Mizzou 86, Nebraska 78 (OT). Road Win #2 was just as strange as Road Win #1. Here's the box score. Thoughts...
- Matt Lawrence: 6 points on 8 shots, 4 turnovers. He did have 6 rebounds, but...oy. And no matter how great Leo's clinching steal/dunk were at the end, we had Bad Leo most of the game, as he had just 10 points (on 10 shots) and 5 boards before the final play. Any time we can win on the road with little contribution from these two, I'll take it.
- Keon and Tiller: 33 points on 22 shots (1.5 pts per shot...anything over about 1.25 is good for a guard), 8 rebounds (3 offensive), 6 assists. Yes, yes, yes.
- I should also mention that Horton and Brown combined for 20 points (on just 12 shots), 4 boards, and 4 assists.
- Great rebounding efforts. NU had two guys with double-figure rebounds (Maric had 16, Ryan Anderson 11), but they only outrebounded us 39-35, which is pretty stellar for us.
- After watching the highlights on a real TV instead of my computer, there was indeed no contact on Horton at the end of regulation. The floor view on a smallish screen made it look like he had been boxed out in mid-air, but alas...no contact.
- Six games left on the schedule: 3 very winnable home games (CU, OSU, ISU) and 3 super-rough road games (KSU, BU, OU), so I'm thinking 7-9 is the most likely finish for us...not too terrible, I guess, considering everything that's gone on recently. At worst, that means we enter the postseason at 17-15, which means we at least tread water from last year to this year with the worst senior leadership of all-time...
Game stories! Tigers survive Maric, beat Huskers (Trib), Team play is key as Tigers top Cornhuskers (Missourian), Missouri beats Nebraska in overtime (KC Star), Tigers bring energy, take victory (Post-Dispatch), Huskers can't sustain rally in OT (Lincoln Journal-Star), Huskers suffer 'big loss' (Omaha World-Herald).
Some entertaining games last night. Tech upsets K-State (we all figured KSU would slip up pretty soon), while OU holds serve at home against ISU and OSU does the same against Baylor. This has created a massive logjam in the standings, as only 2 games separate 6th-place (OU and Tech) from 12th (CU). We currently stand alone in 8th.
Joe Walljasper talks about how dismissing Hannah was certainly the right move.
I don’t want to disparage the fine health-care opportunities of the south side of Chicago and don’t want to minimize the suffering associated with a broken jaw, but I’m not sure this particular injury merited a two-week vacation from life’s responsibilities to convalesce in the Windy City.
We’ve got wonderful doctors in Columbia. To my knowledge, there is no shortage of Jell-O.
Yesterday, Anderson took a step two weeks overdue. He dismissed Hannah from the team. Why he waited so long and allowed his program to be tarnished so much over someone who couldn’t care less about being a part of the team, well, that’s another one of those questions without a logical answer.
ESPN's Pat Forde suggests that Indiana suspend Kelvin Sampson for the rest of the season. I doubt it. They knew what they were getting when they hired a guy who had just gotten his last team on probation for the same reasons, and they just got arrested by the karma police. Might as well ignore the problem as long as possible and ride Eric Gordon into some good postseason memories before taking some hits in the offseason, right?
I forgot to link to this yesterday, but...looks like we'll be starting the '08 football season where we left off in '07: in the Top 5. I'm a little surprised that OU is still at #2 without Kelly, Lofton, or Smith, but oh well.
Finally, the Missourian has a lovely story on Lisa Puccio, a Mizzou Gymnast and senior leader.