Pinkel's done it again; flipping former Illannoy commit to the Black and Gold. Dexter McDonald (Rockhurst) is going to be a Tiger in '10. He is a 6-2, 180lb corner. 3-stars for the Rivals geeked.
Gary Pinkel landed huge commits from three players over the weekend- wideouts Marcus Lucas and Bud Sasser, along with the surprise flip from Iowa to Mizzou for Matt Hoch, yeah, Dan's "little brother".
Marcus Lucas reminds a lot of people of some other 6-5 receiver Mizzou's had over the past few years. How'd he ever turn out? 4-star recruit according to Rivals.
Bud Sasser is a Texas dude, and large. 6-3, 200lb receiver out of Denton. 3-star according to Rivals, and props to our boy, Pete, for breaking this one.
It's hard to call Matt Hoch anyone's "little brother". He's a 6-5 230lb D-End from the football factory known as Harlan, Iowa. He flipped from Iowa to Mizzou for a position change apparently. 3-stars. The fact that Pinkel is starting to create a pipeline in Harlan is HUGE.
EventChaser is pretty awesome. They already sent me to the Illinois game and now they're willing to send me to the Texas Bowl. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy I'm going to Houston. If you're looking to meet me down there and tailgate in the sun on New Years Eve, then you definitely look them up. Or if you're looking to go to any other bowl games they've got the hook up for that as well.
I've been meaning to throw up a hoops related post for awhile now but have been snowed under lately with paperwork here at the Mizzourah HQ. Here are some random things presented Picasso style that I've noticed so far this season:
-Kim English looks like the second coming of Clarence Gilbert. That's good and bad. He'll carry the team for stretches when he's hot and he'll also have the occasional four-for-16 performance. As good a shooter as Kimmie is I don't think he's quite at Gilbert's level. But I also think Kimmie has a higher ceiling than Clarence ever did. Gilbert was a ridiculous shooter, good ball handler, underrated defender (if my memory serves correctly) and tough as nails. Kimmie can be all those things plus he posses more athleticism and a willingness to try to get his teammates involved in the offense. And this isn't intended as a knock on Gilbert (who is one of my all-time favorite Tigers), but I'm going to guess that Kimmie's a tad bit more coachable than Clarence ever was.
-J.T. Tiller has been pretty inconsistent since coming back from that foot injury on opening night. He seems to be moving OK but it'll take some time for him to round back into Big 12 Defensive POY form.
-Marcus Denmon has probably impressed me more than any other Tiger. He's shooting with more consistency and confidence than he did last year and for some reason I continue to undervalue his toughness. I think after he exploded in the Black and Gold Game last year we all assumed he — and not Kimmie — would be the Clarence Gilbert type. But in actuality his game is much closer to J.T. Tiller's.
-Michael Dixon is a very skilled player. His mid-range jumper is money, he can handle the rock and is one of the quickest dudes on the team. But at this point he still has a lot to learn about playing good fundamental defense. His man is getting by him far too frequently and that's drawing help from another defender which obviously causes a breakdown. He'll get there. He's just not there yet. For this season, we can expect him to be a sparkplug who will be especially useful when teams slow the pace of the game and try to bog Mizzou down with zone defenses.
-After the first couple games I was really excited about the apparent improvement Steve Moore had made in the offseason. But I haven't seen much (or anything) from him since. He's a good rebounder and he's really big so he should be able to block some shots. But when he's on the floor the Tigers are basically playing four-on-five on offense. He's still got a ways to go before he starts getting more than 10-15 minutes per game.
-Ditto for Miguel Paul. But at least with Paul the skills that he does have (speedy, can lead the fastbreak, good passer) will be maximized because of this system. Bill over at Rock M has mentioned how effective Miguel is when Mike Anderson brings him in at the end of the first half — paired with Dixon — and basically has him run a winded opponent off the floor. I'm still not sure MP3 will ever average more than 15 minutes per game but he could eventually be an extremely valuable 10-15 minutes per game guy. If that makes sense.
-Laurence Bowers is going to be a great player. But this season it will likely be frustrating watching him because he's not quite there yet. He's the most talented player on this roster but he lacks an aggressiveness that he needs to make him great. The good news with Bowers is that even though he'll probably leave us wanting a little more this year, he's still going to probably end up with a really solid season. I'm seeing something around 12 ppg, six rpg, two apg, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals. That's pretty solid.
You also have to point out with Bowers that even though he won't reach his ceiling this year it won't be because he's some sort of head case or chronic underachiever. It's just a natural maturation process most players go through.
-Keith Ramsey can be dominant on the boards, very good defensively and serviceable on offense when he doesn't take shots from further than eight feet. But God help me if he launches another one of those three-pointers.
-The verdict is still out on Tyler Stone and John Underwood. Haven't seen near enough of them to make an sort of judgement on their games or their potential.
