This deserves a thread by itself .............

[ROYC75]

What an astounding accomplishment !

Props to our rivals to the east !

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...s/14026782.htm

MU 64, NEBRASKA 63
Missouri avoids last place
Brown’s hook caps Tigers’ comeback
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star

COLUMBIA — Marshall Brown’s right-handed half hook from the lane with just 3.3 seconds to play kept Missouri from finishing in the Big 12 basketball basement.

But the way this season has gone — Missouri’s 64-63 nail-biter over Nebraska was just the Tigers’ second victory in the last dozen games — there were a lot of Tigers holding their breath as Nebraska’s Jason Dourisseau launched a 60-foot prayer as time ran out.

“Those kind of shots have been going in against us all year,” said Thomas Gardner, who almost personally dragged Missouri out of an 11-point deficit with 11 consecutive points in the final 3 minutes. “My heart kind of dropped. Luckily he missed it. And luckily Kevin (Young) didn’t get called for a foul for reaching in.”

Dourisseau said he felt contact as he tried to get close enough for his wing and a prayer.

“I actually thought they fouled me a couple of times before I got it off,” Dourisseau said.

But then Dourisseau’s hop, skip and a jump — it sure looked like traveling to what was left of 9,388 at Mizzou Arena — wasn’t called either.

Ultimately Brown’s make and Dourisseau’s miss were what it took for Missouri to avoid finishing dead last in a conference race for the first time in 39 seasons.

The season before Norm Stewart replaced him, Bob Vanatta’s 1966-’67 Tigers, finished 3-22 and, at 1-13, alone in the basement of the old Big Eight Conference. Oh yeah, and Vanatta’s penultimate MU team had finished 3-21 overall and, at 1-13, dead last in the Big Eight.

With 4 minutes, 43 seconds to play, Wes Wilkinson had put Nebraska — already having clinched a sixth-place finish in the Big 12 — on top 59-48 with a three-pointer from the right wing.

The only thing keeping Missouri even that close was the fact that reserve guard Marcus Watkins was near the end of an eight-point scoring run for the Tigers.

And then Gardner, who finished with 23 points, went on a sizzle of his own starting with 2:53 left.

Gardner hit a three, then another three, then three free throws. When Gardner hit a left-handed running drive down the lane with 1:06 to play, he’d scored 11 points in a row. Missouri led 62-61.

“I’ve got to shoulder a lot of the blame,” Dourisseau said. “I was guarding him, and Gardner went off on me the last couple of minutes. He made some tremendous shots.”

Dourisseau looked as if he might have made Gardner’s late heroics meaningless when, with 42.5 seconds, he was fouled and made both ends of a one and one.

Nebraska led 63-62.

Missouri was clearly desperate.

Gardner drove wildly and missed with 28 seconds to play. Jimmy McKinney missed from three 3 seconds later. Then there was a mad scramble for a loose ball, and Nebraska got it on the alternating possession with 20.2 seconds left under the MU basket.

Wilkinson was immediately fouled but missed the front end of a one-and-one at 19.6, and Young got the rebound.

Missouri called a timeout with 13.7 seconds left.

And then the real wildness began.

The play was supposed to be Brown setting a pick for Gardner, but Nebraska beat that play. McKinney dribbled around the right flank and thought about launching one of his fade-away two-pointers.

But McKinney had already missed nine of 11 shots on the way to six points in his final home game as a Tiger.

“I didn’t want to force it,” he said. “I passed it off to Cap.”

That would be Young, who was three for 11 from the field and – while dragging down 12 rebounds – scored only seven points in his final game at Mizzou Arena.

“He gave it to Marshall,” McKinney said, “and Marshall went up strong and hit the half hook.”

Only 2.9 seconds showed on the clock. But referees checked and reset the clock to 3.3 seconds.

Dourisseau dribbled up the middle of the court to just short of midcourt and launched. McKinney feared the worst.

“I didn’t breathe,” McKinney said. “I didn’t do anything because it looked good. I was right next to him, and I looked at the way he was looking at it, and I thought it was going in.”

It didn’t, and Nebraska finished 17-12 overall and 7-9 in the Big 12.

Missouri’s victory puts the Tigers as the 11th seed and into an 8:20 p.m. Thursday rematch with Nebraska in the first round of the Big 12 tournament in Dallas.

How much did Missouri need this? How much did the Tigers want it?

Well, with 3:34 left and Missouri down 59-50, acting coach Melvin Watkins called a timeout and ripped into his Tigers.

“If you saw me,” Watkins said, “you saw the blood vessels popping in my head and almost passing out. I was begging them at that point.

“I just didn’t want us to lie down. And for a moment there it looked like, ‘Well, Coach, this may be a little too deep for us.’

“So I kind of raised my voice a little bit to get them to collectively come back.”