You can say you would have won by double digits if he missed those, but we can wonder how things might have turned out had Keon not missed those open 3s at the end of the game as well. It seems like he almost never misses those clutch shots at the end of the game, but I guess the odds caught up with him/us. Then too we feel we just ran out of time. Even another 3 seconds or so would have given us a chance to send it to overtime. But you did put us in that position.

I think both teams made some early season errors that will be corrected down the road. But the key to me was that you made the plays you needed to at the end of the game when the chips were down. You guys were nails on those free throws a hallmark of the top teams.

I have to tip my cap to Michigan State.

and you are right it was like a virtual home game for us, other than perhaps the officiating.

Sorry to see you couldn’t quite pull it off vs. UCLA. Perhaps Nietzel’s flu had something to do with that which would be a shame if that were the case, but I guess that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes. At least you guys are still very much in the hunt for your final four.

Good luck the rest of the way.

While the game was not a blowout by the final score, you cannot say that Michigan State didn’t dominate the game statistically (53.8 FG% to 45.5 FG%; 34-25 Rebounding advantage; 13 more FTs attempted and made). MSU was up by 16 points late in the first half and had a double-digit lead for a good part of the second. If Carroll doesn’t hit those ridiclous 3-pointers in the final 90 seconds (he hit three of them), the score stays in double figures. It was a pro-Missouri crowd basically a home game for the Tigers. With MSU a projected Final Four or Elite Eight team, i think it would be better to judge Missouri’s standing in college hoops by watching tonight’s game against Maryland.

Missouri is better than I gave it credit for and I’ll admit that now. But trapping will only get you so many turnovers and easy baskets. Justl his team’s at UAB had no defense, Anderson’s Tigers need to learn how to play defense or a long season awaits. I will say that, if Anderson gets Missouri to play defense, the Tigers could be dangerous. I don’t see it this year, but more like 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Not to be too contentious, but I would like to point out that although DeMarre Carroll had a pretty good game overall, he wasn’t really our “only weapon”. We had 4 guys in double figures and DeMarre wasn’t our high scorer. We also had 23 points off the bench.

Hopefully the players from both our teams will learn and grow from this game. Good luck the rest of the way, unless we meet again, of course.

Others Recieving Votes
Arizona 128, Arkansas 106, Ohio State 77, Wisconsin 74, Davidson 45, Stanford 43, North Carolina State 41, Connecticut 30, West Virginia 29, Miami (FL) 27, Alabama 26, Mississippi State 23, Vanderbilt 23, Xavier 22, Brigham Young 22, Missouri 18, Washington 8, USC 6, San Diego State 6, Kentucky 6, Winthrop 5, Rhode Island 4, Maryland 3, George Mason 3, Baylor 2, Ohio 2, Providence 2, New Orleans 1, Illinois 1, Creighton 1.

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I see your strengths match up well to ours and it will be tough for us to get the usual turnovers because you have such strong guard play, but no need to get mean about it. Sheesh.

I suppose you are looking at Missouri’s ONE vote in the coaches poll Jeff? That’s probably from the Kansas City Star beat writer, so you shouldn’t get all excited over it. Face it, Missouri is the fourth best team in this tournament. Why is it so hard for all these Tiger fans to understand? Your team isn’t that good!!!!!!!

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings

With all due respect, I don’t think it’s so much that he’s predicting a MSU victory, but rather his pompous and condescending attitude towards the Tigers:

“Missouri? Well, the Tigers should find solace in reaching the classic’s Final Four and playing against the bigger boys.”

and his lament that they don’t even belong on the same floor with his mighty Spartans:

“MISSOURI: How does a team that finished 12-16 the previous season become a notable host team for a preseason tournament the following year? We’d all like to know the answer to that question. Maybe Fordham, which finished 16-16 last year, should have been the host school.”

One would hope that a sports journalist would have done at least some minimal research before slamming his team’s next opponent as being so unworthy of their time. By “minimal research” I mean at least having the correct schedule when publishing the other teams’ records from the prior year. How dumb does that make him look?

The record he referred to was from a Quin Snyder coached team, not Coach Anderson’s first year. Last year’s team showed marked improvement despite the regime change and learning a new and very different style of play.

With a little bit of research Chris might have learned that Coach Anderson had great success in turning around UAB’s team. They too had been a sub-500 team but by their second year made it to the sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. There’s no guarantee, of course, that his 2nd year at Missouri will be as successful, but there is some history to back up the possibility that they could have a pretty good team this year and looking at results from a couple of years ago isn’t a very reliable way to publicly prognosticate upon a game this year.

He gives some nice kudos to DeMarre Carroll who had transferred in and should give us a big boost this year, but shows his ignorance of the team, I think, when he continues on that “Missouri doesn’t have many other weapons.”

