Where is the outrage over Mizzou winning the Big 12 North solely because of its weak schedule?

Last year, KU was given a lot of grief and accused of being a fraud because the Jayhawks “avoided” Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech. And wrongfully so. Texas and Tech last year were no better than two teams the Hawks played on the Road: Okie St (where Tech lost and UT escaped with a miracle fourth quarter), and A&M (where Texas lost)—and this doesn’t even account for UT’s 20 point loss at Home to k-state and its near death experience at Home vs. a Nebraska team that KU routed in an historical manner.

Playing Baylor instead of OU? Okay, you’ve got a point.

This year, Mizzou has had the schedule advantage, yet no one even mentions it.

In the Big 12 North, both Mizzou and KU are 4-1 (as is NU). In common opponents (the North and UT), both teams are 4-2. NU is also 4-2 vs. common opponents with Mizzou (the North plus Baylor); and vs. common opponents with KU (the North plus Tech).

So why is Mizzou playing in the Big 12 title game as the North’s sacrificial lamb, rather than KU? The Jayhawks, after all, beat the Tigers head to head on a neutral field?

Okay—so the Big 12 3 way tie-breaker discards head to head (and rightfully so), and Mizzou wins the hypothetical BCS ratings fiasco. Nevertheless, the ONLY reason Mizzou has an edge in the Big 12 North standings and has avoided the three way tie scenario is its schedule.

Mizzou’s non-common conference opponents vis a vis KU are Okie St at Home and Baylor in Waco vs. Texas Tech at home and Oklahoma in Norman. I will allow that Tech and Okie St are comparable opponents, making the teams’ comparable records 4-3.

But Baylor in Waco vs. OU in Norman? You decide whether Mizzou’s W at Baylor (a game they would have lost had a Baylor defender not dropped an easy Pick-6 in the last two minutes of a tie game) means they are more deserving than a team that had to play in a stadium where OU has lost twice in the Bob Stoops era.

The guess here is that Mizzou is 4-4 had they played OU rather than Baylor, and KU is 5-3 had the Hawks visited Waco instead of Norman.

At any rate, there is no logical basis for anyone concluding that Mizzou is a better team or a more deserving one than KU.

Question:

What do you get with the crowd for a Mizzou - West Virginia National Championship game?

Answer:

A full set of teeth.

YouTube will help capture this “high point” in Mizzou’s history, so someone send me the link when it’s up.

Here’s what happened:

Chris Fowler recounted the history of this rivalry:

“Kansas - Missouri hatred dates back to the 1850’s…pre Civil war, hideous tales of rape, and murder, and pillage…Missourians once burned Lawrence to the ground…”

At that moment, the entire Missouri cheering section erupted in cheers. Pathetic. A sign behind fowler reads “Billy Quantrill, a true American hero.”

Here’s a history of said “American Hero” from PBS:

The climax of Quantrill’s guerilla career came on August 21, 1863, when he led a force of 450 raiders into Lawrence, Kansas, a stronghold of pro-Union support and the home of Senator James H. Lane, whose leading role in the struggle for free-soil in Kansas had made him a public enemy to pro-slavery forces in Missouri. Lane managed to escape, racing through a cornfield in his nightshirt, but Quantrill and his men killed 183 men and boys, dragging some from their homes to murder them in front of their families, and set the torch to much of the city.

Whatever happens tonight, Missouri ought to be ashamed of its behavior.

I wish that my work contract *required* me to make excuses for the folks that depend on me. Actually, that would probably breed mediocrity, so I don’t *really want it. But it would be nice to have in the back pocket I suppose.

Here’s a list of some of the bizarre requirements contained within Anderson’s contract with Mizzou:

_”maintain a mature and rational attitude, keep emotions in control and downplay defeats”;

_”establish and maintain a frequent and systematic program of personal communication with the university’s administration, faculty, staff and student body”;

_make a minimum of 30 public appearances at booster lunches, alumni dinners and similar community events.

Whose standards are we using to define “mature and rational?”

Or UAB has approved the initial conversation:

The University of Missouri has been given permission to speak with UAB basketball coach Mike Anderson about Missouri’s head coaching vacancy.

