Well, I do have to say I enjoyed much of the action of the games on Saturday...some good live blogging there I suppose.  It was almost nice to not have a game and just enjoy the afternoon (problematic shoulder not withstanding....though enough beer will make even that pain go away).

Anyway, all of that is neither here nor there as it pertains to this column.  Let's see how the week went for our Tigers, as they wind down the fall sports and crank up some of the winter action.

Football:

Yeah...um...I guess in order I will take Ttech, UT and then OU for our opponent in two weeks.  Really....that's all I have to say about that.  Good lord was OU just lethal.  That is all I can really muster about that....just scary how good OU was in that game in all areas.  Will they be that good in the rest of their games?  Probably not...but I am guessing they will be decently close.

Men's Hoops:

Pretty darn full week for the Tigers, with four games care of the Puerto Rico/On Campus ESPNU Tourament.  I went into the...um...Roundtable I think saying that I wanted 3-1 out of the week, and that is what we got.  No sense in reviewing each of the games since that would result in a LOT of paragraphs, so let's take the high-level look.

The team is sitting at 4-1 and has seen some very positive things so far.   The emergence of JT Tiller as a decent offensive threat (when he is on the court).  The energy (at the least) the freshman can create and add, especially on the defensive end.  The ability to win a game when Matt Lawrence is not on ( or really ever in the game).  Demarre Carroll is further emerging as a big scoring threat and our defense and numbers and energy seems to wear teams out around the 30 minute mark of each game.

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Hmmm...I just do not see that getting old any time soon...Big XII North Champions.  Not saying it is my destination, but saying it is nice to see this team accomplish it in back to back seasons when other seasons have had the same expectation. 

At any rate, this was a REALLY busy weekend for Mizzou sports, as the winter sports are geared up and the fall sports are winding down.  Lots of stuff to cover and some random thoughts on football and NASCAR.

Football:

Thanks to DirecTV (all the more ironic since I work for a competitor),I was only able to see that last three quarters of action.  At any rate, I have not read or heard enough to know if the team knew the fate of the UT/kU game when they took the field.  In all honesty, I kind of hope they did know and were able to go out there and take care of business like they did.  Chase looked comfortable again, save for the two interceptions (one which did not count, and the one that did.  Speaking of the one that did not count, I think it is funny that a roughing the passer can negate an INT. To me, the ball is gone, it should be change of possession and 15 yards off...but that is just me).  What I hope happened this past week was that while we continued to pay lip service to the fact that Chase Coffman COULD play, we went ahead and game planned that he would not.  I am not entirely sure we did that for the kSU game, and I think it showed in the offense's efficiency.  This time around, Jones looked more than ready to step in and things clicked better.  As it pertains to Coffman, all the more reason he is the most important cog (except for Daniel) out there and why he needs to be 100 percent for the Championship game.  I will be honest, I think we can beat kU without him, but we do not likely stand a chance against any of the four from the south without him.

On defense...gosh..I wish we could just wrap up and tackle.  WAY too many shoulder tackles which do not work at this level. Saw one from Willy Mo, another from Lambert and others where I do not remember the people specifically.  Nice game by Chavis (even if the announcer could not say his name correctly) and nice to see Gettis further earn his rep as a lock-down corner with an interception.  And I am still looking for the superior effort on D. Wash's long TD run, but the more I see it, the more it just seems to be a product of the system and Washington's really wonderful vision.  He just glided around and took the correct angles which resulted in ISU guys getting naturally sealed off of him and went from there.

As for "hate" week and what-not, you will find I will probably not participate too much in it.  To me, these next two weeks are just a long two weeks without Mizzou playing, with a stop-over for the OU/TTech game next Saturday.  As for some perspective on the season and this accomplishment...maybe next week...we'll see.  I think I am of the opinion that if I do not talk about the closing of this season, it just wont end :-)

Soccer:

Not too much left to cover on this one, as it was pretty well hashed out on the pages of Rock M over this past weekend.  The ladies went right out and stomped on the throat of Evansville on a terrible Friday night with goals in the 3rd minute and the 33rd minute.  A win of 2-0, along with a 2OT thriller between Memphis and Illinois (which Illinois won) figured to have the Tigers in a good spot.  But, after a scoreless 1st half, Illinois got on the board early in the 2nd.  The Tigers fought back on a goal from freshman Mallory Stipetech and evened it at one.  They went all the way to penalty kicks (some would argue a terrible way to finish a game) and were even at 4 goals each on the 5th kick when back-up goalie and occasional field player Mallory Forst stepped up to take the kick.. She was unsuccessful, and the Tigers finished their season with another 2nd round of the NCAA tourney loss, again in 2OT (or more).