Coach Anderson’s teams are predicated on pressure defense and going deep into his bench which can tend to diminish the gaudy numbers put up by stars on some teams, but that hardly means Missouri has no offensive weapons to complement DeMarre Carroll. Stefhon Hannah, for instance, was last year’s “unanimous choice for Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Year by the Big 12 Coaches, Big 12 Media, Associated Press, Kansas City Star and Austin American-Statesman … Named to the Big 12 All-Rookie / Newcomer teams by the Big 12 Coaches and Kansas City Star … Was a Second Team All-Big 12 pick by the Kansas City Star and a Third Team choice by the Big 12 Coaches … Was the lone player in the Big 12 Conference to record both a point-assist and point-rebound double-double … … Ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 20 nationally with 2.4 steals per game … Finished with 72 thefts on the year… Hannah enjoyed four games with six-plus steals … Finished No. 4 in the league with 4.6 assists per outing and topped five assists 13 times … Was No. 9 overall and No. 2 among Big 12 guards in shooting percentage at 45.2 percent … was also the teams’ top scorer and tied a career high 27 points twice against Mississippi State and at Kansas State … Narrowly equaled the feat with 25 points against Baylor and 23 against Illinois in St. Louis.

Then too, Keon Lawrence’s freshman scoring average (9.8) was a little behind Carroll’s sophomore #s (10.9) but he played hurt a couple of stretches during the year. Keon “d the season averaging 9.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game … Showed his ability to perform in the clutch with his game-winning bucket against Oklahoma at Mizzou Arena … The score was tied 64-64 with :47 seconds remaining when he buried a turn-around jumper from the elbow to break the tie … Sealed the win by going 4-of-4 from the free throw line in the final seconds … Suffered through an injury-riddled early portion of the season … Rebounded nicely once fully healthy and finished the season on a run of eight consecutive double-figure scoring games … Finished the year averaging 13.9 points on 49.5 percent shooting from the floor and 47.7 percent shooting from three-point range over his last 11 contests … That average was second on the club and his field goal and three-point percentage during that stretch was tops on the team among guards … Named the Big 12′s Rookie of the Week on Feb. 19 after averaging 21.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists in wins over Baylor and at No. 18 Oklahoma State … Led the Tigers at OSU with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting … Poured in a career high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting in the win over Baylor …

The bottom line is that we have 3 returning players who averaged above 10 pts a game and our bench often made substantial contributions, so although DeMarre will be a big addition for us, he will hardly be our “only weapon”.
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SMB1997 Says:
MSU is ranked in the top 25. Where’s Missouri ranked? Obviously several analysts around the country agree that MSU is a better team because they’re ranked and Missouri is not. Chris isn’t the only one to think that MSU is better. Some of you are predicting Missouri to win. You must be homers, too. Of course, this is an opinion article, so I believe that one’s opinion should play a role in the predictions. As he pointed out, he believes that UCLA is going to completely expose all of MSU’s weaknesses. Not what a homer would usually say…
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Once again, Chris isn’t merely saying “that MSU is better (than Missouri)”, but that Mizzou doesn’t deserve to even be on the floor with them in this tournament. When it was pointed out to him that the minimal research he *had* done, looking at what he thought was last years results, was wrong, he dismisses that and continues to condescendingly slam tonights opponents:

“We are talking about Missouri, right?” “…Of the four host schools, Missouri is obviously the weakest.”

This article was posted on 11-14-07, the day after we pasted Fordham by 24 points and yet he says:

“Maybe Fordham, which finished 16-16 last year (sic), should have been the host school.”

That hardly seems to be a balanced analysis of the situation.

I tip my hat to the fact that Michigan State is ranked higher than Missouri, but I don’t think that translates into “Mizzou isn’t worthy to be a host team for this tournament.”

While it is true that Michigan State is ranked pretty high by most analysts, I don’t think many would agree with Chris’ contention that Missouri is “not that much better than the Weber States or Tulsas of the world.”

College Hoops Net, for instance, has Missouri rated in the #32 spot and an NCAA Tourne spot. http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/new/story/2007_08_missouri_basketball_preview41143

Analysts’ opinions will vary, of course, but I think that should have given Chris all the more pause before declaring that Missouri “is obviously the weakest” of the host schools. Perhaps the tournament will play out that way, but it isn’t “obvious” to all of the analysts. CHN, for instance, has the Maryland Terrapins at #47 in their rankings, 15 spost below their ranking of Missouri. http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/preview/2007/41to60.htm

It seems to me that it would have been more prudent for Chris to have held off on belittling Missouri until after the game tonight. Sure Michigan State is ranked higher, and is favored by the bookies, but only by 1.5 to 2 points as of Monday afternoon: http://www.docsports.com/college-basketball-lines.html

But anything can happen, and I’ll bet that they were favored by quite a bit more than when they played Grand Valley State. Making fun of how pathetic he thinks Missouri is now would make it all the more difficult for Chris to spin them as a quality opponent if they happen to beat his Spartans. I would think he would remember having to do that less than a couple of weeks ago when he had to play up Grand Valley State as “a veritable Ohio State of the second division”, playing up the fact that “Their basketball coach, Ric Wesley, has significant D-I experience as an assistant under Barry Hinson at Missouri State.”

Who knows, maybe the head coach at Missouri could work similar magic. If so, Chris hasn’t left himself much wiggle room to say that such an event hadn’t been all that implausible and could have been foreseen by a knowledgable student of the game…

But being overly condescending can stir up opposing fans and a little controversy can bump the page hits quite a bit. Maybe stirring the pot and riling up the masses is the way of sports “journalism” today. It’s all about the ratings baby! ? !