Meanwhile, back in Columbia, unhappy with the jobs that Mizzou loyalists Sunvold and Link were doing looking for a coach, the powers that be have opted to bang pots and pans together in the hopes that somehow, mysteriously, a coach can be coaxed from the earth.

Why is there a cork on the fork? Because at this pace, someone will lose an eye. Or both eyes. Incredible:

Gary Link and Jon Sundvold apparently will have no further say in who will be Missouri’s new head men’s basketball coach.

Mike Alden, MU’s athletic director, has told Link and senior associate Mario Moccia that neither they nor Sundvold will be part of meetings between Alden, UMC deputy chancellor Mike Middleton and consultant Bob Beaudine aimed at selecting the man who will replace Quin Snyder.

“That’s accurate,” Link told The Star on Thursday morning.

Said Sundvold: “Our job, it appears, is over.”

As the Big 12 North continues to dissolve before our eyes, I wonder to myself, “Do we benefit at all from the continued mediocrity of our former Big 8 comrades?”

I can’t see how we do. The South will rise again next year, with the emergence of young A&M, OSU and Baylor teams, and the North is only getting weaker. Plus, half of the North will be playing with new coaches next year. New and better coaches will help in the long term, i think, but next year will be interesting to say the least.

MU and Huggins

I suggested Huggins to MU back in October, but I didn’t think it would happen. Now we find out that some of MU’s boosters are all over Huggins, and some want to keep their distance. Sunvold is apparently upset that neither Huggins nor Majerus received an interview for the Mizzou job. I don’t know what Mizzou expects, but as long as there’s such a disunity between what the University wants and what the Athletic Department wants (reading between the lines there’s a huge schism here), Mizzou’s big money sports will continue to be mired in mediocrity.

But keep it quiet, because I would hate to see Mizzou get wise to their foolishness.

A snippet on Gardner:

Junior guard Thomas Gardner declared that he’s entering the June 27 NBA draft and foregoing his senior season. He said he will not hire an agent at this time, which would enable him to maintain eligibility for his final season at MU if he chooses to withdraw his name from draft consideration.

I’ll not be wearing any Mizz-ubaz pants anytime soon.

That was a thorough and complete, old-fashioned, wood-laying, back breaking whooping from the first minute until the 36th minute.

I thought our ball movement was very good throughout the game. We also did a great job keeping up the defensive pressure until the subs came in.

We held Mizzou without a fieldgoal for around 15 minutes in the second half.

Julian Wright had another monster game. He really just does everything.

I was very happy to see our guards start shooting a little better. That will be an important part of a run in March, I have a feeling.

I really really wish I would have remembered to lay a gentleman’s wager on the game. I just plum forgot and KU -17.5 was the easiest money in town.

I sort of feel bad for Melvin Watkins and the Mizzou players, but I don’t have an ounce of pity for any of the “professionals” associated with the Missouri Athletic Department.

This team is continuing to get better. We’re maintaining our defensive intensity and we’re getting good contribution off the bench. The announcers, I get the feeling, were very impressed with this team - they just seemed surprised by how good we were.

One last thing - did I see on the broadcast that KU’s current FG % is on pace to be the third best since 1978? If so, that’s incredible.

What a difference a month makes.

Postgame video with Brandon Rush and Bill Self here at Sportsline.

Looking at how the top 25 has fared so far, (with 1, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18 and 19 losing), I think we have a very good chance of moving up to 18 or 19 this week. And a lot of people are starting to notice this team. You can bet that the hype machine will be in full effect to gear up for our ESPN game with UT a week from today. Heavens that will be a big game.

A month and a day ago, I predicted that Missouri would sneak past Kansas in Columbia by a score of 64-62 because, even with a good defensive performance, I didn’t think the Jayhawks could score enough points to beat the Tigers.

It’s difficult to remember now, but Missouri looked more like Iowa State than Baylor through the first four games of the conference season. They couldn’t stop anybody from scoring, but their offense was good enough, most nights, to allow them to compete. Both Missouri and Iowa State have shown this to be an unsustainable method for success (even in the weak Big 12).

