Mizzou Basketball 60, Colorado 53. Thoughts...
- Demarre Carroll just has NO pep in his step anymore. It seems he can hardly leave the ground, and the stats show as much. 25 minutes, 2 points (on 5 shots), 2 rebounds...for a guy whose biggest strength is his energy and bounce, the leg injuries just have to be killing him. The Missourian says the same thing.
- CU went 5-for-14 from 3-point range, which isn't amazing, but their 5-for-9 performance in the second half not only kept them in the game, it almost allowed them to take over the game. A couple of the 3's were just well-covered good shots, but the others were wide open.
- I love how Vaidatos Volkus' single job now is to start. I have no problem with Mike Anderson making a point and trotting out the same starting 5 every game, but Volkus has to average the fewest minutes in the country for an every-game 'starter', you know?
- Another solid game from Keon. He averaged 1.33 pts per shot (16 on 12 shots), a very solid performance...even more impressive is that he was the only damn guy on the team to score more than 8 points.
- Second-leading scorer: Darryl Butterfield. And we won! Wouldn't have guessed that...
- Another disappointing game from Tiller (4 pts, 3 rebounds, 3 assists in 23 minutes), who was once again hampered by foul trouble. Another reason a win was unlikely...
- Free throws: Missouri 9, Colorado 0. EHHH??? The fouls that were called kind of annoyed me--it was the classic Big 12 style of letting physical play go, then whistling somebody for looking like they might be about to foul--but I guess I shouldn't complain about any Big 12 game with less than 25 fouls called...
Here are the game stories. First up, the official story from mutigers.com. Then, A bounce in their step (Trib), MU men's basketball team nets needed win (Missourian), Missouri beats Colorado (KC Star), Tigers bounce back with win over Buffs (Post-Dispatch), Road woes continue for Bzdelik's Buffs in Missouri (Boulder Daily Camera), No Charity for CU at Mizzou (Denver Post).
Two Big 12 games of note. First of all, Michael Beasley somehow managed to one-up his performance against Mizzou from last weekend by putting up 44 & 13 in a loss to Baylor. He now holds the Big 12 record for points in a game. Who held it previously? Clarence Gilbert, that's who. Beasley and Bill Walker combined for 75 of KSU's 86 points, and they lost--the 'Cats will have to get contributions from others if they want to make some noise in March. Other game of note: OSU 61, KU 60. Gallagher-Iba always jumps up and bites somebody, and after the week KU had (two players--Darnell Jackson and Rodrick Stewart both had cousins shot and killed), they were ripe for an upset. This actually fills me with a little more confidence in regard to Tuesday's game against the 'Pokes. They've been playing pretty well as of late, but they're ripe for a letdown.
#6 Mizzou Baseball 14, Michigan State 9. I'll say this for the Spartans: they wouldn't go away. A bit of shaky Mizzou defense let MSU stick around (they scored 3 unearned runs off of Mizzou stud freshman Nick Tepesch in the 8th), but the middle of Mizzou's order came through bigtime. The Trib and Missourian have more.
Finally, it's commitment #3 for Mizzou's 2009 football class...