-All in all this team is right about where I expected them to be. OK, I didn't expect losses to Richmond or Oral Roberts but I think come March this is a bubble team that will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 19-22 wins. You had to expect some bumps along the way. Braggin' Rights is suddenly an enormous game and when that could really turn the season around for the Tigers. The great thing about this team is that it's pretty obvious that things will get better in the near future. Not that the team won't miss guys like Tiller, Ramsey and Zaire but with a top 10-15 recruiting class coming in next year the depth on this team is going to increase pretty dramatically in the next 12 months. Much like the football team this year, this basketball season is really more about holding steady than anything else. And that doesn't mean we can't still make a nice run this year.
Tim Griffin's Big XII blog at ESPN has your Missouri Tigers opening their 2015 campaign in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. Although Missouri Athletics' official site still shows this date as open, this is a match-up that many Tiger fans would likely applaud, despite a potentially tough opponent. At the very least, this is a game that would help to alleviate some of the disappointment over losing a solid out of conference opponent in Illinois.
"They have future games against Baylor in New Orleans and at Oklahoma in 2012, at home against Oklahoma in 2013 and at home in 2015 against Missouri."
Update: All these Notre Dame rumors appear to be just that. Via mutigersdotcom's Twitter page: "Just to be clear: There is NO truth to the rumor that UND and Mizzou will play in 2015, or any other year." Also, Mizzou football SID Chad Moller sent out the following tweet just minutes ago: "[email protected]: that is bad information, Mizzou & NDU aren't playing. Schools talked informally but didn't get anything worked out..."
The lesson here is Tim Griffin is a crazy man who rarely takes the time to make sure that "facts" are indeed facts.
In what has to be one of the best things we've ever done at Mizzourah, former Tiger great, T Rucker, has come aboard to throw some knowledge our way. You sent your questions in, and without further adieu, your answers and bowl picks by T himself.
(Patrick in Madison by the way of St. Joe) Around Super Bowl time you always hear about NFL players getting hounded by everybody and their brother for tickets and it being a big distraction before the big game. I'm curious if players get the same questions before bowl games and if its a big distraction or just an annoyance?
No players don't get hounded for bowl tickets like super bowl tickets. UNLESS, its the National Championship game. I can remember when my brother was at the school that shall remain nameless and people wanting his National Championship tickets. And it's not much of a distraction because at the collegiate level the tickets are free, the problem in the NFL is that the tickets are $500 a piece!
(Bryan, Kahoka MO) Best bowl gift bag you ever got, and what was in it?
The bulk of the gift bags are mostly the same with sweat suits, shoes, luggage, jackets, and gift cards. The thing that sets them apart is the "big gift" a.k.a the one we REALLY want, and the best was the Cotton Bowl. They gave us Cannon Power Shot digital cameras and an iPod touch.
(AJ, Balwin MO) In your opinion, with the way Texas looked in their last two games, should TCU or Boise State have received a shot at Alabama?
NO WAY!! TCU and Boise are good programs and have good players but the problem I have with teams like these is the conferences they play in are weak! They aren't tested week in and week out physically or mentally like teams in the Big XII, SEC, etc... So I don't think they should be able to breeze through a season with maybe one tough game on the schedule and then be able to go play in the National Championship against a team that has had numerous tough/big games that exhaust them mentally and physically.
(Matt, Houston) Teams usually have 3-5 weeks off between the end of the season and the bowl game. For bowl practices, do you focus specifically on the bowl opponent for the 3-5 weeks, or is it more like Spring or Fall camp where you're working on several things until you close in on game week?
It's more like spring ball. The older guys actually don't even really practice for the first week. The younger players get a chance to run the offense/defense and the older players get a little bit of rest. A week and a half to two weeks is what we usually spent on the opponent.
(James, Kansas City) With a lot of games on New Year's Day, how does New Year's Eve work with the team? I know you had this come up with the '08 Cotton Bowl.
New Years Eve is treated as a regular day before the game. I think we may have had a luncheon early in the day, but its business as usual that evening and night while the rest of the world celebrates haha!
Navy runs an offense that Mizzou hasn't seen in years. What kind of adjustments must the Tigers make on D? Sell out for the run?
They are going to have to play with GREAT discipline. As tricky as their offense can be there are keys on every play, such as pulling tackles, motions, etc.. The coaches will do a great job of identifying the keys and relaying them to the players and it's the players' job to read the keys and execute their assignments.
With Army/Navy being a week later this year, Mizzou will have had two more weeks off than Navy will. Will that make any bit of difference?
I believe it will make a difference. It helps with getting the players fresh and this may sound weird but the more time you get off from football the more anxious/excited you are to get back to it. I've been playing xbox online with a few of my favorite Tigers a lot lately and I can tell you they are feeling good and enjoying the time off, but are very anxious to get to work.
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