Missouri scored and allowed 1.11 points per possession in their first four conference games. (Granted, nobody pays to me to meet a deadline, but this is another reason, beyond a simple glance at the schedule, that the mid-January stories about the resurgent Tigers were poorly though out and less than convincing.) Missouri has maintained that defensive performance over the last seven games, but they’ve stopped scoring. Missouri has averaged a mere 0.90 points per possession since the Kansas game.

That night in Columbia was so long ago that Christian Moody played twice as many minutes as Julian Wright and Sasha Kaun combined.

Micah Downs contributed a missed shot and a turnover. Melvin Watkins hadn’t won a Big 12 game since 2003.

It was a weird night as well. Kansas scored 1.16 points per possession. Missouri scored 1.09 points per possession. Missouri won because they had seven more possessions. That demonstrates that 1) possessions derived from the final box score rather than from play-by-play are estimated possessions and 2) Kansas may have blown even more chances that it seemed.

Still, Kansas would have won, despite their poor endgame, had Thomas Gardner not had the game of his life. Gardner shot 75 eFG% (rest of team: 41.1%, Gardner in rest of conference play: 52.6%) and 78% from the line (rest of team: 70.5%, Gardner in rest of conference play: 75.6%). The only thing Missouri can reasonably hope for Gardner to duplicate in the return match is something near the eight turnovers he committed in Columbia.

Since that game in Columbia, Kansas has increased the pace at whch they play, improved their field goal percentage, opponent’s field goal percentage, free throw percentage, free throw rate, opponent’s free throw rate, defensive rebounding, turnover percentage, points per possession, and opponent’s points per possession.

In a month and a day, Kansas vs. Missouri has gone from a toss-up game to the Big 12 North’s version of Baylor at Texas. Unless the Jayhawks suffer a complete reversal of temperment, Missouri can’t even hope to gain an emotional advantage as either a rival or an underdog. The Jayhawks, even when they’ve played poorly this year, haven’t lacked for effort. In the buildup to the re-match they sound determined to make up for giving the game in Columbia away.

The only positive I can find for Missouri is the chance that Jeff Hawkins might not be healthy enough to play his usual backup role. Even then, I’m not sure Thomas Gardner could get open and score against Stephen Vinson right now. Jeremy Case, maybe.

It won’t be close. It will be fun. Missouri will serve as the canvas for Julian Wright’s SportsCenter submission.

Prediction: Kansas 81 Missouri 60

While I expect soon to see one of Hoopinion’s most choice previews for tomorrow’s game, I would be remiss if I didn’t get my prediction in early in the day to encourage discussion and dissent.

Well, here goes. For the absurd way in which Mizzou beat KU just a few short weeks ago, and even more for the pathetic way in which Mizzou folded like a meticulously crafted Japanese fan post-KU in order to give us a bad RPI loss, I expect us to unleash an unholy terror all over the struggling Tigers.

Remember hearing how tornados could somehow thrust a piece of hay several inches into a brick? Yeah, that’s about what I’m thinking.

Boot to the head!

KU 87
MU 59

Anyone care to disagree?

Greg Doyel of CBSSportsline.com, in his regular Ten for Tuesday column, outlines the top ten reasons that Quin is gone. This is an interesting read.

8. Mike Alden: By not helping find a solution, Missouri’s athletic director became part of the problem. From the beginning — the hiring of Harvey, the pursuit of Whaley and Clemons — it was obvious Snyder wasn’t running his program the right way. Alden should have had the wisdom, courage and power to make changes. Instead, Alden let this story unfold. For that, he should be fired. Or better yet, Missouri fans: Let’s let Mike Alden pick another coach!

I’m not sure why Billy Gillespie would be interested in the Mizzou job, but reports are circulating that he is.

According to Sportsline:

One drawback to his hiring is the perception that Gillispie is job hopping. The native Texan spent two years at UTEP before going to Texas A&M. It is known that Gillispie does think highly of the Missouri job and program that has been diminished in recent years by losing and NCAA probation.

And the sad saga appears to be over. I personally wish Quin the best of luck in the future:

Snyder Steps Down At Missouri
Quin Snyder’s up-and-down tenure at Missouri is over. ESPN has learned that Snyder has resigned as men’s basketball coach after six-plus seasons. Assistant coach Melvin Watkins will take over the 10-11 squad.

link