It was reasonable to expect both of those guys to improve. Instead, they regressed.

I'm going to give the guy more than five years before I say he's topped out. As I said earlier, my eyes will be on the 2012 class. He needs to land a truly elite kid to headline that class, and surround him with a lot of other talent, as well as some glue guys.

That class will be the turning point. Either Anderson will step things up and recruit studs he can get on campus (Porter is one of those, IMO), or things will stay as they are.

I'm going to wait until this signing day before I say too much more about next year. Porter and McLemore would be huge gets, and I think Porter is such a good fit for what Anderson does, he could make an impact in year one.

People forget there was a lot of turnover with this team. Players usually don't grasp the defense until year two of the program. We'll see what the big 2010 class does next year. My money would be on the Presseys, Kreklow and Ratliffe all having much better seasons on the defensive end of the floor.

And losing Mitchell really was a crippling blow, combined with Green's Achilles' injury.

I don't think we lost Mitchell. We never had him in the first place.

Anyone else who watched the game envious of Clemson's system and Brad Brownell in general? They run an up-tempo like ours but he actually still designs set plays and adjusts his defenses to the opponents offensive strategy. I just don't see that with MA. I really liked Clemson's pace and style.

I'm not down on MA to the point that I'm jealous of Clemson. Still have a way to go before I'm that bad. Plus, didn't we just beat them in the tourney?

Last year with a different coach, I believe.

Yeah, they had Purnell last year. Brownell seems like a significant upgrade.

All of these misses taken individually make sense, but collectively it is hard to get over the fact that the state produced three top 20 overall prospects this year and Mizzou will come away with none of them. That is almost inexcusable.

It is especially frustrating considering that it is clear when watching us play that what we lack is blue chip talent. We have too many random pieces of okay players, but ultra athletic guys like Mitchell or dominant scorers like Beal are just not there.

On Young, I am a bit frustrated because Anderson seems like the type of coach that can take an immature and talented kid, probably coming from a dysfunctional family setting, and help him reach his full potential. If we choose not to recruit any kids that have had a few issues in high school, we are not going to be bringing many talented basketball players to Mizzou, because high school bball studs are rarely perfect saints.

Young has definitely had his issues, specifically fights, but it's not like he is a murderer or rapist, and reportedly his grades have always been fine.

I'm honestly wondering if Alden still has final say on recruiting targets after the Quin fiasco.

just changed my bracket for you guys to beat Cinci, dont let me down!!!!

I've got a bad feeling about this one. I think Mizzou will just mail it in and get beat by 15.

Kim English sucks. Even though he's back home for this game (DC Area) he hasn't been remotely close to the player he should be this season.

I feel no buzz from the Mizzou fans at all. They really don't seem to care, almost reserved that Mizzou will get smoked.

Hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

I see a lot of experts picking MU over Cincy tonight but I think that's off of reputation of winning in the NCAA's because they have sucked the last month of the season.

I'm hoping, but I have a feeling that Cinci, having run the Big East gauntlet this year, won't really be that fazed by our style.

I thought Otto Porter was the best player in state this year? :thumb:

For anyone interested in watching him play right now: http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/page...pionship_alt/0

...the feed has been spotty for me though. He had 18 pts in the first quarter.

EDIT: okay, so that's obviously not the game anymore...not sure what happened.

Okay, its back on now. Click on "Live Stream #2". Otto is #22.

Bastards better show up tonight. Have to win at least one game.