I like to make my opinion known.


I really think MU and Baylor have the inside track right now, with the way the schedule is.

Seriously though, Taylor was the guy I was worried about before the game. He is one of the only guards in the country with the quickness to stay with Pressey, and he's got insanely long arms. He's tough to get around.

I was actually worried about Withey as well, but he didn't do a ****ing thing.

Mizzou's 2-0 against KU and Baylor including a road win. Baylor is 0-2 against KU and Mizzou with a home loss.

Yeah, Self went with a smaller lineup going with Robinson and Withey interchanging. Whithey didn't look aggressive when he had chances to score at the high post.

The Wednesday game is huge. I think KU wins at Baylor.

When Kansas went up 8, I thought Haith might go 5 guards with English, Dixon, Denman, Pressey, and Pressey all on the court together. It would have been interesting.

I know, but I think Baylor probably beats KU Wednesday and KU probably beats MU in Lawrence.

The Baylor MU game in Columbia is gonna be a big game for both teams.

I don't.

I do.

I don't think KU matches up with Baylor very well at all.


I actually think Baylor is probably the most complete team in the conference. I woudln't be surprised to see them win in Columbia.

If last night is any indication, KU is going to be just fine going forward. They completely outplayed one of the best teams in the country on the road. I've never been less worried about this group.

KU beat them by 18 at AFH.

KU played extremely well that game.

And AFH is a whole different animal than going on the road.

Baylor is soft, but they are insanely talented.

That's nice, but it's not going to be a top 10 matchup because Kansas isn't going to be in the top 10. Mizzou would likely have to lose 3 times to be outside the top 10.

Yeah Baylor is crazy talented but they are very soft.

I don't know I just don't have alot of faith that KU can go into Waco and win.

If we stand a chance at all at AFH, both of the Presseys are going to have to actually show up for the game. I wasn't impressed with the play of either last night. Especially Matt.

I think they both are likely to be top ten, depending on what KU does in Waco.

If they beat Baylor, I don't see them losing again until the MU game. They go to KSU, but KSU is playing pretty terrible right now.

KU did a good job of taking Flip out of the game

I will give it to Denmon, he hit some tough shots down the stretch.

No need to leave your feet, Teahan.

I don't know how you can say it's not a good match up. KU seemed to match up very well. Plus, I think not wanting to lose two in a row goes a long way. Have you seen the streak KU has going of wins after a loss? It's pretty remarkable.

Top 10 or not (though I would be surprised if either team wasn't, both teams proved that they are that quality last night), I can't envision any scenario where Mizzou wins the next game.

I think this game took a lot out of Kansas. They could easily come out flat against Baylor and get steamrolled. Same thing could happen to Mizzou. I'm just glad we're at Oklahoma instead of Baylor. Still could be a tough game, though.

I'm sure you'll be crying about the officiating if we do.

Except, like any other good home team, KU gets the calls at home. If MU somehow manages to keep it close despite that huge advantage, I'll probably be complaining about how awful KU played.

JFC some of you MU fans are just as bad as the KU fans crying about calls KU gets all the time at home. Its a REGULAR season win, congrats, awesome game you beat us, no excuses here ..but...in the grand scheme of things it wont mean jack shit if you don't win the conference. Ask KSU in 2009 ....or any other team that beat KU in the regular season during our current streak of conference titles...great game, now lets move on.

Mizzou NFL alums in attendance:

http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/898/1205900.jpg

Who's who in that pic?

Mizzou's Haith silencing biggest doubters, myself included
By Gary Parrish | CBSSports.com College Basketball Insider

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...yself-included

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- I remember the day Missouri hired Frank Haith.

It was the night before last year's national title game. I was at an Irish bar near Rice University enjoying dinner and drinks with a group of fellow writers. We were having a pleasant time. And then everybody became distracted by their phones. I got a text that read simply, "Haith to Mizzou?" So I stepped away to make a call. About three other people at the table got similar texts and made similar calls. And we were all being kind of secretive until somebody finally said, "You hearing Haith-to-Missouri, too?"

Eventually, the story broke.

We all tweeted the news in some form.

Then we all tweeted jokes and generally mocked the hire.

"And I read it," Haith told me late Saturday night. "I read all of it."

And now I hope he's reading this, too. Because we were wrong. We were all wrong. Me and every other so-called expert at that table that night were wrong. We looked at Haith's 43-69 ACC record in seven years at Miami that featured only one NCAA tournament appearance, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. Missouri had just made the most surprising and least inspiring hire of the season, and we all had really strong opinions about it. But here I am 10 months later sitting in Haith's new hometown, and I'm writing about the team he coaches that's 21-2 and ranked fourth nationally after an incredible 74-71 victory over No. 8 Kansas, and, I must be honest, I feel a little stupid.

