| 26 March 2009
After spending the last several nights out until about 6 am me and the amigos elected to spend a night in and regroup. This is good for you because since I have shit else to do other than listen to the harmonic sounds of the ocean while sipping a cubita (that's right, you wish you lived my life) I'm going to let you read my thoughts on Mizzou's March Madness run.
- I was able to catch most of the Marquette game at a Hooters here in Acapulco, although they switched over to a different game for about the first 12 minutes of the first half. Huge crowd of Mizzou fans there. Hopefully there will be more of the same tomorrow night. They don't call Acapulco Mizzou South for nothing. Don't bother asking me who calls it that, just take my word for it.
- Not much else needs to be said the Tiller-English fiasco. If you've followed Mizzou much at all this year then you know that Mike Anderson wanted J.T. shooting those free throws. In addition to being a clearly better FT shooter than Kimmie, he's also proven to be one of the most clutch players on the roster. If I were a Marquette fan I'd be more pissed that DeMarre Carroll wasn't called for a foul on that 3-pointer at the end of the game (what the hell was he doing?!).
- I don't know how the hell J.T. is going to play if his wrist is actually broken. When I was in the eighth grade I hurt my wrist playing basketball and tried to play with it for a week (I'm a warrior). Turned out, it was broken. I realize the pain tolerance of an 8th grader doesn't compare to a D-I athlete's especially one as tough as J.T., but I don't know how the hell he's going to catch a ball let alone shoot it. I'm worried about this.
- I know I don't need to say it, but man do I fucking love Kimmie English. I fell in love with this guy after the first night he spent in Mizzou Arena. His performance this March has taken my man crush on him to new heights.
- Mike Anderson plays a lot of freshmen because he has to with this roster and this system, but I think he's proven to clearly favor more experienced guys even when they may not be quite as talented as their rookie teammates. How else do you explain Kim's limited minutes despite being completely en fuego? It would also explain why last season he kept giving way more minutes to Darryl Butterfield than Justin Safford when Safford was clearly the more skilled player. His tendency to give considerably more minutes to Keith Ramsey than Laurence Bowers would be another case in point.
- The Marquette game probably wasn't the best win for the Tigers this season, but I think it was the most telling. It showed exactly why the Tigers are as good as they are. They're a 20-win team because of the system they execute so well (which caused all kinds of hell in the first half) but the reason they've won 30 games and are a great team is because of the toughness they showed in the final minutes after Marquette took the lead.
- I think since the Tourney started Mike Anderson has really emphasized to DeMarre Carroll the need to push the ball. Every time JYD grabs a board he's immediately turning and pushing. He's done that all season but it seems like he's doing it more now than ever. I love seeing him do that. Especially when he ends up beating the other team's guards down the floor.
- I love that the KC Star has Joe Posnanski covering Mizzou. I've always been a big Whitlock guy too but the Pos is just on another level. I've read just about every word he's written for the Star over the last eight years or so. You're really missing out if you don't read the stuff he's writing about the Tigers. My favorite one he's written thus far has been his Leo Lyons Coming of Age story. I really loved this quote from MA that was included in the story: "'Leo’s a good young man,' Anderson says. 'But young men have to learn how to be men.'"
- You also have to read Gene Wojciechowski's story on Matt Lawrence. One of the best things about Mizzou that I've read in awhile. Wojchiechowski was actually roommates with Matt's father in college (which I don't think anyone knew) so he has some insight into what makes Matty Ice tick. Matty continues to move up on my list of all-time favorite Tigers (which he was nowhere close to touching last year). The 3-pointer he nailed in the final minutes against Marquette was probably the biggest shot of his life. What I loved about his performance in that game was that he played great after getting off to a terrible start and coming off a poor performance against Cornell. A year ago he would've fallen apart and gone three-for-16. I think he's shooting the ball more confidently than he ever has in his career as a Tiger. Crazy what 30 or so wins will do for a kid's confidence.
- I read in the Missourian that Tyus Edney's buzzer beater was shown on the video board in Boise. All I could think of when Marquette was preparing to inbound the ball with 5.5 secs left was that shot and then of course CBS showed the highlight. Can we consider that ghost exorcised?
- Anthony Grant: TAKE THE BAMA JOB. Seriously, it's a solid gig and probably about as good a job as you're going to find. Win there and you can move on to somewhere else if you want. But please, just take the job.
- That's about all I've got for ya. I'll be watching tomorrow's game from the same Hooters in Acapulco but don't expect a post from me until early next week. Vaminos Tigres!!!
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
