Market Power

Mizzou Ranked, But Not Like You Think

Mizzou is ranked 21st, but in a poll where the lower the rank, the better the rank.

But the Tigers’ recent success is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving. In a less prestigious poll, the streak endures. According to odds set last week by BetUS.com, an online gambling site, MU is No. 21 among schools most likely to be the next caught having committted an NCAA violation. The opening line is 18-1.

Mizzou - First Round University

Mizzou had at least one player drafted in the first round of the NBA draft (DeMarre Carroll to the Memphis Grizzlies), the MLB draft (Kyle Gibson to the Minnesota Twins), and NFL (Jeremy Maclin to the Eagles and Ziggy Hood to my Steelers).  That's just another welcome sign that the sleeping giant may have finally awoken for good.

How the Bad Leo Turned into the Good Leo

I've written before about how Mizzou was not Leo Lyon's first choice of schools.  Joe Posnanski gives a more in depth look at how Leo Lyons matured into one of the college game's better players. 

And when asked what he saw in Leo Lyons, Anderson shrugged as if to say: “Isn’t it obvious?” Lyons is 6 feet 9, has long arms and has the basketball grace of a smaller man. He can play inside or outside, he can handle the basketball, he can shoot it from outside, he can be a shot blocker, and when he’s determined and active, he is too quick and athletic to keep off the offensive glass. Yes, Anderson saw that Lyons could be the complete college basketball package. He could be a program changer.

Read the whole thing.

Getting to Know the Big Red of Cornell

Mizzou plays Cornell in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  Here's a link to all you need to know about the Big Red.  A snippet:

Cornell is located in Ithaca, New York, a city best known for its vegetarian restaurant Moosewood Restaurant, its Dalai Lama (the North American seat for the 14th one is there, whatever that means), and its being a city in New York not named New York City. It's essentially the Jefferson City of New York, so they've got that going for them.

Via Tigerboard

Overrated Mizzou? Hardly!

Seth Davis.

The Tigers did a terrific job winning the Big 12 tournament, but keep in mind they didn't have to play either Kansas or Oklahoma en route to the title. Missouri relies heavily on its defensive pressure, but in the tournament they will be playing teams that are generally steady at the point. (That's why they're in the tournament.) If Mizzou has to score in its halfcourt offense, it can lose to anybody.

Jeff Gordon drinks from the same cup.

* The Big 12 North was the weak half of this conference. The Tigers had to play tourney-bound Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M just once during this season.

* Mizzou banked four of their 12 regular season conference victories over hapless Iowa State and Colorado, who finished a combined 5-27 in the Big 12 this season.

* While winning the Big 12 Tournament, they didn’t run into Oklahoma or Kansas. Instead, they defeated Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Baylor in the upset-filled event. Those weren’t headline-grabbing victories.

And Vahe Gregorian:

Never mind that the third-seeded MU Tigers had the gentlest seeding path to a Big 12 tourney championship in the 13-year history of the conference, playing a No. 11 and a No. 7 before meeting the ninth-seeded Bears.

Forget that in the process, MU avoided seventh-ranked, second-seeded Oklahoma in a second-round game and top-seeded Kansas in the title game.

Mizzou played neither Kansas nor Oklahoma because neither could beat teams in the tournament that Missouri beat.  In other words, neither Kansas nor Oklahoma was the 2nd (or 3rd) best team in the tournament juding from the results of those things we call games.

Oh, and by the way:  Missouri went 2-1 against OU and KU in the conference season.  And they beat OU when OU was at full strength (unlike KU who beat a Blake-less OU).

Mizzou also went 4-0 (combined tournament and conference season) against the teams that beat Kansas (Baylor) and Oklahoma (OSU) in the tourney.  And for not being able to win on the road, 3 of those 4 games were away from Mizzou arena and 2 were arguably "on the road" (once at Stillwater and once against OSU in OKC, a game which was anything but at a neutral site).

Mizzou also went 7-1 combined in the conference season and the tournament against South Division teams.  Oh, and the Big XII North got 3 of the top 4 seeds in the Big XII tournament. 

But let's not let the facts get in the way.

Quick Note on Leo Lyons

The St. Louis Post Dispatch has an article on Leo Lyons that mentions something that I thought of each time I saw Leo with his head in the clouds during his first two years at Mizzou:  Mizzou wasn't his first choice.