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Alright...just a real quick update and thread in case anyone is out there.  In the 1st game of the night, Illinois took down Memphis 1-0, but in 2OT in what had to be ugly weather.  So far, Mizzou is up 2-0 on Evansville, outshooting the Aces 15-1 in the 1st half.  Michelle Collins scored early for the Tigers (3rd minute), while freshman Candace Ruff added the 2nd goal in the 33rd minute.  It appears Kristen Andrighetto is back and healthy with 4 shots, and it will simply be important for the Tigers to play an easy and healthy 2nd half and move on to Sunday afternoon.  Will leave this open for the 2nd half, and I will try to update at some point

Answer: Presidential Elections.  Summer Olympics.  Mizzou trips to the postseason.

Question: What are...things that happen every four years, Alex?

Correct!  Until this year, at least.  Following a run to the second round of the NCAAs in 2003, Mizzou had stumbled.  A 9-10-1 record in 2004 was followed by a 9-8-3 record in 2005 and a 10-9 record in 2006.  Mediocrity was the watchword, and as with Quin Snyder, Blitz managed to seemingly have a "young team" that was "a year away" for the better part of the decade.  As pressure began to mount on Bryan Blitz, and some (including myself and The Beef...which shows what we know) were ready to turn the page on the Blitz Era, Mizzou Soccer found its way again.  A real youth movement found a group of almost all underclassmen scoring goals at will in the middle of the season and wrapping up an 11-6-1 regular season record at #22 ranking.  Mizzou lost to Texas A&M in the Big 12 semis but easily wrapped up a spot in the NCAA Tourney.  Once again, they got to host the first two rounds.

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In 1999, Mizzou made the NCAA Tourney with an experienced team--about half their starters were seniors--but there was certainly not the feeling that 2000 would see a setback.  Pre-season All-American Nikki Thole was returning, and in all they were returning 39 of their 61 goals from '99.  The '99 success was supposed to be simply a harbinger of things to come...only, it wasn't.  The 2000 squad finished 10-10.  The 2001 was a little better at 13-8, but they narrowly missed another tourney bid.  The 2002 saw more of the same--an 11-7-2 record and another NCAA near-miss.  The wheels weren't coming off the program by any means, but momentum had stalled.

In 2003, an interesting thing happened: Mizzou went only 11-10-1, including a 1-6-1 stretch during conference play...only, their schedule was so strong that they actually managed to not only sneak into the NCAA tourney powered by a late run of momentum that included their third trip to the Big 12 Tourney finals, but they actually got to host the first two rounds.

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In anticipation of Mizzou's NCAA first round matchup with Evansville on Friday, I thought it would be fun and/or interesting to peruse previous Mizzou forays into the NCAA Tourney.  First up: 1999.

Women's soccer at Mizzou had begun just three seasons before the 1999 Tourney run.  Bryan Blitz, who had gone 45-44-8 in five season at Butler before being chosen to build a Tiger program from scratch, had shown steady improvement.  In 1996, Mizzou's inaugural squad went 6-14.  In 1997, 7-12.  In 1998, a winning record--11-9-1.  In 1999, a breakthrough. 

Mizzou started 1999 with a 6-1 record.  Led by Nikki Thole and Erin Grimsley, the Tigers were 11-3 following a 4-3 win over Iowa State.  It was their sixth conference win of the season in seven games--the most they'd ever won in Big 12 play.  A slump followed--Mizzou went 0-3-1 over its next four games--but a season-ending 4-1 win over Tulsa sent Mizzou to the Big 12 tournament at 12-6-1.

In San Antonio, Mizzou caught fire once again.  Wins over Colorado (5-3) and Iowa State (2-1) sent Mizzou to its second straight Big 12 Tournament final.  Of course, #4 Nebraska was waiting for them there, beating Mizzou 2-1.  However, at 14-7-1, Mizzou was chosen to host its first ever NCAA tourney game.  Drama awaited.

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The NCAA has released the brackets to the NCAA Championships, and Mizzou received a #4 seed, meaning they were within the top 16 nationally.

They will take on Evansville (13-4-2) in the 1st round, and would meet the winner of Memphis (15-4-2) and Illinois (11-8-1).  If they come through, they would take on (likely) #1 seed North Carolina, who I believe was either 2nd or 3rd overall, and likely in North Carolina.

