Mizzou Links, 12-23-10

A feel-good set of links if there ever were one...

Time to Brag!

• MUtigers.com: Tigers Claim Braggin' Rights, Down Illinois
• ESPN.com (Video): Missouri Pulls Away From Illinois, 75-64
• Post-Dispatch: Mizzou takes Braggin' Rights, 75-64
  Post-Dispatch: Six-point play turns the tide for Missouri
• The Missourian: Bowers comes up big for Missouri
  The Missourian: Opposing fans meet in the middle at Braggin' Rights game
• KC Star: Mizzou's last-minute blitz beats Illini
  KC Star (Upon Further Review): Mizzou Showed Me!
  KC Star (Sam Mellinger): Missouri's brand of basketball doesn't always make sense, but it works

  MU’s first half was ugly enough to test a mother’s love. Kim English began with a slight limp, having hurt his Achilles tendon in warm-ups, and things didn’t get any smoother once the game got under way.

  Illinois rebounded 14 of its 27 misses before halftime, an astounding number. It was as if both teams reached for the top shelf, but only Illinois had a stool.

  Laurence Bowers made a nice block, but even that turned up mud when he sprained his wrist on the fall down. Ricardo Ratliffe got blocked on a dunk. Safford turned it over once for no other reason than that he fell down. That is how it went.

  The Tigers trailed by five and then seven and then nine. When Mike Davis hit a layup midway through the half, he pumped his arms and screamed at the Illinois half of the arena, and his fans screamed back. Back home in Texas, prized recruit Tony Mitchell was tweeting about how he wanted to be on the floor helping his guys, and you started to get the feeling that this was about to tip to a blowout.

  A lot of times, that’s a death sentence for a college basketball team, but the Tigers have a way of keeping ugly from impacting energy, and Anderson’s teams are all about energy.

  If Mizzou is undersized and lacking a true go-to scorer, they make up for their shortcomings with fight.

• KBIA Sports Extra: Illinois puts Georgetown to bed
• The Maneater: Late-game surge carries Tigers to win over Illinois
• PowerMizzou: Bragging Again
  PowerMizzou: Braggin' Rights Gallery
• Fox Sports MW: Denmon leads Mizzou to Braggin' Rights win
• Chicago Tribune: Illinois falls to Missouri 75-64

Big 12 Basketball Links

Really, a nice day for the Big 12...

• Texas > Michigan State
  ESPN.com (Video): Texas Stuns Michigan State, 67-55
  Austin American-Statesman: Texas men get big road win at Michigan State
  Houston Chronicle: No. 18 Texas hands No. 12 Michigan State rare home loss
  Dallas Morning News: No. 18 Texas upsets No. 12 Michigan State 67-55
• Kansas >> California
  ESPN.com: Unbeaten Jayhawks romp past Cal in foul-filled game
  ESPN.com (CBB Blog): Kansas loses some composure, beats Cal
  Rock Chalk Talk: Kansas Wins an Ugly One at Cal
  California Golden Blogs: Kansas 78, Cal 63: Basketball with Swords
  KC Star (Upon Further Review): A second look at Josh Selby
  Lawrence Journal-World: Behavior shows KU's immaturity
  Topeka Capital-Journal: Morris ejected in KU win
• Baylor >>> San Diego
  ESPN.com: Baylor Runs Over San Diego, 83-50
  Houston Chronicle: No. 15 Baylor cruises to a win over San Diego
• Texas Tech >> UT-Arlington
  ESPN.com: Texas Tech 73, UT-Arlington 56
• New Mexico > Colorado
  ESPN.com: New Mexico 89, Colorado 76
• K-State
  Topeka Capital-Journal: No love could inspire Cats

Mizzou Football Links

• We Are Mizzou: Mizzou Arrives in Arizona
• PowerMizzou: Powered Up: The Story of the Year

  On my way back from Starbucks (for my fifth or sixth cup of coffee that morning), I stopped and stared from the steps of the journalism school. And I took just a few minutes to admire the scene. I had only one thought: Damn, this is cool.
  
  I grew up a Missouri fan. My dad brought me to Columbia for games. I had little trouble buying a ticket 20 minutes before kickoff and I sat on the hill watching another school (fill in the blank because it could have been Tulsa, Indiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, just about anybody) beat Missouri's brains in while he wrote another story about Missouri getting its brains beat in. I spent four years walking to classes across the Quad to the journalism school. I went to most of the games and even managed to attend a bowl game before I graduated, which at the time, I thought was about as big a thing as Missouri football could ever hope to achieve. At no point did I ever think I'd see anything like I got to see on the weekend of October 23rd, 2010.
  
  That weekend was about all of those like me?and all of those who have had the same experiences I had, many of them for 30 or 40 years longer. But it was also about those like my sons. Those kids who haven't yet had their lives shaped by the teams for which they root. The ones who don't even remember Corby Jones, much less Phil Johnson or Kent Kiefer or Phil Bradley or Pitchin' Paul Christman. For those kids, maybe they didn't understand how special the weekend was.

• The Trib (Dave Matter): Behind the Bowl Numbers, Part I
• KC Star (Campus Corner): Will This Be Last Bowl Trip for Blaine Gabbert, Aldon Smith?
• KC Star (Campus Corner): Derrion Thomas to Walk On at Mizzou
• KBIA Sports Extra: Football season in review: College GameDay comes to Mizzou
  KBIA Sports Extra: Football season in review: Mizzou 36, Oklahoma 27
• PowerMizzou: Redshirt report: Nick Demien

Other Mizzou Links

• Mizzou Wrestling
  MUtigers.com: Six Tigers Earn Midlands Pre-Seeds
  

Other

• Sports Business Journal: Big 12 hires Austin firm GSD&M Idea City to help evaluate conference's name, branding

Three responses to this last link: 1) *huffy* Of course they would hire an Austin firm. 2) Interesting that they're not 100% sold on "Big 12" as a brand. 3) This is great, because consultants always make the right recommendations in these situations. (And yes, I'm an MBA who is really, really annoyed with consultants.)