I mean, I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again.

But know this: I'll never mock a questionable hire like that again.

That's what I've learned from watching Haith go from ridiculed to ridiculously successful. I've learned it's impossible to know for certain. Granted, there are slam dunk hires like John Calipari to Kentucky and Urban Meyer to Ohio State, but we'd probably all be wise to refrain from speaking in absolutes about hires that might not make sense on the surface because sometimes things that don't make sense on the surface turn out OK. Drafting Russell Westbrook fourth overall is one of those things. Hiring Frank Haith at Missouri is another.

"When somebody gets a job, 100 percent of the people are not gonna be happy," Haith said. "Obviously, the percentage was probably a lot higher than normal with my hire. But I couldn't control that. All I could control was how I prepared myself to do the best job I could do."

Turns out, that's a better job than anybody anticipated.

Pamela Haith included.

"Even we didn't imagine this," Haith's wife said with a smile. "It's been amazing."

Which brings me back to Saturday night.

Amazing is a good word.

From the pregame hype to the back-and-forth first half to Marcus Denmon's late heroics that helped Mizzou close on an 11-0 run that turned an eight-point deficit with fewer than three minutes remaining into a three-point victory, the whole thing was amazing. The soldout crowd of 15,061 that watched what Kansas coach Bill Self promised will be the final Border War game played in Mizzou Arena for at least "the immediate future" was treated to a classic. It was exciting and tense and really, really loud.

Thomas Robinson (25 points and 13 rebounds) looked like the National Player of the Year.

Then Denmon (29 points and nine rebounds) outdid him.

Then the final buzzer sounded and the fans hugged and jumped and, in some cases, cried tears of joy. The Big 12 standings were updated to show a three-way tie for first between Missouri, Kansas and Baylor, and the man who has won 91 percent of the games he's coached since he got universally ripped for getting hired took it all gracefully.

This would've been a nice time for Haith to fire back.

The national media was here.

We were all here.

It was the perfect opportunity to take a shot.

"But that's just not my nature," Haith said. "I've had people say, 'Frank, people come after you so much because you're a nice guy.' And I said, 'Is it a crime to be a nice guy?' I'm not gonna change who I am. I believe things happen for a reason and that those kinds of things build character."

And teach lessons.

Or at least this thing has taught me a lesson.

It's taught me to never be so certain about a questionable hire again because no matter what happens in years to come and regardless of how Haith eventually does without a roster like his current roster, built by former coach Mike Anderson, this "questionable hire" has already done more than any of us sitting at that table at that Irish bar near Rice University believed was possible on the night he was hired.

Sure, some athletic director somewhere will make another seemingly wacky decision this April, and when that happens I won't completely understand it. But when somebody asks about it, I'm not going to mock it completely and arrogantly. Instead, I'll be a little more nuanced.

"This doesn't make sense to me on the surface," I'll probably say. "But neither did Haith-to-Missouri. And look how that turned out."

This should help.

http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/...ithnames-1.jpg

It's cool they'd all come back for the game. MU has done a great job in football and basketball of getting good and nice players.

I'm going to miss English more than any player ever. I really hope he takes a job with the university in some capacity. I think he would be an incredible recruiter.

I was saying earlier he has a future in broadcasting, if he wants it.

Yep, probably one of the smartest players in college basketball.

No question. I'd rather he recruited and even coached for us, but if he was on the Mizzou broadcast team, that would be cool too.

Do you want a Iowa one of these???

looks like weatherspoon, gabbert, gachkar, tim barnes, danario alexander, maclin... can't tell the two on the far right. Might be Chase Coffman in the very back

no, I'm pretty sure we don't give a ****.

You're correct, that's Coffman. Big guy whose face is blocked is T. Rucker, and the blurred face is, I THINK, Willy Mo.

Time to get this thread back on track....big game tomorrow night against Oklahoma.

Mizzou beat them pretty good in Columbia, but that seems like a century ago. OU played ku tough down there, and they beat KSU there too.

Hopefully the team will come out focused and not have a hangover after such an emotional victory.

I thought Haith having them stay in a hotel last night was a smart move. Like he said, Columbia was gonna be nuts... best they stay off the street and keep focused.

From FB... Marcus Denmon : 21-2... wheels up to Norman, Oklahoma

Yeah, I think it was a smart move too. He immediately let the team know that it was all business. I think this team knows that Saturday's win won't mean much if they lay turd in Norman. Hopefully they will come out with a great effort and hit some shots early tomorrow night and not let OU in the game.

You guys got outscored 11-2 during the last 4 minutes of each half and "they completely out played" Mizzou.

