For some strange reason, Fox Sports Midwest showed the 2007 Mizzou-Oklahoma game late Saturday night. I watched it again (turned it off just as the ball fell into Pig's hands early in the fourth quarter...then I closed my eyes and pretended), and it prepared me nicely for yesterday's Wimbledon final. "Holy crap, does Roddick really have a chance to win this? Oh. Guess not." Granted, Roddick responded a lot better to his main error (losing the second-set tie-breaker) than Mizzou did to theirs, but regardless.
We start with football, where Mizzou is starting to show up in preseason countdowns. And naturally, their placement is arranged just to tease me. For instance, Rivals.com has Mizzou at #42...and Colorado at #41 ("Colorado appears equipped to finish in the upper half of the North Division.").
Meanwhile, Dave Matter throws together a pretty respectable countdown of the Big 12's top offensive backs. I'd flip #1 and #2, but that's just me.
Not a ton of recruiting news at the moment, but PowerMizzou did its best in throwing together some decent news for last Friday's Chamber.
To basketball, where Mizzou's camp attendance is soaring, and Mizzou's interest in Trevor Releford continues to grow. Trevor is the younger brother of Travis Releford, the KU guard, and his stock has risen considerably this summer.
Meanwhile, YouTube highlight's of the recent DJ All-Star Game have emerged.
In the first of what I assume will be a pretty interesting series of off-season posts, Trrip at SimmonsField.com takes a look at the catcher position. Not the catcher position as it pertains to Mizzou...just the catcher position in general.
Finally, Dave Matter continues his football previews with looks at the Big East and MAC...and as I did last time, I'll pass along my own BTBS projections for those conferences as well.
Big East
Rutgers 7-0 (12-0, Orange Bowl)
Cincinnati 4-3 (8-4, PapaJohns.com Bowl)
Pittsburgh 4-3 (8-4, Meineke Car Care Bowl)
South Florida 4-3 (8-4, St. Petersburg Bowl)
West Virginia 4-3 (8-4, International Bowl)
UConn 3-4 (6-6, EagleBank Bowl)
Louisville 2-5 (6-6)
Syracuse 0-7 (2-10)
- When you preview this conference, you quickly come to realize that each of the Big East's top six (or maybe even seven) teams have unique strengths and fatal flaws. I certainly didn't expect one of the teams to be projected to go undefeated in conference (or overall), and I don't think it will happen, but if nothing else this shows that the Rutgers schedule does them quite a few favors. They get Cincinnati (projected win: +6.8), Pittsburgh (+5.9), South Florida (+6.9) and West Virginia (+5.1)--the four teams projected to tie for second place--all at home. Meanwhile, they're just good enough to get by their road opponents, Syracuse (+8.3), UConn (+2.7), and Louisville (+0.6). As you can see, they're projected to go 7-0 while only winning one game by more than a TD. Not bloody likely.
- Without looking at schedules or anything else, I'd be inclined to agree with Matter's pick of West Virginia at #1, but their schedule (@Rutgers, @USF, @Cincy) doesn't do them a lot of favors.
- For Steve Kragthorpe's sake, Louisville had better go at LEAST 6-6.
MAC
East
Bowling Green 6-2 (6-6)
Akron 4-4 (5-7)
Ohio 4-4 (5-7)
Temple 3-5 (5-7)
Kent State 3-5 (4-8)
Buffalo 2-6 (3-9)
Miami-OH 2-6 (2-10)
West
Central Michigan 7-1 (8-4, Motor City Bowl)
Toledo 7-1 (9-3, GMAC Bowl)
Northern Illinois 4-4 (6-6, Internatioanl Bowl)
Eastern Michigan 4-4 (5-7)
Ball State 3-5 (5-7)
Western Michigan 3-5 (4-8)
MAC Title Game
Central Michigan > Bowling Green
- The power resides in the West, apparently.
- Clearly Central Michigan, with 17th-year starter Dan Lefevour, is the most proven team, but the projections like Toledo for some reason. CMU, Toledo and Bowling Green are the only three teams predicted to go over .500. Everybody else falls between 2-6 and 4-4. This is to be expected in statistical projections for a conference with teams that just aren't that distinguishable talent-wise.
- Um, my projections VERY MUCH disagree with Dave Matter's predicted champions. I do fear that Turner Gill missed his best opportunity for a big-time job, as his team loses a lot of talent from last year, and they could fall. Then again, being super well-coached could account for an extra handful of points a game, and that could make a difference (as it did last year). All six of their projected conference losses are by less than 5 points.
Anyhoo, happy Monday.