Missouri basketball...

[Al Agnew]

They look different...Anderson brought back "Missouri" on the uniforms instead of "Mizzou".  

But they already look better than last year.  The game last night was against a very weak team, but they made shots, they ran the floor, and they played decent help defense.  All the newcomers looked at least as good as the returnees.  Wright and Allen broke some rule and were suspended for the game.  Gant looked okay.  Rosburg was Rosburg...except he made both his free throws.  It was good to see Clark back, and he looked pretty good.  Isabell shot lights out but was a bit of a ball hog when he was in.  But of the newbies, Woods played very well, Puryear did okay, Walton shot lights out, Vanleer shot very well, and Phillips ran the floor well and played havoc defense.  He's going to be a good one.  Even Barton, a walk-on from DeSmet, looked like he could contribute.  Only Wolf looked a little lost.  Assuming it's just a slight glitch with Wright and Allen, by my count that's 12 guys who are almost interchangeable.  And maybe that's Anderson's idea, because they played very up tempo, nothing like the pound it inside half court game they played last year.  Maybe they can settle on a ten man rotation and play fast break basketball with plenty of substitutions.

They are undersized, and they are going to have trouble with rebounding and inside defense.  But they aren't any smaller than the 2010-2011 team with Ratliffe and Moore the only big men...and those guys did alright.

I think a .500 record is very doable this year, maybe a little better than that, if they can learn to team rebound.  I think we're going to love watching Phillips and Walton develop.

[Quillback]

Good stuff, I hope Mizzou fields a good team this year.   Aggravating thing about SEC basketball is that it is almost pre-ordained that Kentucky will finish a top the heap.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I hope you are right Al.

I ready for good things in Missouri B-ball and I think Kim can do it!

[Jerry Rapp]

are the basketball players on strike also?   http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14078494/missouri-tigers-football-players-strike-embattled-tim-wolfe-resigns

[ozark trout fisher]

I hope you are right, Al. After the way this football season has gone, I really need basketball to generate some good feelings.

I'd be thrilled with a .500 record and a finish close to the middle of the pack in the SEC. The non-conference schedule is going to prevent anything like a run to 20 wins, but a much improved team can find wins against the underbelly against the SEC. We'll see if we have that as soon as November 13th. That home game against Wofford is a pretty good measuring stick. They are a pretty good team and Mizzou will probably be underdogs. A win there shows me they are probably improved. A loss doesn't end the season by any stretch, but I think it would rightfully have some fans bracing for a long year.

As for the protest going on with football...there is no need to panic right now. The administration needs to treat them with respect and make it obvious they are hearing the concerns of the players involved. It can't just be lip service. If that happens (or much, much worse) the players are punished, dismissed, etc, there will be a PR disaster that could end the careers of the current administration and signal the beginning of the end of the Pinkel era. 

On the other hand, a quick firing or resignation of Tim Wolfe would unequivocally show that the football team has WAY too much power over the structure of an entire university system. If anything, this protest makes it impossible for the university to do the "easy" thing and send Wolfe on his way. That would be a huge PR hit, too.. So yeah, the powers that be at Mizzou are going to have to tread really lightly here. But that's what Wolfe and Loftin are paid the big bucks to be able to do. I feel that significant changes can be made without a wholesale firing of the leaders of the UM-system. They've got to figure out what that looks like.

My guess is that there will be some resolution that allows the team to play Saturday. There is way too much money on the line, even though the game itself is basically meaningless for both teams.

Lastly, I really hope we can discuss this without racial epithets and other ugliness getting brought into play. If that can't happen I'll immediately show myself out.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, at one of the Mizzou sports boards I've been reading, the racial ugliness was beginning to show up big time, along with the expected "throw those coddled athletes out" calls.  We don't know the whole story of how the football guys got so involved in this, but just because they are "coddled" doesn't mean they can't see problems affecting other black students.  Kim English tweeted, "If you were black at my alma mater, and your name was not Maclin, Denmon, Pressey, English, Weatherspoon, Carroll, etc. you didn't feel welcome."

At the same time, a bunch of people were calling everybody who appeared to be against the players protesting "crackers", etc. which is far from helpful, too.

It's a mess, and hopefully cooler heads will prevail.  I really think it puts everybody in a difficult position, but I found it interesting that Pinkel tweeted that the whole football organization is behind the protesting players.

[stlfisher]

Glad the protest over and we can get back to talking just about the teams we follow.   I am hopeful that basketball will take a step forward this year and I think it will, but still it is a very young team.  I hope they give Kim at least one more year to get it together. He reminds me of Gary Pinkel in the way he recruits coaches etc.  Should be interesting.

[Jerry Rapp]

this is a very good read on the ramifications that this fiasco will lead to in the future.....  the players are the boss now.  

 

http://www.campusrush.com/missouri-tigers-strike-ncaa-1446533935.html 

[jtram]

I threw up, i can no longer support Mizzou let alone their football team. Very sad I have been a Mizzou fan from birth, went nuts when we beat OU, went to Atlanta to watch them in their first SEC champ game and drove to Jonesboro on a whim this year. Im sick of minorities screaming racism if they don't receive better treatment and more opportunities than the evil White man. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH. That was me screaming. Watch the question rudely asked by mouthy students with no respect and hear his response. He knew it was a trap, yet answered honestly. Had I asked an authority figure with that kind of language I would have been knocked on my butt by my parents, but I'm white so maybe minorities are allowed to do such?

 

What a world we live in

[tho1mas]

Makes me really proud to live in the "Show me state". First Ferguson, now this!