Georgia

[joeD]

1, I'm done with Mizzou

2. No heart

3. No defense

4. No faith in Haith anymore, despite old posts regarding support of said ineffective coach

5. Bench all starrters, play scrubinos the rest of the game.

6. Knee jerk reaction acknowledged.

7. Frustrated with play of an obviously talented team.

[BATCAB27]

32% from the field. 4 points from the bench. They do shoot free throws amazingly well though

[Al Agnew]

This team is not amazingly talented. Brown is an offensive force, but plays mediocre at best defense, and it isn't because he isn't trying, it's because he has slow feet. Clarkson is a one trick pony. If he can't drive to his right and get to the rim and have a friendly referee give him a foul, he's less than mediocre on offense, and he's worse than Brown on defense. Ross is inconsistent in everything he does both offensively and defensively. Clark finally got penetration and a dish to Rosburg for points last night...it's the first actual point guard play I've seen him make all year. He's almost totally ineffective as a point guard, but he's still better than Clarkson at point guard duties. Williams is a rebounding machine and is learning how to play defense, but he has no offensive game whatsoever. Rosburg is pretty much in the same position as Williams but is far less athletic so his ceiling is more limited. Obviously none of the other subs can contribute much but minutes and fouls, unless Haith is even stupider than he sometimes looks.

Teams have simply figured out that you put your best defensive man on Brown, let Clarkson drive into triple teams because he ain't looking to find open men, take your chances with Ross's inconsistent three point shooting, keep bodies somewhere close to the bigs, and you can shut Mizzou down because they don't have a clue how to get Brown open and Clarkson won't pass once he starts to drive, and the bigs can't hit a shot beyond three feet, and often can't hit the three footers.

It struck me the other day that, even though their record the last couple of years isn't bad, they haven't beaten hardly any teams that they weren't expected to beat, and they've lost to plenty of teams they were expected to beat.

[ruthead]

While i do agree with most stated in all posts above a little i don't. Tough for me to say one of the best scoring backcourts in the country isn't amazingly talented. Thats a pretty amazing stat in my book!.........BUT.......very slow feet for all which leads to terrible defense. Desire and hustle may also be part of the slow feet as well as the ability level.

Yes we are a very easy team to figure out and shut down. Couple that with a coaching staff that obviously lacks the ability to prepare and motivate a team that individually has NCAA tourney talent and has had recent extremely critical wins needed but collectively is worse than its parts and you get a NIT team which is really just what we are this year. Heard one of the announcers last night say that we play numerous defenses and thats a sign of a poor defensive team. I couldn't agree more.

Whether you call this Haiths players or not this team is no better or maybe even worse than they were at the start of the year. In my book that means bad coaching. I've seen enough to cut our losses and get another coach in there. Prolly have to suffer through another underachieving year though!

[Quillback]

Prior to last night's game, the bracketologists were still saying Mizzou was bound for the NCAA. I would think this loss will end that talk.

[ozark trout fisher]

While I didn't think we were an NCAA team since the Alabama disaster, I think this one really gets us uncomfortably close to the "auto bid or bust" type of territory. So in other words, we get to spend the rest of the season figuring out whether our NIT opener will be at home or on the road. I don't know how we can handle the pressure of such weighty expectations:)

I've said before that Haith almost cannot be fired after this season. That remains true, but he is trying his best to make a case otherwise. He must win the MSU and A&M home games. Even though the dreamer could carve out a path where that leads to a spot in the first four in Dayton (it won't) that's not what this is about. This is about salvaging some pride and proving that they are still buying in and fighting hard.If Haith can win those two home games, another 1-2 in the SEC tournament, and get a high NIT seed (or maybe even get a look on selection Sunday), then he'll be okay headed into next year.

But if the team finishes 20-13 and loses in the first round of the NIT, then he's really going to be in a tough spot. He wouldn't be fired, but he'd be essentially a lame duck unlikely to make it through '14-15.

Another thing that will largely determine his future, and is mostly out of his control: if Clarkson and/or Brown come back, he has a chance to do well enough next season to salvage his job. Without either, the roster probably won't be good enough to give him much of a chance. He really needs one of those two to stay, unless he somehow can coach up an inexperienced, unproven roster to an NCAA tournament.

[BATCAB27]

I'd rather watch Missouri State, at least those kids play hard and seem to do things with a sense of purpose. Alden would be foolish not to at least see if there is any interest out there during tournament time. Test the waters so to speak.

[moguy1973]

[ozark trout fisher]

CBS Sports STILL has Mizzou projected in the NCAA tournament, though now in a play in game. Honestly, I just checked to see if we'd even be listed on the first four out, and saw us still in there. Bizarre.

Still not making it though. Certainly we'd have to win out the regular season. Frankly, I'd be ecstatic just to go 2-1 at this point, even with the pillow-soft schedule.

[Quillback]

Arkansas has sneaked back into the hunt. A win over KY would be huge Thursday, though very unlikely.