Mizzou 81, McNeese State 44. Recap and box score. Those who braved the elements (and seriously, is it possible for a team's home games to have been more screwed by weather than Mizzou's in the last 13 months?) saw one of the better Mizzou efforts in a long time. It's a shame it came against McNeese State, but it was fun to watch nonetheless. Insanely good defense, 11-for-24 from 3-point range, good passing, only about 2 turnovers in the first 15 or so minutes. Just a great effort. Oh, and welcome to 2007-08, Marshall Brown! The Trib, The Missourian, KC Star, and Post-Dispatch have more.
From the Star article:
Yes, the weather outside was frightful. Snow portending more snow. And it was the final day of semester finals, and the students had either already left for home or had decided to blow off steam anywhere but at Mizzou Arena.
So after complimenting his team, Anderson began the plea on his postgame radio show.
"Get on your snow buggies," Anderson said, "just get out here. The roads will be OK. We need you in this arena so we can turn up the heat."
The Tigers did that quite nicely with more than 10,000 empty seats at one of the fanciest basketball arenas in the Big 12 Conference.
Mizzou Arena has everything. Suites. Bars. Restaurants. Good sight lines. But only Texas Tech is averaging fewer fans at home this season than Missouri.
The weather just continued to get worse and worse as tipoff approached, and I know of some fans from KC who turned around and went home halfway down I-70 because of the roads, but...weather aside, we really need to beat Kansas at home this year and generate some excitement in conference season. At some point, the attendance will begin to hurt recruiting.
#3 Kansas 88, Ohio 51. Yeah, they're looking really, really good. #5 Texas 96, Texas State 81. It was a 2-point game at halftime, but the 'Horns slowly but surely pulled away in the second half. Nebraska 88, #16 Oregon 79 (OT). Great win for Doc Sadler. The Ducks hit 14 3-pointers and had two guys score 25 or more, but the Huskers shot well themselves and forced 18 turnovers, snagging the win. Oklahoma 83, Arkansas 72. Fun game to watch. OU's talent rests with it's really young players, so they're going to be up and down, but they were up yesterday, that's for sure.
#9 Pitt 85, Oklahoma State 68. Methinks OSU is not going to be very good away from Gallagher-Iba this season. Baylor 100, Wayland Baptist 72. Guess I shouldn't make fun of them for playing this D-2 school...they lost to Tarleton State in exhibition season. New Mexico 80, Texas Tech 63. Ouch. Guess Martin Zeno got pulled and reamed by Bobby Knight five minutes in, and he was done for the night...as were the Raiders.
Mutigers.com has a nice feature on J.T. Tiller. I wish this dude could shoot 3-pointers because otherwise I'd say he's pretty much the perfect Mike Anderson player.
Scout.com has some video of one of Mizzou's top 2009 targets, California SG Michael Snaer.
The Post-Dispatch debates whether the upcoming Braggin' Rights Game is an actual rivalry game. Way too much thought was put into this (the answer is yes), but I guess it's an interesting read nonetheless.
Cotton Bowl practices have begun! And all the usual suspects have practice reports: The Trib, The Missourian, and KC Star (with a nice focus on the injured Pig Brown and Danario Alexander). Dave Matter has more on his blog as well, as does Graham Watson.
And you've gotta love Lorenzo Williams...responding to questions about Gary Pinkel's name popping up for the Michigan job (from the Trib article linked above)...I wish they'd hire 'Zo as a grad assistant next year just so he'd still be around to give quotes like this:
"This is why I know he’s not going to Michigan: He does not like cold weather," Williams said. "Next year, if it’s cold outside at practice, I want you to look at Coach Pinkel, and he’ll have on the biggest jacket you’ve ever seen with four sweaters underneath it and a stocking cap and some gloves. He won’t be able to put his arms down."
The Missourian takes a look at Tiger fans' (still) passionate reaction to the Orange Bowl snub.
Graham Watson talks about the draft stock of a few current Tiger underclassmen.
Finally, if you're a PowerMizzou subscriber, be sure to hit 'refresh' on your browsers all afternoon, as some sort of recruiting news will be coming down the pike as kids return home from their visits...lots of interesting names were in this weekend...