I cannot begin to explain the amazing computer issues I am having this morning. So, and I realize I say this every week, but these Musings may REALLY be short this time since I still have wrestling to cover and some actual work to catch up on. Was in Como for the weekend, great times, especially since I chose to pass up some free tickets to the basketball game on Saturday. Yes....I am to that point.
Sorry about the delay on this, just one of those things. Anyway, here we go.
Click 'Full Story' for more.
Men's Basketball:
We lost two games this past week to ranked teams. I was OK for the most part with the effort displayed in the loss to kU (though sad that I have to look for something like that as a positive). I continue to scratch my head at how Demarre Carroll can have five rebounds in his last 51 MINUTES OF PLAY! Leading the team with rebounds against aTm were Leo Lyons, Justin Safford (actually co-leader our last two games as he tied Matt Lawrence with five against kU) and TEAM with 4. aTm only had five guys who more rebounds than that. But hey...rebounding isn't everything right?
Anyway, at NU on Wednesday. We have more people playing for us than we did the last time we lost to them, but somehow this is a team who Mike Anderson has yet to beat. Then a road game at kSU this weekend, will be interesting to see how they come out against us. We are sitting at 13-11 and 3-6 in conference, just ugly at this point. And I am on board with everyone who says the seniors should have reduced/eliminated minutes. Hell, cancel all of Hannah's classes by Friday too please so that mistake does not cost us a scholly down the road. It has just spiralled out of control for this year, damage contol needs to be done so that this debacle does not affect future years, and I am growing fearful it might.
Women's Basketball:
I actually got to watch a little of the MU/OU game from this past week, and we hung very tough with the ranked Sooners. In looking at the stats, I am trying to figure out how that was possible, and all I am coming up with is that we only turned the ball over 10 times to their 21. Now, you would think that would mean more shots for us....well...you would be wrong. We had 27 boards for the game, 6 and 21. OU had 57 boards for the game, 22 and 37. Yes...OU had more offensive rebounds than we had defensive rebounds. The Paris sisters combined had 44 and 29....yes...the PARIS SISTERS HAD MORE REBOUNDS THAN OUR TEAM.
It did not get any better for the ladies on Saturday, as they dropped their 8th straight game, losing to ISU by 18. Mizzou shot 35 percent for the game, was out-rebounded by 15 and had only one person in double figures, as Alyssa Hollins scored 14 on 5-17 shooting. Next highest for Mizzou were a couple of people with 6. Mizzou next plays home against kSU on Saturday afternoon, mercifully getting the rest of the week off. At 8-15 and 1-9 in conference, their season cannot end soon enough.
Wrestling:
More on this later in the huge COMBINED Wrestling Wrap-Up
Gymnastics:
Another strong performance turned in by the team, whooping the Ladies (yes, that is their name) of Centenary on Friday night. With another season-high of 195.800, Mizzou not only won the meet by 3.5 full points, but also gave a glimpse of what they were capable of down the road. If you take the top performance through the season of the team on each of the four events, that would now total 196.800, which would move us to 2nd in the nation were it to be our average. I realize the statistical jump I am making here, but you can see the improvement, especially with half a season left to go to get better. It just means we are very much on our way to competing with the top teams in the country and have the athletes who have the dificulty in their routines to get the top scores.
Sarah Shire, who put up as impressive a performance as I can remember for Mizzou, won the all-around with a score of 39.500 (which would also be good enough for 3rd nationally right now). She also won 2 of the events outright, with a HUGE 9.925 on the floor exercise. Adrienne Perry slipped to 3rd in the all-around after a disappointing 9.275 on the beam which lead to a 38.900. Ashley Khederian moved into 2nd place with a very nice evening giving her a 39.000.
Next up for the Tigers will be SEMO down at Cape this coming Friday the 15th, with their next home meet against #8 OU. Come on out and cheer them on, a win there over the Sooners will really VAULT (get it?) the program to even higher levels.
Softball:
A decent weekend and start for the ladies as they played 5 games (and not 6 as I was reading last week) against some good competition in Miami, FL (not a bad place to be). The team came away 3-2 on the weekend, with losses coming to #15 Va Tech (who they later beat) and Pitt. Junior transfer Stacey Delaney started 3 games on the weekend, with sophomore Jana Hainey went 2-1, picking up a win over Va Tech in relief of Delaney. Senior pitcher Jen Bruck did not pitch for the weekend.
Getting it done on offense for the Tigers in a BIG way was junior shortstop Lindsey Ubrun, who went .467 at the plate over the 5 games with 1HR, 3B, 3 runs, 6 RBI.
Next up for the women will be a trip to Las Vegas (also not a bad place to be) to take on some west coast teams, including UCLA and a couple of other Cal schools.
Tennis:
Mizzou swept a double-header in impressive fashion this weekend, taking matching 6-1 wins over Xavier and Chicago State. Double winners on the weekend included: Freshman Mallory Weber at the #1 singles spot (who only lost 5 games over 4 sets on the day), junior Jessica Giuggioli at the #2 singles spot, senior Chrissy Svetlic at the #3/4 singles spot and freshman Kaitlyn Richie at the #5/6 singles spot (who only lost 6 games over 4 sets on the day).
The wins push the ladies to 5-1 this winter, with another double-header on tap for next weekend at home vs. SEMO at 9am and UI-Chicago at 3pm.
Swimming:
Both the men's and women's swim teams set new program records for wins this weekend, with the #20 men taking a tough dual against D-II champ Drury 155-143 for their 11th win on the season (making them 11-2). Reading through the review of the meet, only one senior's name comes up on the list, meaning Mizzou not only has some good talent, but it is also very young.
For the #21 women, their 13th win of the year came in dominant fashion against NU, where they won 12 of 14 events and cruised to a 173-122 win. The women finish at 13-1 overal, and 3-1 in conference. Again, showing their talent and depth, only 3 seniors were mentioned among the myriad of winners on the day.
For both teams, the Missour Grand Prix will occur from Friday to Monday this coming week at the beautiful Rec Center Pool. This is world-class swimming to be sure. The next official meet for both will be the Big XII Championships at Austin Feb 27th-Mar 1st. With all those wins on the season, expectations for a great performance are going to be high.
Track:
It appears we only took a few athletes to the Meyo (Notre Dame) Invitational this past weekend, including exactly ZERO of our throwers. Finishing well for the Tigers was Trisa Nickoley in the 800 meter run, coming in third in under 2:07, which gives her an NCAA Provisional qualifying time. For the men, Chris Davis came in 6th in the 800 meter and missed a provisional time by less than a quarter of a second.
Next up for the (I assume full team) will be two days in lovely Ames, IA for the ISU Classic this coming weekend.
Random Thoughts:
* Nothing like a weekend of Flat Branch, Bambinos, China Kitchen, Fuddruckers (I know, not a local restaurant but the one in St. Charles closed before I could get to eat there) and bruch at the 'Berg for some good eats.
* I don't really have much else....sorry this was so short...will hopefully get to wrestling this evening or tomorrow morning to recap their weekend and add some thoughts.