Mizzou Tiger Hoops

If there was only one word I could use to describe the first 2 games of this tournament that word would be frustration. I understand the game against Fairfield ended up being a success, but the first 9 minutes were incredibly painful, and then what was worse was having to watch Xavier play Virginia Tech 30 minutes later.

Nothing is worse than watching a game you feel you should be in. And I couldn’t stop thinking about missed free throw after missed free throw after missed free throw as I watched Xavier/VT. Xavier ended up beating VT in overtime on a half court shot as time expired. Which led me to realize if Mizzou didn’t miss 24 free throws and 8 critical ones down the stretch, that it would have been us hitting that last second shot. We would be going to the final.

But I hope this team learns from that. This team needs to learn how to win, and I think the best way to learn how to win, if to learn and gain experience from your failures. See your shortcoming, and fix them. Also you have to sit through games you feel you should be in, and experience the pain. Because if you know what it feels like, you will do anything you can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

So hopefully the Tigers feel the pain and can step up and beat a very good USC team tomorrow afternoon. If Mizzou walks away from PR with a ranked win and a loss against a good team, it will be a successful trip.

If not, I’m sure I’ll be writing something trying to find some sort of silver lining out of this trip.

-Ken Boehlke