU
  Lawrence Journal-World: Slow beginning leaves OSU at a loss
  Lawrence Journal-World: KU big man gets votes of confidence
  Lawrence Journal-World: Offense nice, but for Elijah Johnson 'D' is key
  Daily Oklahoman: Cowboys fall to No. 7 Kansas
  Daily Oklahoman: Cowboys gave a flash of the future in second half
• ISU > A&M
  Ames Tribune: Cyclones bounce back against Aggies
• Tech > OU
  Double-T Nation: Oklahoma 47, Texas Tech 65 | Post Game Thoughts
  Crimson And Cream Machine: Worst Loss Of This Millenium?
  Daily Oklahoman: Texas Tech notches first Big 12 win with 65-47 victory over OU
  Daily Oklahoman: Sooners offense scores season-low 47 points
• Tonight: KU at KSU (subtitle: GO KSU!)
  KC Star: Stars have come out against KU, but K-State wants team effort
• THE MOVING ARMS ARE FANTASTIC; ZOUCREW, PLEASE DO THIS FOR STEVE MOORE
  SB Nation: Mike Moser's Dunk Face Is Spectacular
• Hopefully It's Better Than Their QB Rating
  ESPN.com: BPI - The College Basketball Power Index explained
  Searching For Billy Edelin: ESPN unveils new BPI rating to measure college basketball teams

Mizzou Football Recruiting Links

You only thought you were done with football recruiting for a while. Mizzou's Junior Day was this past weekend; Mizzou hosted select juniors from the state and region, and as is somewhat customary, they scored a couple of commits as well: Jeff City linebacker (and pole vaulter extraordinaire) Joe Burkett and CBC cornerback Aarion Penton. The state is low on the highest of high-end talent (i.e. the DGBs and Evan Boehms) this year, but it seems reasonably deep with mid- to high-three-star guys, and both Burkett and Penton will likely qualify as that.

• 2013 COMMIT: JOE BURKETT (6'3, 200, LB, JEFFERSON CITY)
  2013 COMMIT: AARION PENTON (5'10, 170, CB, ST. LOUIS CBC)
  PowerMizzou: Joe Burkett confirms he committed to Missouri
  PowerMizzou: Quick decision for CBC's Penton
  KC Star (Campus Corner): An inside look at Missouri's first two '13 football commitments
• Junior Day
  PowerMizzou: Off and running
  PowerMizzou: Spotlight grows for Lee's Summit LB Nick Ramirez
  PowerMizzou: Four-star OT checks out Mizzou
  PowerMizzou: A family affair for KC athlete Anthony Sherrils
• Other 2013 Recruits
  Rivals.com: Georgia defensive tackle Jay Woods happy to have first offer

Continue reading this post »

So we'll do here what we did last week: a Mizzou basketball-only links post, followed by an Everything Else links post later in the morning. That seemed to work pretty well.

Also: teething really, really sucks. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Mizzou Basketball Links

• MU > Baylor
  MUtigers.com: Phil Pressey Leads No. 4 Missouri Over No. 6 Baylor, 72-57
  MUtigers.com: Post Game Notes
  MUtigers.com: Post Game Quotes
  The Trib: Tigers have too many ways to win
  The Trib: Moore outplays heralded foe in MU victory
  The Missourian: Sell-out crowd ignites Missouri to milestone victory against Baylor
  Post-Dispatch: Mizzou's 3-point shooting sinks Baylor
  Post-Dispatch: Big Steve Moore rocks the house and the Baylor Bears
  KC Star: Three-point barrage helps MU beat Baylor 72-57
  KC Star: MU-Baylor notebook | Praise for Phil Pressey
  PowerMizzou: PMTV-HD: Statement Saturday
  Fox Sports MW: Pressey, Mizzou sharp in win over Baylor
  Our Daily Bears: Baylor vs. Missouri Postmortem: Live by the Zone, Die by the Three
  SB Nation KC: Missouri's Manhandling Of Baylor Is Telling For Both Big 12 Basketball Teams
  Hank's Sports Blog: Phil Pressey scores 19 to lead No. 4 Missouri past No. 6 Baylor
  KBIA Sports Extra: Mizzou blows by No. 6 Baylor, 72-57
  ESPN.com: Another telling game for Baylor and Mizzou
  CBS Sports: Contrast between Baylor, Missouri: stage fright
  Dallas Morning News: Are Baylor men NCAA title contenders? Recent play raises doubts
• A Two-Team Race For The Conference Title
  PowerMizzou: Race Between Rivals
• Selection Sunday: Four Weeks Away
  KC Star: Mizzou has the horses for long run in NCAA Tournament
• Enjoy Retirement, Mike DeArmond (And Thanks For Manipulating Us Into Thinking That The SEC Was A Good Idea, Ahem)
  KC Star: Mike DeArmond retires after 40 years at The Star
  KC Star (Mike DeArmond): No Long Goodbye
• Congrats, Laurence
  The Missourian: Laurence Bowers recognized with Mizzou '39 recipients at Missouri game