Mizzou Basketball 79, Fordham 55. A damn near perfect first half, followed by a nice 20-minute sleepwalk in front of a bustling crowd of 5,076. Oh well. Big men not named Demarre Carroll had an atrocious game yesterday--if Marshall Brown, Darryl Butterfield, and Vaidatos Volkus continue to play like they did last night, there will be plenty of playing time available for Justin Safford.
Anyway, we had moved down to about the 6th row by the end of the game...nothing wrong with that. Mizzou moves on to play Michigan State in KC Monday night. Here's your recap and box score. Missouri routs Fordham (Trib), Sloppy Second Half Mars Tiger Victory (Missourian), Missouri is headed to KC for CBE Classic Semifinals (KC Star), Tigers survive poor second half (Post-Dispatch), Tiger Hoops Wins Again (PowerMizzou).
The Trib's Steve Walentik talks about the 2008 basketball recruiting class that is getting ready to sign. As I suggested above, if the current seniors (not including Hannah) don't improve, then we won't be replacing too much playing time next year. Either way, though, it's an impressive class. PowerMizzou has more.
On to football...Dave Matter with a lot of goodies in a recent Behind the Stripes post...power poll, awards watch, etc.
The Missourian has nice features on Tony Temple (there for his team and his family) and William Moore (taking over the leadership role). Meanwhile, the Star's Mike Dearmond writes pretty much the same Willy Mo story.
Good day for Chase Daniel in regard to awards. He heard from the Heisman committee telling him he might be invited to NYC, and he made the latest Walter Camp Award cut.
This week's Forde-Yard Dash has a decent Big 12 section. Eventually people will start to realize that the debate for this year isn't just SEC vs Pac 10. I don't care that the conference's offenses are ahead of their defenses. Anyway, here are his Border War thoughts:
- Missouri-Kansas: Big 12 Game of the Year
The Border War (15) will be played Nov. 24 in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium. It's a fortuitous switch from home-and-home history, because the oldest continuous rivalry west of the Mississippi will suddenly matter more than ever in its largely lousy 116-year history.
How strange is it? Put it this way: the two teams have combined for 19 victories this season with several games still to play. The only other time that occurred: 1899, when Kansas went 10-0 under Fielding H. Yost (who would go on after that season to make something of a name for himself at Michigan) and Missouri went 9-2 under David L. Fultz. For the record, Kansas won the season-ending matchup 34-6, also played in Kansas City.
The winner will be the champion of the previously puny Big 12 North, and could possibly be 60 minutes away from a spot in the BCS Championship Game. Which is insane.
Gabe has this week's Tuesday Top Tigers. One question: where's Tommy Chavis?
Graham Watson has a weird story about CU's video board and running up the score. And no, Coach Nick Nolte, you shouldn't be offended by Fifth Down footage--your team won. Slightly different.
Finally, though I'm trying not to think about the upcoming MU-KSU game at all, here's this week's Good, Bad, and Sleezy.