| 14 July 2009
As Mizzou dug itself into another hole Saturday afternoon (to the tune of 11-0 right out of the gate) I was beginning to think discovering that some evil genius had concocted this recipe was going to be the highlight of the weekend. Imagine my surprise, then, as Mizzou deviated from the season’s road template and mounted a winning rally at the Coors Event Center in Boulder, Co.
A preface to my game analysis: I am not a hater. I will never look a gift horse in the mouth. I will never say that any Mizzou hoops win, especially a road win in conference, is anything but a significant accomplishment.
But goodness gracious Colorado is terrible.
Ricardo Patten left first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik with 12th year senior Richard Roby (has he digressed, or was he always this shitty?), Marcus King-Stockton and about nine undersized guards with substandard ball skills and a penchant for playing basketball like they’re stoned, and, being that it’s Boulder, they might be. As an aside, how long until this makes its way to Boulder?
Bzdelik came to CU from Air Force. He was brought in largely to instill discipline to the Buffalos. Judging from Saturday, it’s yet to take. The Colorado coach is in a similar position that MU coach Mike Anderson was in last year (with less scandal surrounding his hiring).
In other words, there's not a lot of talent on the CU roster and not much reason for immediate optimism. To paraphrase Rick Pitino in Boston, Chauncey Billups (above) ain’t walking through that door. I could go on bashing the Buffs for days but it would frankly be more productive to give a little credit where credit’s due. Mizzou played pretty darn well at times today. It was nice, as Big Head stated below, to see Steph and Leo take a leadership role. Those two, along with DeMarre, are the most talented players on the team (apologies Keon). As they go Mizzou goes.
It was especially nice to see Leo (above) wake up. He played with a passion that has been absent for the last few Other things to like:
Matt Lawrence made some threes.
Keon Lawrence did not pout (that we saw, anyway).
DeMarre Carroll did not foul out.
Colorado did not shoot 50 free throws. Or 45. (They shot only 24, or the same number Texas Tech’s Martin Zeno shot in MU’s last game).
As is mentioned above any road win in the Big XII is precious. Did Mizzou deserve to win? Maybe not, but that doesn't matter now. Now MU has a little momentum as it heads home to
We’ll be back tomorrow night for our regular Sunday post. In the meantime remember folks, while it’s hard sometimes to be a Mizzou fan it could always be worse.
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