| 14 July 2009
It was Quin Snyder that got me hooked. I've watched Mizzou football and basketball games since I was 10 years old and I've always cheered for the Tigers. I've talked about crying after the kicked-ball game. But it was the Tiger basketball team that really got me into Mizzou sports. Brian Grawer, Clarence Gilbert, TJ Soyoye. Those were the first players I really lived and died with.
It was also the basketball team that taught me to truly hate the University of kansas. Jeff Boschee, Kirk Hinrich, Jeff Graves. Man, I hated those fuckers.
But over the past five years that has dramatically changed. The emergence of Gary Pinkel's football Tigers coupled with the complete collapse of the Snyder regime led me to reprioritize how much of my sports fan soul I devoted to each program. And while I’ve had a blast cheering on Chase Daniel and Co., I’d be lying if I told you I haven’t often wondered if I would have enjoyed the same kind of success even more if it had been achieved inside of Mizzou Arena instead of on Faurot Field.
At some point we took to calling ourselves a football school, something I never totally embraced. It’s not that I wasn’t having the time of my life watching the football team’s Cotton Bowl run. But I still remembered what it was like watching some of those old games at Hearnes and always wondered what it would be like to have the same thing at Mizzou Arena.
We appeared to make progress in Mike Anderson’s first year. But then we became all too familiar with the Athena Nightclub and it seemed like the program was destined to remain an embarrassment.
And that’s what made last night so special. Not only did we win a statement game against our most hated rival on national television, but this is what I like to call a “character win.” The Tigers didn’t play a great game on Monday night. They came out flat and after taking kU’s first punch it looked like it was going to be a repeat of Braggin’ Rights.
After all was said and done the Tigers shot 36 percent from the field (six percentage points lower than kansas) and grabbed 16 fewer rebounds than the beakers (but kansas lost this game, right?).
The Tigers won this game because they showed just a little more mental toughness than the jayhawks. That’s not a knock on kansas because their guys played pretty damn hard too. But Mizzou ran and pressed and missed layups and missed free throws and then ran and pressed some more. They didn’t let their mistakes demoralize them. They took every fucking punch kansas could throw and, in the end, were still standing. This was Rocky Balboa taking punch after punch from Clubber Lang all the while looking him in the eye and saying “You’re not so bad!”
Everywhere you looked you had Tigers flying around the court. You had J.T. Tiller going all Justin Gage and diving head first after loose balls. You had Matt Lawrence grabbing a HUGE offensive board and putback when the Tigers definitely needed a score. And then you had Leo and DeMarre dropping in clutch bucket after clutch bucket with the game hanging in the balance.
And then there’s Zaire Taylor. Zaire Taylor. Those two words now hold a special place in Tiger lore. Years from now we’ll still be talking about the time the Staten Island native hit two game-winning shots to propel Tiger basketball back to relevancy. When’s the last time Mizzou had a player with the cajones to calmly take those shots? I can’t think of one.
And so Mizzou basketball is officially back. We’re now to the point where we can stop talking about getting a Tournament bid and start discussing Tournament seeds and potential Big 12 Championships.
But we’ll save that for another day and another post. Players generally get 24 hours or less to enjoy victories. But fans are different. Come Saturday I’ll think about Nebraska. But I’ve waited too long for a game like this one. I’ve suffered through too much heartache and embarrassment. I’ve seen every fanbase in the conference mock our program.
So damnit, I’m taking some time to enjoy this one. I’m going to watch replays of Zaire’s shot at least once every 30 minutes. I’m going to watch the video I took of myself on Norm Stewart Court. And I’m even going to smile at all the unnecessary excuses coming from many residents in beakerland.
But more than anything, I’m going to think about the endless possibilities that, at least for the time being, seem to lie ahead for this team and program. This one’s been a long time coming. Enjoy it Tiger Nation. We've earned it.
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