If you ignore the 3rd quarter, it was a pretty good night!

The Tigers didn’t exactly set the world on fire in the 1st quarter either, but vaulted to a comfortable halftime lead behind the strong play of freshman Akira Levy — who chipped in 11 points — and 75% shooting in the second quarter. The lead was brutally squandered in the third quarter where Mizzou missed all of their shots that weren’t free throws.

You read that right. 0-12 and just three points in the quarter and suddenly it was a game again. But if there’s one thing we’ve figured out about Robin Pingeton coached teams is they’re pretty tough and can fight through these kinds of spells. And early in the season if you’re going to throw up a giant clunker like last night, it’s best to do it against a team you can still beat.

A year and a half ago the big focus was on the Tigers Ten

The heralded Missouri state recruiting class of which Mizzou struck out on every last player except one. And the one they got has been pretty, pretty good. Dave Matter took a look at what those same Tiger Ten are doing in college now, and not many have even seen the field much less been as productive as Daniel Parker has been for Mizzou.

Ronnie Perkins has played well in a backup role for Oklahoma, Mario Goodrich has seen the field for Clemson but has been limited to a 3rd string role, and Cameron Brown has seen a few snaps as a cornerback at Ohio State. And several of them got hurt also. It’s been a mixed bag, but Mizzou has shown they don’t need in state recruits as long as they hit on the guys they do sign.

Speaking of signing... it’s the early signing day for Mizzou Hoops and:

Yay!

Also word seems to have 3-star Combo Forward Kobe Brown making his decision soon. We’ll see if Missouri is the pick.

SELF PLUG:

I went on KTRS to talk Mizzou post-Jontay and the impact of their loss to Iowa State:

Yesterday at Rock M

More Links:

• Nice story from Daniel Jones on Derek Dooley and his return to Tennessee:

Dooley was fired eight days after the loss to Missouri. The loss stuck with him long after his tenure at Tennessee ended.

“That first year after it I thought about it a lot emotionally,” Dooley said. “Then over time, you think about it more objectively. What do you learn from it? That was a real key game and we kinda controlled the game early but didn’t play great at the end on offense and fell apart on the other side. It was a wild finish.”

• Looks like the SEC Basketball Tournament is stuck in Nashville for the foreseeable future. I’m kidding, I like that I’ll be forced to go to Nashville for a basketball tournament one of these days. I liked having it in St. Louis for the convenience, but truthfully Nashville is a better location for the tournament.