Here's your official release for tonight's MU-KU game in Lawrence.
Including Monday’s game vs. the Jayhawks, Missouri has played seven games vs. teams that have been in, or are currently in, the Top 25, including a road game at Mississippi State (No. 25 in last week’s Top 25) as well as a win over the Big Ten leading Purdue Boilermakers ... The Tigers also had contests vs. Kansas, Kansas State, Texas and Michigan State ... Missouri is 2-2 vs. those last four teams and their two losses came by a combined nine points.
I had no idea Purdue was leading the Big Ten, and I had no idea Mississippi State was in the Top 25. At some point I should start paying attention to the rest of the country that isn't either in the Big 12 or on my college hoops fantasy team.
The KC Star has more on MU-KU...Mike Dearmond says MU won't overlook KU. Uhh...good. Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch takes a look at KU guard Russell Robinson.
Score a career high in an upset of a Top 25 team (at a time when your team is desperate for leadership, no less), and people will write about you. Here's another profile of JT Tiller.
And make sure to check out RTC Fan's summary of MU's win over KSU (among other things) over at Mizzourah.
Lots of Junior Day stories. PowerMizzou's got Ronnie Wingo (my optimism on a scale of 1-10: 6...this one's gonna be tough), Montee Ball (4...we seemed on him later than others), Darris Ford (9), TJ Moe (9), CJ Keeney (6...not totally sure if we're gonna offer), Andrew Wilson (9), and 2-sporter Bryant Allen (8). Inside Mizzou adds Blaine Dalton (10...obviously) and Nathan Scheelhaase (7).
If you've got an Inside Mizzou subscription, you can also check out this interview with Tyler Griffey, an '09 basketball prospect who recently chose Illinois over Mizzou.
Finally, power to the Giants for taking that game last night. Onions. When the Pats got the ball back with about 5 minutes left, down 10-7, I told my wife (who was passionately rooting for the Giants...she seems to have quite the dislike for Baby Daddy Tom Brady) that I would bet a large chunk of money on the Pats scoring right there and winning the game. Sure enough, they calmly drove down and scored easily. What I did not see was four Patriots converging on Eli Manning with a minute left...and nobody actually dragging him to the ground. That scramble, desperation heave, and ridonkulous catch by the 9th string WR (Tyree...who had quite the memorable game) will go down in history as one of the biggest plays in Super Bowl history. Holy crap was that impressive.
Anyway, I didn't really have a rooting interest in the game, but no matter who you rooted for, you should probably check out Bill Simmons' post-mortem...if you were rooting for the Pats (and I know you weren't), it's sympathetic ramblings...if you were rooting for the Giants, it's comeuppance for four months of cockiness.
(I should also mention that any satisfaction I get out of the Pats' comeuppance gets immediately tamped down by the omnipresence of Mercury Morris on ESPN right now. I'm supposed to be happy that a too-cocky undefeated team lost and allowed a too-cocky old undefeated team to retain its "only undefeated team" crown? Both sides of this argument have annoyed me all year, so I guess I'll just avoid ESPN for a couple days.