Kansas 90, Mizzou 71. Well...we kept it under 20. Thoughts...
- Keon Lawrence was fantastic. 25 points in 13 shots for a guard is almost unheard of. Throw in 6 assists and 4 boards, and...yeah, if he does THAT a couple more times, I'll actually start feeling pretty decent about next year.
- I'll feel even better about next year if one of the incoming freshmen can actually shoot. An 0-fer from 3-point range? Really? KU's perimeter defense is good, but some of those were wide open. Go 3-for-10 instead of 0-for-10, and the game's totally redefined down the stretch. We still don't win, but it's a different game. Kim English, be ready to bring it...because a 3-guard lineup with Keon, Tiller (your Big 12 co-player of the week), and somebody who can make open 3's could actually be pretty dangerous.
- Nolan Richardson looks SO FREAKING OLD now.
- Only 8 turnovers for Mizzou...not bad. Our (Assists + Steals)/Turnovers Ratio was actually quite good--we had a 2.50 ratio (20-to-8), while KU was only at 1.50 (21-to-14), but...
- Rebounds: KU 46, MU 23. Ggh. That's a little much. We're small and we (by "we", I mean Leo Lyons in particular) don't box out. That's probably not going to change next year, and I realize with our style we're always going to be on the smaller side--not as big a deal if our guard play is great.
- Marshall Brown, Jason Horton and Darryl Butterfield: 24 minutes, 0 points, 0-for-4 FGs, 3 fouls, 3 turnovers. Senior leadership at its finest.
Game stories! Tigers get less from more in loss to Jayhawks (Post-Dispatch), Jayhawks rout Tigers (Trib), Mizzou falls to Kansas (Missourian), Keon carries the load for Missouri (KC Star), Rush more aggressive for Kansas (KC Star), Aldrich contributes to Kansas rout of Missouri (KC Star), Missouri can't keep up at Kansas (PowerMizzou/Sportsticker).
So if you watched 5 seconds of last night's game, you probably heard that Bobby Knight retired. The Missourian asked Bill Self and Mike Anderson what they thought of Coach Knight. The P-D has more on Knight.
Dave Matter's been writing some pretty decent recruiting stories in the lead-up to Signing Day. Yesterday's was in regard to the massive number of D-linemen Mizzou's landed in this class. He also shares some recruiting-related thoughts on his blog.
PowerMizzou caught up with Rockhurst's Nathan Scheelhaase and got his Junior Day thoughts...
And finally, for those still talking/thinking about the most-watched Super Bowl of all-time, you may want to check out Peter King's 'health-abbreviated' (i.e. only 5 pages) Monday Morning ramblings...