Mike Alden - The Under-appreciated AD of Mizzou

With just a few exceptions, Missouri’s other sports programs are nationally prominent. The MU soccer team won the Big 12 Tournament and finished 17th nationally. The wrestling team is fifth, the gymnastics team is 13th, the baseball team is 10th, the softball team is 15th and the men’s indoor track team is 23rd. The men’s and women’s swimming teams are sitting just outside the Top 25.

Among public schools in BCS conferences, Missouri ranks first in the Academic Progress Rate — the NCAA’s measure of scholastic success.

That’s an impressive body of work for Athletic Director Mike Alden. After a tumultuous stretch from 2004-06, I’m sure he can appreciate the peace and prosperity of these good ol’ days.

That's Joe Walljasper of the Columbia Daily Trib.  And to think Alden was nearly fired after the Quin Snyder debacle.  Not all of the coaches at Mizzou are Alden hires.  Basketball's Mike Anderson is.  So is Gary Pinkel of the football team.  Tim Jamieson of the baseball team is not.  But overall, Alden has instituted an environment of winning by surrounding himself with good people and good coaches.  The proof is in the results.  Good thing they kept him around.

Nolan Richardson on Mizzou Coach Mike Anderson: Quote of the Year

Mike Anderson's mentor, former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, has the quote of the year about the Mizzou basketball program and his former player and assistant:

“That kind of style is not for everyone,” Richardson said. “Lots of guys have agents and cousins that want them to go to the NBA. They complain about not getting enough touches.

“Mike doesn’t want that. He doesn’t need to go out and sign a bunch of McDonald’s All-Americans. He just needs to go find a few Burger King-type guys and he’ll get it done.”

I think that the Zou Crew and the Antlers need to go out and get a bunch of Burger King crowns and wear them to every game the rest of the year!

Mike Anderson:  making Mizzou basketball relevant again since 2006.

Update:  where's what Bernie Miklasz had to say.

“It takes a special kind of player to be in that system,” said Richardson, who watched proudly from the back corner as Anderson conducted his post-game press conference. “You have to know that one night you play five minutes and the next night you may play 20. You have to be willing to do that. You can’t be a guy who’s got an agent or friend telling you all the time that you have to get your touches. I call those guys ‘Burger King players’ that have to have it their way. You can’t do that.”

Maybe these quotes come from different interviews, but now I don't know if calling a guy a "Burger King guy" is a compliment or an insult.  I prefer the compliment because it sounds as if he's talking about blue collar guys and junkyard dogs.

Welcome to Mizzou L'Damian Washington

L'Damian Washington is one of the newest recruits to the Mizzou football team.  A 6' 4" 2-star WR from Shreveport, La., Washington has recently had a tough go of it.  The Shreveport Times explains.  HT Dave Matter.

Doing the Leo Shuffle

Joe Wallsjasper from the Columbia Daily Tribune sums it up well about Mizzou forward Leo Lyons.

The most obviously gifted Missouri basketball player is probably the most fragile and definitely the most psychoanalyzed. The senior forward’s performances in the last week have done nothing to discourage the armchair Freuds from formulating their theories.

With his team in desperate need of help in Wednesday’s loss at Kansas State, Lyons gave the Tigers a meager 18 minutes of mope, with his only outward signs of passion being complaints to teammates after defensive breakdowns led to uncontested dunks. It seemed reasonable that Missouri Coach Mike Anderson would bury Lyons on the bench in one last attempt at tough love before giving up on him entirely.

But Anderson went the other way. The coach said he woke up yesterday with a hunch that Lyons needed to return to the starting lineup. In his first start since the Big 12 opener at Nebraska, Lyons responded by scorching Baylor for a career-high 30 points in an 89-72 victory at Mizzou Arena. The Bears simply couldn’t stop him from driving to the basket, where he converted 8 of 11 shots, and kept putting him on the foul line, where he made 14 of 15 free throws.

Leo arguably is the most innately-talented player on this team, mentioned as having NBA skills.  But his heart, toughness, and focus have been in question at various times throughout his career.  He played well against Baylor and he played well at Texas, especially at the end of the game when he made some nice decisive moves on Texas' big Dexter Pittman.  If Leo can play continue to play with the Lyon's heart he's shown in the past two games, punch the dance card for the Tigers.