Ouch

[Justin Spencer]

Coaching has to be a big part of what got them there however.

[ozark trout fisher]

I'm sorry...Thirty wins. I'm not going to complain about the coaching, or anything else for that matter. Heck , if our whole season didn't include anything besides that Kansas game in Columbia, I'd be happy. Never been to a basketball game anything like that one. Frank Haith did seem to freeze up a little yesterday, but he's also the one who's largely responsible for giving us such a successful season. So in all, I'm just pretty thankful for what he was able to do for this program in his first year. Remember last year; we lost 5 of our last six games and almost ended up missing the tournament.

It will be tough to get back into this position next year, but I actually wouldn't rule it out. We'll have Lawrence Bowers, and Phil Pressey who might be the best point guard in the country, plus Michael Dixon and everyone else we've got coming in. We could be pretty darned good.

[KCRIVERRAT]

I've just come out of my coma that set in as soon as the final whistle blew. We scored 84 points. Just above what we usually score. Problem is we gave up 86. More than we've given' up ALL year.

Why did that happen?

We were tied at halftime. Haith should have made adjustments to put some pressure on Norfolk in the backcourt. They had NO point guard. What I'm sayin' is PRESS"EM!

With P. Pressy, Dixon, Denmon, and English (who would've benifited from playing a wide open game) we could've made it our type of game.

Instead, we let a taller team gain confidence by allowing them to bring the ball easily up court and get into their half-court offense.

One more thing... Ratliffe and Moore were pitiful against O'Quinn. Kudo's to that kid.

[Stoneroller]

thought you were talking abou this...

best caption, go.

[dave potts]

thought you were talking abou this...

best caption, go.

Thank God he wasn't facing the other way.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, it just looked like they were playing at about half speed all game, no defensive pressure at all. Maybe Haith did freeze up. Maybe he, along with the team, thought that surely the other team would revert back to normal for them and start missing threes. Looking at the box score, the five starters for NSU shot a combined 60% from the field and 60% on threes, and only missed one three in the second half. Every one of them shot over 50% but one, and he went 7-14.

But I have to say that I thought the NSU point guard was a lot better than advertised. He handled the ball well. Mizzou didn't play but a bit of token press all year, and when they did it was seldom if ever successful. Not sure if a press would have been the answer, not when you seldom play it. They weren't all that good at it last year under Anderson when they played it all the time.

Rebounding, especially offensive rebounding, hurt Mizzou bad, too. All in all, they played offense well enough to win, but they didn't defend and rebound, and NSU made them pay for that.

[ozark trout fisher]

One funny story relating to all of this....

I was talking to a friend of mine after the game, who happens to be a Duke fan, and he was ranting and raving about how this game proved that Haith was not a good coach. The last thing he said was "Coach K's team would never get upset by a 15 seed like this in the first round." But then a couple hours later...........

The take home message: stuff happens. Don't pin this on Haith who I think has exceeded all of our expectations, and certainly don't pin this on those seniors who played their hearts out for the last four years. Norfolk State played the best basketball game they have played in their lives. They couldn't miss a shot, and just played really tough. Hats off to them. Missouri came out slow and had one of their worst defensive and rebounding performances of the season. It's that simple. Upsets happen to good teams, even to teams led by legendary coaches. If enough things go right (or wrong), Lehigh can beat Duke and Norfolk State can beat Missouri. Tough that it had to happen when it did, but if everything always went as planned in sports, or fishing, or anything else, it wouldn't be much fun, would it?

[Quillback]

OTF, that is funny, the Duke fan obviously brought some bad karma onto his team. I admire your ability to maintain perspective, if I was an ardent Mizzou fan I probably would have thrown a brick at my TV at the end of that game. My team (Gonzaga) was bounced yesterday, they could've won, they had the looks in the last couple of minutes but could not convert.

I have nobody to root for now, maybe I'll pull for Wisconsin.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I just believe that when a team losses a big game that they should win more often then not the coach didn't prepare them or let them think they could coast.

I think for the most part that's the story in all sports.

[KCRIVERRAT]

I just believe that when a team losses a big game that they should win more often then not the coach didn't prepare them or let them think they could coast.

I think for the most part that's the story in all sports.

I agree Wayne. Look... I commend Haith and the players for what they accomplished. But playing a matador defense the entire game thinking Norfolk was gonna finally fade away on their own was a big mistake. Some of the players were quoted as saying that. I just feel some pressure in the backcourt with the speed we have would've thrown them off regardless if we actually got a steal or two converted into buckets. All it takes to rattle a team that is inferior to you is a few different looks.

I also semi-agree with you Al. We sucked with the press last year. But only the last eight or nine games. Anderson knew he was heading to Arkansas and I'm glad he's gone. He's a joke and will never lead the Hogs to success with his philosophies. The end of last year he let his players revert to simply playground basketball towards the end of the season. He stood on the sideline and grimaced every once in a while and that's about it. His brain's about the size of one those warts on a hornyhead.

Haith did a heck of a job this year and I'm glad he's our coach. But... lose that "deer in the headlights look" and coach them youngters when it's time to coach a youngster. Especially when you get a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament... against Norfolk friggin' State.