Throughout the season I would like to take a look at team’s we have beaten and see how they have done since we played them. Clearly, our biggest win so far came against currently 5-3 USC. Not an impressive record for a team that opened in the top 25, but a ranked win is a ranked win.
I hope USC wins the rest of their games. That'd be cool.
USC lost its first game to Seton Hall by 2 points. Seton Hall is by no means a stellar team, but they are currently sitting pretty with a 7-1 record with wins over presumably solid teams Virginia Tech and obviously USC. I would categorize losing by 2 points to a power conference team, early season, with a freshman a crucial role, and in a strange setting like Puerto Rico as “kind-of understandable.”
USC’s other loss besides Mizzou came at Oklahoma by 1 point in a game that they no doubt had many opportunities to win. OU currently checks in at #5 in the country (I personally think that is a bit high), which makes that loss perfectly understandable and in my opinion, encouraging for Mizzou fans.
In the OU game, freshman sensation DeMar DeRozan scored 10 points in 37 minutes. Those number aren’t bad for a freshman, but with his supposed talent I can only assume they will continue to improve over the course of the year. OU already showed it can play with a top 5 team on the road, even without DeRozan playing at the level he very well could be during conference play.
I believe in a rebuilding Pac 10, with only a somewhat disappointing (2 losses already) UCLA being an established power, USC can get 10 or more conference wins. This would surely put them back in the top 25 and in the NCAA tournament.
Come tournament time, if Mizzou (pray they aren’t) is on the bubble, how great would that USC win look. I believe that that win in Puerto Rico was Mike Anderson’s 4th biggest at Mizzou, only behind Texas and K-State last year and Ok-State two years ago.
USC plays a tough non-conference against Georgia Tech on Dec. 22, so that will be a good litmus test to see where they are at. Let’s hope that they have continued to improve.
Filed under: Postgame | Tags: DeMarre Carroll, ESPNU, Fairfield, Fran Fraschilla, J.T. Tiller, Leo Lyons, Matt Lawrence, O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip -Off, Pac 10, Taj Gibson, USC, Xavier
Going into this tournament I wanted 2 wins. But I wanted good wins, not garbage wins like we get in our normal early season games, but solid wins, resume building wins. And while Fairfield is none of the above, USC is. USC will probably finish in the top 3 or 4 in the Pac-10, and will surely be tournament bound. For Mizzou, that was a win we will be looking back on come selection time.
Mizzou showed a lot during that game. They showed they could pressure a good team, they showed they could learn from mistakes (especially missed free throws), and they showed they could adjust to their competition.
I can’t say enough about how good DeMarre was in that game, so I will just leave it at this… Dude’s a Animal.
One person I want to make sure doesn’t go unnoticed is J.T. Tiller. He knocked down a number of big shots, came up with some key steals, and attacked the basket in some big situations. Fran Fraschilla did all he could to make sure all 12 of us that watched that game on ESPNU knew how well J.T. played, but I want to make sure that performance doesn’t go without recognition.
Another huge play in the game that I thought did not get enough coverage on TV or in the stories I read about the game is Mizzou attacking Taj Gibson. Gibson was in foul trouble early, and the Tigers did an amazing job making those fouls count. With 3 fouls in the first half Gibson entered the game with about 17 minutes left in the game. About 2 minutes later Leo took the ball from the top of the arc, drove in, and forced Gibson to foul him. Great recognition, great execution, all around great play by Leo. The one play I would say won the game for Mizzou.
One other quick note I want to make sure gets in this post. Matt Lawrence, 11 minutes, 0 points. I’m just posting his line from the game. take it how you want may.
After watching the 3 games in Puerto Rico, I am officially on the Mizzou to the Tournament bandwagon. A ranked win against USC coupled with a loss against the eventual champions leaves Mizzou walking out of Puerto Rico feeling good. I didn’t think any good could come out of this tournament after the loss to Xavier, but without a doubt, more good than bad came out of the trip.
Learn from your mistakes, adjust, and learn how to win. That’s what the out of conference schedule is all about, and Mizzou is well on their way to making the first half of this season count.
-Ken Boehlke
Filed under: Postgame | Tags: Keith Ramsey, Leo Lyons, Mike Anderson, NBA, Tiger Talk
I was not exactly thrilled with this afternoons game. I will say I was very encouraged with a number of things I saw in the game but still there were spurts of the “old” Mizzou. Hopefully that is am real term that I will continue to write because that would mean that the garbage we have seen the last few years is old. But I’m afraid it may not be true.
The first 4 minutes of this game almost made me vomit. It was like a nightmare. I keep having flashes of last year go through my head. I could just see 5 guys passing the ball abound the outside never once making a cut towards the rim, and therefore never once having a legitamate scoring opportunity. Luckily Leo decided it was time to impress the NBA scouts and we got going a little bit.
But the real fun came when we got to see some “young” guys (I put young in quotes because they are like 2 years younger than me and Ramsey is probably older than me). We began to see the real press. We began to see turnovers, made threes, fast breaks, GOOD BASKETBALL. It was great.
This flash of good play got me to realize exactly what will make this team successful and what will not. And it’s actually quite simple. Mike Anderson’s stubborness to play the guys he feels need to be in the game. I am not picking on one guy in particular and I am not throwing coach under the bus. But I feel like at times he makes substitutions that seem out of the ordinary, or unneccesary. I woud start listing examples but I’d like to keep this as short as possible.
My point is the success of this team rides on how much Anderson goes with hot hands and not how much he goes on preparation, age, and other factors that I can’t explain because I’m not him. For the first time this year I can honestly say I think this team has enough talent to be successful in the Big 12 and even enough to make it to the tourney. But these dreams will only be realized if the only committment Coach has is to winning. He cannot worry about playing time, cannot worry about who practices the best, cannot base subs on personal problems. No commitments but to winning the game in front of him. He does that and I think this team can be successful. He doesn’t and there’s going to be a lot of posts from me about Anderson’t stubbornness. He subs to my liking and I may actually kiss his ass at Tiger Talk on Mondays.
-Ken Boehlke
