Alright, as we start a week of transition from basketball to baseball/softball/spring football, it's probably time to take a look at the best of the basketball post-mortems...and by "the best" of them, I mean "pretty much all of them"...
"So close" and "Holy crap, this was a great team" links!
- Mutigers.com: Missouri eliminated by Connecticut, 82-75
- The Trib (Walljasper): Shouldn't take too long for the pain to fade away
- The Trib: Thanks to UConn, MU can't
- The Trib: Tigers' bench provides chance
- KC Star: UConn has talent -- and luck
- KC Star: Dream season ends in pain for Mizzou
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KC Star (Posnanski): Missouri's Final Four dream died early
They never won the same way twice. They rarely had the same hero in back-to-back games. Sometimes it was DeMarre Carroll making his acrobatic shots around the basket, and sometimes it was Leo Lyons making smooth moves between defenders, and sometimes it was Zaire Taylor manning up and slapping away passes, and sometimes it was J.T. Tiller driving without fear into the eye of the defense, and sometimes it was Matt Lawrence launching killer three-pointers at the very moment when the game was in the balance.
A dream season. And, sure, it felt like it could go on. What was so striking about Missouri’s upset victory over Memphis on Thursday is that the Missouri players never seemed to think of it as an upset. There seemed no doubt in their minds, from the opening tip, that they were the best team on the floor. They played free, and the Memphis players never knew what hit them.
- KC Star: Officials confident MU basketball is still heading up
- KC Star: Mizzou fans take satisfaction from a special season
- Post-Dispatch: Underclassmen offer hope for Mizzou
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Post-Dispatch: MU success stemmed from players of character
[E]ven if chemistry is a fleeting force that can't be patented, Anderson somehow cultivated it to perfection this season.
It's no coincidence that Missouri players routinely called themselves the "most unselfish team" in America and led the nation in assists.
"They trust one another, they believe in one another, they push one another," Anderson said. "There are no egos, and I think that's the secret to our basketball team."
The secret stemmed from better screening for character in recruiting and Anderson coming to understand, during a preseason tour of Canada, the table of elements that was available to him. - Post-Dispatch (Burwell): Missouri Tigers restore dignity to program by reaching Elite Eight
- The Missourian: Missouri vows to sustain success
- The Missourian: Missouri can't find push needed to get by Connecticut
- The Missourian: Missouri seniors end careers in Elite Eight
- PowerMizzou: A year to remember
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PowerMizzou: End of the line
- PowerMizzou: Last loss hits Tigers hard
- The Maneater: Loss offers glimpse of road ahead
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Nick Sloan: The team that never died
Mizzou almost got more credit and attention in losing to UConn than they did in beating Memphis. In the future, people won't be asking "Who are these guys?" But that's exactly what they were doing on Saturday...
PowerMizzou has a nice free photo gallery of the team's return to Mizzou Arena yesterday afternoon...and The Missourian has a nice write-up...
Jason Whitlock says Missouri needs to pay Mike Anderson a big salary. Okay, but only since you told us to...
To baseball: Mizzou, uhh, didn't play well against Oklahoma State as they finally started their weekend yesterday. Kyle Gibson got crushed in Game 1, and Nick Tepesch only fared slightly better in Game 2. Oh yeah, and Mizzou scored 3 runs in the doubleheader. Ggh. They're now 3-5 in conference and back under .500 overall. Lovely.
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The Missourian: Missouri baseball drops two games to Oklahoma State
To softball: As poorly as the baseball team played, the softball team was just as far on the opposite side of the spectrum, sweeping Baylor in Waco to move to 30-4 overall, 3-1 in conference. They outscored the Lady Bears 9-2 over the two-game set, rallying to win Game 1 and pummeling Baylor in Game 2.
- The Trib: MU softball rallies to get past Baylor
- The Missourian: Missouri softball completes sweep of Baylor