| 14 July 2009
Photo courtesy of Nick King of the Columbia Tribune.
I wish every weekend could be like this one. The Missouri Tigers are BIG 12 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS. Let that sink in for a moment. Now I'll say it again, the Missouri Tigers are BIG 12 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS. Fun times.
I was lucky enough to attend the Tigers' three games in OKC and had one helluva time. Here's what I saw:
- The Tigers had moments in all three games where momentum was clearly not in their favor. But there was never a moment where you really felt like Mizzou was in danger of losing. That's one of the ultimate tests of how good a team really is. When you start expecting your team to win even when things are clearly not going its way, then you're rooting for a damn good team.
- Unsung hero of Thursday night's game was Miguel Paul. MP3 played with the most confidence we've seen him have since the end of the non-conference season. He ended up playing 20 minutes, most of anyone off the bench. Granted the Tigers' bench was awful against TT but MP3 was pretty solid all weekend. He even hit a 3-pointer!
- I've never been to a game at Gallagher-Iba so I cant' really speak for the homecourt advantage there but I can tell you it wasn't possible for Okie State to have a much larger homecourt advantage than the one they had in the Ford Center on Friday night. It probably wasn't a 90-10 OSU advantage, it was probably more like 95-5. Not a great place to be for a Mizzou fan. So in my book, the Tigers have scored two non-neutral site victories over Oklahoma State this season.
- Zaire Taylor is clutch. In other news, the Pope is Catholic and douchebags go to kU. But seriously, Taylor carried the Tigers offensive for much of the Oki. State game and was stellar all weekend. Over his past five games Big Shot Za' is averaging 12.2 points, 4 helpers, 3.6 rebounds, only 1.2 turnovers and is shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc. Me likey. And did you realize that only two years ago Zaire was practically homeless.
- I came to a stunning realization over the weekend, Matt Lawrence is one of my favorite Tigers. I'll be the first to admit it, a year ago I was president of the Bench Matt Lawrence and Take Away his Scholarship Party. Now I can't get enough of that kid. Other than Zaire and maybe J.T. Tiller, has there been a Tiger that has come up with more clutch plays this season than Matty Ice. All weekend long it seemed like Matty was sticking daggers into opponent's hearts. The thing with Matt has always been his confidence and over the weekend you could see him yelling at his teammates to get him the ball when he was open and the Tigers needed a big shot. You've gotta have that mentality as a shooter.
- After the Okie State game I was starting to think that Kim English might have slipped to the fifth guy off the bench. He was awful in those first two games, but man was he big in the championship game. I thought the closest the Tigers came to reeling all weekend was about midway through the first half against Baylor when the Bears were about to push their lead to 10 points. The Tigers were starting to look very frustrated against that packed in 2-3 zone and then there was Kimmy who caught the ball on the wing and without hesitating fired a deep 3-pointer that found the bottom of the net. It was a pretty quick shot and I thought it was kinda forced but damn that was a big shot. Ballsy play by Kim and when you're trying to win a BIG 12 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP you need a few plays like that one. After that shot went in Kim started looking much more confident than he's looked the past month or so. If he maintains that swagger then that's huge for Mizzou. Remember, this guy was considered by most people to be the most impressive of the freshmen before he hit this freshman wall.
- Speaking of Kim, there wasn't a more fun player to watch in the postgame BIG 12 TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP celebration. Kimmy was all over the place. There he was hugging Mike Kelly. There he was running into the stands to hug his family. There he was high-fiving fans and pep band members. There he was running around and dancing with one of those BIG 12 TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP signs. At this point, saying Kim English is likable is pretty much like saying Zaire Taylor is clutch and DeMarre Carroll plays hard. I also loved this quote from the Missourian: "Eventually, the clock will run out for a final time on these four seniors. English doesn't want to imagine what the team will be like without them. 'I'll think about that in April,' English said. 'Right now, I'm thinking about Sunday and seeing who we're going to play on Thursday.'" Notice that he said he'll be thinking about that in April.
- If the Tigers end up getting upset early in the Big Dance, God forbid, it's probably going to be because they run into a team that is able to play a really good packed in zone defense. Hopefully, this weekend got the Tigers ready for that because they saw just about all the 2-3 zone defense they could handle, especially in the last two games. When they finally started scoring off the zone was when they started sending a cutter through the middle of the defense around the free throw line (usually DeMarre). They were hitting that cutter for most of the first half of the Baylor game but in the first half the cutter was catching the ball and quickly dishing it back out to the perimeter. Once he started turning and attacking the basket that caused the zone to collapse and there were all kind of open looks both inside and out.
- The only move Mike Anderson made over the weekend that I'm going to question was the decision to put Laurence Bowers into the championship game for the first time with only four minutes left. I'm not even going to argue about Bowers' PT (although I do have an issue with that), but at that point wouldn't it have made more sense to go with Keith Ramsey or Justin Safford who had played before then and were loose? I just thought that was weird. Btw, Bowers has only played 22 minutes in the six games following his 16 point explosion against Kansas State when Mike Anderson said it was time for him to "just let him go." This is probably the only issue I have with MA this season. I'm gonna assume the Tigers would have gone undefeated had Bowers played 20 minutes each game.
- I've been reading a lot of debate about what's better to win, a regular season championship or a BIG 12 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP. Well, I won't lie, I think a regular season title is clearly more impressive. Some pretty mediocre teams have gotten hot and won their conference tourneys. But a regular season title takes a whole season's worth of consistent play. But that doesn't taint the BIG 12 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP in any way. It's impressive in its own right. Conference tournaments often become a survival of the fittest and I don't think there was any doubt that the Tigers were the fittest team in the Big 12. I gotta admit, there was a part of me that wanted to play kU in the finals. I think the Tigers would've won a rematch with kU. But regardless, I want someone to please try to tell me that kU is still clearly better than Mizzou. Anyone? Mr. Bump? Bueller? Bueller?
- Now onto Mizzou's seeding and chances of making a run deep into March. I'm fine with the seed the Tigers got. Ideally, I'd have liked to see them get a No. 2 seed and be playing in KC. But I think a No. 3 seed is really what Mizzou deserved. But can someone tell me why Oklahoma was more deserving of a 2-seed than the Tigers? Maybe there is something I'm missing that makes the Sooners more qualified but Mizzou has one more loss than OU and one more win. The Tigers also finished the season by winning 11 of their final 13 games including a BIG 12 TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP. The Sooners lost four of their final six. Oh, and Mizzou beat Oklahoma relatively convincingly.
- I don't know much about Cornell (and by not much I mean anything) but I like the fact that they were the only team in their conference with a winning record. Looking past the first round for a moment, Marquette is pretty hot and cold and will be without 12th year senior and all-conference point guard Dominic James. That's obviously a huge loss. It also could be a chance to avenge that loss to Marquette in the second round in '03. If the Tigers can advance to the Sweet 16 they'll face a Memphis team that many people thought should have been a No. 1 seed. I wasn't one of those people. Sure Memphis is a very good team. 31 wins is 31 wins but Conference USA is a joke. Outside of Tennessee and Gonzaga who have they beaten? Or even played for that matter? Sucks that the Tigers have to travel to Boise, but they definitely could've gotten a worse draw.
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