Other Big XII teams to make the tourney were #3 seed aTm (taking on Texas St.), #4 seed Okie State (taking on the STAGS OF FAIRFIELD), #4 seed CU (taking on South Dakota State), UT (taking on Washington St, and in with #2 seed Portland) and kU (taking on Denver and in the same bracket as #1 seed and #4 overall Stanford)

With all the podcasting and live threading which has been posted over the weekend already, not too much going to be added by me this morning.  We all know what went down at Faurot on Saturday and many of us have been brought up to speed on your Big XII Championship Women's Soccer program.  Will get to the rest of the action and some random thoughts and call it a morning.

Football:

For pretty much all of what I thought about the football game after it completed (not safe for work I suppose if you have the volume up high)...give a click here

For what I did not say on Saturday evening, or perhaps to repeat it again...thank you seniors and yes...winning 8 games seems to have become old already, even though this is only the third season in a row we have done it.  That in and of itself is a tribute to the program-turnaround this class achieved.  Clearly, they are not done yet and matching the total of 12 wins last season is still in play.  Iowa State will be a tough place to play at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday evening, but I believe the stats will show we should be fine.  I also think that Chase and Co. probably still have a bad taste in their mouths from their sub-par effort of two seasons ago...consider it one of the few lingering demons to exorcise.

And to belabor a point from the podcast, but the time away from the end of the game has not softened my view of Ron Prince.  Do the college football world a favor and just disappear.

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As often is the case, I started writing this on Sunday evening.  All I have to say is....wow...it gets dark early now

Anyway, this is likely to be another scaled down version.  To be honest, I got a lot going on these days and just not enough time to dedicate to this right now.  As always, MUTigers.com is going to have most/all of the information I share here.  I will do my best to get stuff here each Monday, but going forward and for the time being, consider this an apology/excuse for not doing so in the coming weeks/months.

But enough about that, let's get to it.

Football:

Didn't see it (obviously).  Listened to it, though I cannot say I paid a ton of attention to it.  We will see how well Chase,Chase, Jeremy and Jeff faired as it pertains to the records they were chasing later this afternoon, but it sure sounded like we had the offensive stats, but could not get out of our own way in penalties and turnovers.  Added to that, and this is saddest considering we wrote the blueprint, we could not figure out how to stop a supremely athletic QB with little else around him.  Oh well...a win is indeed a win and I just do not see how or why we should be tested in the coming weeks given what kSU and ISU are putting up these days.

And 6:00 p.m. start time?  Oy...not at all what I was hoping/looking for out of next weekend.  But...senior day is what it is and this one will never be bigger given the talent on the field.

Soccer:

Just the one game this past weekend, and Mizzou scored enough for two or three games in defeating kU 6-0.  Alysha Bonnick and Mo Redmond each had two goals and an assist.  Kristen Andrighetto added two assists while Mallory Stipetech and Michelle Collins added the other goals.  Tasha Dittamore helped get Mizzou their 11th shutout of the season.

Mizzou finishes 13-5, which is a school record for wins, and 7-3 in conference, which is another school record.  Sadly however, Mizzou was acually up in all three of their losses in the second half, but that should give them good hope for the upcoming Big XII Championships.  Mizzou will take on #6 seeded, but highly ranked UT on Wednesday at 1:30 following the CU/NU matchup and preceeding the Okie State (champ)/TTech and aTm/kU games.

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Well folks, sorry for the lateness here, but I have been off of the grid pretty much since Thursday afternoon for my annual pilgramage back to Columbia for Mizzou Christmas.  Add to that my folks who returned to St. Louis with us yesterday and here you have the lateness for which I have apologized.

Anyway, as The Boy alluded to, not the best weekend for Mizzou sports, though the beginning of the week was not so terrible.  I'll give them all the patented once-over you have come to expect.  However, since we are a little behind the 8-ball for time, I probably wont go too far in depth.  So sue me, I am still basking in the afterglow of Christmas.

Football:

Once again the Podcast has robbed me of most of the thoughts I would typically write here.  I thought the offense did a nice job of taking what the CU defense was giving it.  Props to D. Wash for getting back to a workman-like performance carrying the ball and nice to see the excitement Devion Moore can bring with just a few touches.  Will be interesting to see what those two morph into next season, as they along with four starters returning on the line turn very much into the strength of the offense.  As for the defense...a spirited effort to be sure.  I will be very curious to see the stats breakdown for the front seven, though Hood and Chavis were not called barely at all.  Nice to see Sulak return.  For the record, I was fine with the 1st string defense coming back into the game to preserve the shutout, but not as fine with Chase going back in there in the 4th to (I assume) try to break the TD passing record with his 6th.  It is what it is.

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