College Hoops........

[ozark trout fisher]

A really nice performance by Mizzou IMO. They started slow, but really got it going in the second half. There is some fantastic talent on this roster, from the backcourt in Jordan Clarkson and Jabari Brown to JWIII and Ryan Rosburg (who has somewhat surprisingly been our best inside presence).

Northwestern isn't the best team and they were without Drew Crawford for much of the game, but the Tigers just looked like a high quality team for the first time this year. Only now can I look at this team and say that they have a really good chance at contending in the SEC and for the NCAA tournament. Another big game against Nevada tomorrow, though.

Tough that they have to play on Thanksgiving.

[KCRIVERRAT]

Guess I need to check and see if we beat Nevada. Still tough for me to get hyped up for early season Mizzou BB. I'm still fired up for the A&M game and (with apprehension) the Chiefs.

[Quillback]

Guess I need to check and see if we beat Nevada. Still tough for me to get hyped up for early season Mizzou BB. I'm still fired up for the A&M game and (with apprehension) the Chiefs.

Go Chiefs! They really need to win this one.

[KCRIVERRAT]

Whoops! Guess I meant Northwestern. I'm outta the loop with BB so far. Nice to have Haith back.

Guess I need to check and see if we beat Nevada. Still tough for me to get hyped up for early season Mizzou BB. I'm still fired up for the A&M game and (with apprehension) the Chiefs.

[ozark trout fisher]

Mizzou wins again over Nevada. The game wasn't on TV, but it sounds like they played okay given they were playing an opponent that is likely a mid-teir Mountain West team. The schedule doesn't get easier with West Virgina and UCLA at home in the next two games, and then Illinois and NC State intermixed with a couple of interesting mid-majors. I honestly thought they would drop a game in Vegas, and this raises our chances of getting to 10-3 or 11-2 in non-conference play.

It is officially basketball season, and Mizzou might have a pretty decent team. Probably not a great team, but they look like they may be in the mix for a tourney bid. That would not be bad given the inexperience. Regardless, I'm starting to like this team. They showed against NW yesterday that they can be incredibly exciting to watch, if absolutely nothing else.

[Al Agnew]

They need to get more consistent scoring and rebounding from their bigs to be a really good team. The combination of Williams III, Rosburg, and Criswell accounted for 12 boards and 6 points total against Nevada. No doubt the guards can carry the bulk of the scoring, but they need to get the kind of production from those three combined that Ratliffe and Moore gave them two years ago.

[ozark trout fisher]

I get that basically no one could care less about Mizzou hoops right now given the state of the football team. But in addition to the SEC championship game, this is a massive few days for Missouri basketball. We get a (seemingly) much better than expected WVU team tonight at home, then UCLA Saturday morning (on CBS before the championship game so no excuse not to watch it.........

Anyway-win these two, and you are probably looking at a national ranking, a solid tournament resume, and a ton of confidence heading into the the last few tests of non-conference play (mainly Illinois and a road game at NC State.) Frankly, these look like two really good opponents, so if we can just win one of these I'll be fairly pleased.

I'll go 78-77 in favor of Mizzou tonight against West Virginia, and 85-70 in favor of UCLA on Saturday for my predictions. Any home loss would be breaking a major winning streak for Mizzou, so I don't feel great about picking UCLA. But they just look better early on. And with the SEC championship a few hours later, those who live far away won't want to travel to the game, so we can probably expect a half-empty arena. Normally we'd pack the house for UCLA, so the Bruins are catching a major break here. Hopefully we'll get a decent crowd tonight though.....no excuses for this one. I plan to be there, though sadly I'm gonna have to miss the big one against UCLA.

[Quillback]

Yeah I would think if they beat WV and UCLA they have a shot at being ranked. Just looked at the RPI rankings - U Mass is #1. Arkansas is ranked #18, top ranked in the SEC, but I don't expect that to last long.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi

[ozark trout fisher]

The Hogs are better than last year, Anderson might finally get it going in year 3 and make the tourney. Should be a couple interesting games between them and Mizzou.

UMass #1 in the RPI is hilarious. They are actually a really good, likely tournament team, but somehow I don't think they're #1 in March..................Missouri is #65, right behind # 64 Duke. Penn State and UC Santa Barbara are both ahead of the Blue Devils. The RPI serves mostly as a funny prank in early December.

[KCRIVERRAT]

I'll be watching Mizzou BB tonight and Saturday OTF. Usually I'm a heck more focused on BB season by now but I HAVE been payin' more attention lately. Seen parts of two games.

But man... SEC Championship game? I'm stoked....

Gonna be a fun weekend not excluding tonight when we beat Huggie Bear (YUK!)