Right.













ROFL

Based on that stat, it sounds like KU did pretty good during the rest of the game when they weren't being completely screwed over by phantom charging calls, no?

I don't think my descriptor of the game was off at all.

You are the only one who thinks this way, that should tell you something.

Troll face gif would be awesome there.

I'm not. Though even if I was, the majority certainly isn't always right. In fact, quite often they're not.

Here's a hint: You are wrong.

Melvin Booker was my favorite basketball player ever. Then one year at Norm Stewart camp he subbed as coach for our team. It was unreal for an 11 yr old kid.

Forgive me for not taking your word for it.

Yeah pretty sure the blurred face is Willy Mo.

"We completely dominated you guys, except for the part of the game when we sucked which wasn't really our fault because the refs were out to get us".


Whatever helps you sleep at night, lil buckaroo.

This sums up KC_Connections argument quite nicely, thanks.

Have never said that KU didn't suck after the terrible calls, only that the calls affected the game in a major way. Anybody that watched the game knows that.

The calls were not a major factor. Were they a factor? Sure. But so were the fouls that went against Ratliff earlier in the second half. All foul calls are a factor, but these calls were not THE factor that caused Mizzou to win.

They were one of them, though. That's all I've tried to say. I think we're moving closer to the same page.

Nope. I think it was a minor factor, you think it was the difference in the game. Night and day difference there.

There's nothing minor about taking away an And-1 basket when you're up 6 with under 2 minutes left. That's the definition of a major factor. The difference? No, perhaps not. Because if KU had responded to those bad calls better than they did, it likely wouldn't have mattered.

It was a minor factor at the end of the day. If Denmon does not hit the three after the turnover, Mizzou does not gain the momentum it needs. It is a minor factor, in that Mizzou still had to play very well to overtake ku. The play on the court was the major factor. There was a lot of basketball played after the foul call, that is what makes it a minor factor. ku had tons of opportunities to win the game after the call, that also makes it a minor factor.

Again, though, without that call, they may not have the opportunity to even do any of the things you're talking about. And even if they did do them, it may not have been enough. That's pretty significant.

It turned out Marcus Denmon was more clutch than the entire KU basketball team. MU was down 8 points with 3 minutes and 25 seconds left. From that point on, Marcus Denmon outscored KU 9-0. Still feels great.

You have to be smoking crack if you don't think Mizzou would have had those opportunities. Do you really think that if the call went the way you wanted, that Mizzou was not going to play defense? Not get another shot at the basket? Two minutes plus is a long time in a basketball game....especially since the advent of the three point shot, which has made any lead less than 10-12 points marginally safe at best. Mizzou had a ten point lead at Texas and almost blew it. It happens, it is part of what makes college bball great...the three point shot can bring teams back very, very quickly.

Yeah, but according to KC_Connection...Denmon does not make any of those shots if the refs had "made the right call" Denmon was not a factor in the Mizzou win.

Those were both charges. Deal with it.

I think it would have been a nine point lead with under two minutes left. It's very uncommon for teams to come back from that kind of deficit. In fact, at that point, it can often come down to fouling and hoping the other team can miss FTs.

LMAO

Except Texas almost pulled it off against Mizzou five days earlier. Any lead under 10 is not safe with two minutes left, with the three point shot in play. Teams come back form 7,8,9 points down with two minutes more often than you think. All it takes is making a three, getting a stop and making another three. A nine point lead is a three point lead in the blink of an eye. Really, for someone who is such a basketball "expert", you would know that. Such comebacks are on sportscenter with fair regularity.

Not safe, sure, but a comeback is still uncommon. The vast majority of the time, teams don't come back from such deficits at the NCAA level. Of course, they don't show the endings of games where teams simply coast to victory on SportsCenter...they're not as interesting.

MU did not get outplayed the whole game.

They got outplayed for a few minutes in the second half that got them down by 8. Other than that, they were neck and neck the whole game. Did you see how many lead changes?

I would be interested to see the statistic on that, for sure. Uncommon implies less 2-3% of the time, and I think the percentage would be higher, but not necessarily above 5%.

KCC knows more about basketball than you guys. Hell, he knows more about ELITE college basketball than Bill Self. Just take his word for it.

I know more about basketball than you certainly. I'm pretty safe saying that.

Well atleast you guys lose almost the entire team next year. Ill say Elite 8. Not a bad strategy though. Looks like they're recruiting more 4-year guys for next year.

Ken Pomeroy measures win probability every game as its played. KU had a 90% chance of winning the game with a 8 point lead and a little over 2 minutes left.

With Withey, EJ, and Releford still there, KU should be fine next year. They usually are.

general comment for Mizzou thread.