Been a rough year, huh?
[Reply]

I'm right there with ya. Denmon takes my top spot pretty easily actually...and the fact that he's a local KC guy is just icing on the cake. I haven't followed his career super closely but I'm pretty sure he made a decent living for awhile playing over in Europe.
[Reply]

Clarence Gilbert's career ended on such a poor note -- I mean all anyone is likely to remember him for is that disastrous game against OU when he shot us out of our Final 4 appearance.

But I'll always have a soft spot for him.

He was a premier prospect that Norm was going to use as a defensive stopper. Snyder came in, freed him up a little and he became one of the most dangerous shooters in conference history to that point.

He was a damn assassin out there.

Until that game that he wasn't.

But he was a 4 year player who developed his game and became a full court player who would defense, shoot and move without the ball. I just wish he didn't become such an obvious goat in that Oklahoma game. He was just impossibly bad but wouldn't stop shooting the damn ball.

Shooters gonna shoot but man, it would've been nice after he missed his first 8 shots if he'd have maybe....stopped.
[Reply]

As a fellow girl-dad, I approve!
[Reply]

You just KNOW they will put us together if Norfolk makes the tourney. I WANT REVENGE!
[Reply]

I have love/hate memories of Gilbert. When the dude was on, he was great. I loved those 2000 and 2001 teams and he was a big portion of our offense. But goddamnit if he didn't infuriate at the same time.

Random story....but during hell week over Xmas break as a freshman we were on like our 4th day and had maybe slept a total of 6 hours. This was back when you could still verbally abuse and terrorize pledges (of which I have some of my fondest memories so not complaining).

Anyhow, Mizzou was playing I think Iowa St on a Sat afternoon and there were a handful of actives hanging out the house getting drunk and ****ing with all of us pledges. We were scrubbing floors or something and getting yelled out and ****ed with all afternoon. One of the older guys got the idea that every time Clarence took a shot, we all had to do 10 pushups. He was feeling particularly selfish that game and the mother****er ended up taking like THIRTY EIGHT shots or something wild like that. When he'd make one, everyone was happy but still pushups. Gilbert got cold at one point and the pushups doubled and the screaming intensified. They were smashing their beer bottles and screaming at us as if it was our fault :-) They game went to like triple OT if I remember right. None of us could even crank out 5 pushups by the end.

In the moment, we all hated Gilbert but I can't see his name or think about him without remembering that godforsaken day and the hell he put us through.
[Reply]

Dude they really should. I would even hate watch that game.
[Reply]

Ah man u dont have that chonky kid anymore. Looked like he wqs playing the wrong sport but would dominate an old man league. Thats too bad he was fun to watch chug around
[Reply]

Alabama couldn’t stop Missouri basketball's offense. When MU plays like that, can anyone?
Columbia Daily Tribune

The symbolism was a little on the nose.

Shortly after Missouri basketball’s game against Alabama on Wednesday night, a fire was reported in a suite in Section 112 of Mizzou Arena. It was quickly extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire? Currently undisclosed.

But it’s surely not a coincidence that it started less than an hour after No. 16/15-ranked Missouri’s offense burned No. 4/4 Alabama for a 110-98 win, right?

The Tigers were hot to the touch, sizzling at a rate the Crimson Tide tried, and failed, mightily to contain.

The fire alarm started ringing about two minutes into Alabama coach Nate Oats’ postgame press conference — '‘a fire has been reported,"’" the automated messaging system relayed on repeat around Mizzou Arena’s halls. Oats recognized the immediate irony.

“Yeah,” he said. “They were on fire tonight.”

Sure were.

Missouri (20-6, 9-4) shot 60.3% from the field. The Tigers clipped nine triples, led by three from Caleb Grill, who scored 25 points in the win. Mizzou scored 40 points in the paint, led by Mark Mitchell's magnificent night working the inside for a career-high 31-point performance.

Grill and Mitchell combined for an 18 of 23 mark from the free throw line, part of 47 total free throw attempts. Eighteen of Mizzou’s 35 field goals were assisted. The Tigers turned 14 turnovers directly into 21 points.

If there’s an offensive stat to keep, Mizzou likely put up a gaudy total.

The gaudiest of them all? Missouri scored 1.45 points per possession.

When it looks like it did Wednesday — when Missouri's offense is operating at its very best — there looked to be exceptionally little Alabama could do to stop the Tigers.

The Tigers did that by making Alabama pick its poison.

The Crimson Tide sagged off Mitchell and Anthony Robinson II at the 3-point line to protect driving lanes on two separate occasions in the first half. They aren't MU's best deep-ball shooters, but they punished the Tide for having the gall, knocking down their open looks for triples.

When Alabama adjusted and started getting bodies to the perimeter, Mitchell came alive inside, working the paint and drawing and-1 opportunities nearly every time the ball came his way.

That was the to-and-fro the Tigers kept pushing. Alabama was forced to abandon one — inside or outside — to try and stop the other.

Missouri's offensive adjustments were quicker.

“We just have a lot of weapons," Mitchell said. "I think we can beat you inside. We can obviously beat you outside, and I think that's probably a hard thing for teams to game plan. We knew some coverages that they might show us and some different looks that they might give us, and we never panicked, just because the coach prepared us so well.”

Missouri needed every swish.

Alabama was the nation’s No. 3-ranked offense entering the evening, and it sure looked like that. As much as Mizzou did to separate, the game wasn’t out of sight until there was less than a minute on the court.

The Crimson Tide shot 53.8% from the field. They were 13-for-31 (41.9%) from 3-point range. Elite point guard Mark Sears scored 35 points. On two occasions in the second half, Alabama got within six points of MU’s lead.

And still … that wasn’t nearly enough to fully track down Gates’ Tigers.

“I credit Alabama. They did some great things. They gave us their best punch, I just thought our guys were counter-punchers," Gates said. "And, you know, we were sort of in a in a defensive mode, and were able to punch back. And, again, there were several plays that allowed us to re-spark or reignite our momentum, and these guys just continue to make plays on both ends of the court. And they played the game unselfishly.”

How about some of those moments?

After Sears tallied six straight points to make it a two-score game with 10 minutes to play, the game was more in the balance than it had been since the first minute of play.

The answer? Trent Pierce fought off traffic after hauling in an offensive board and delicately put a shot back up and in. Mitchell drew an and-1 underneath the rim and scored the free throw. Grill went 2-for-2 at the line and then nailed a 20-footer on an inbounds pass.


Crisis averted with a 9-0 run in 1 minute, 27 seconds; 15-point lead restored.

The difference in the game, ultimately, was the 12-0 run with which Mizzou opened the game. Everything that was to come was contained within those electric 2:28 of game time.

Pierce and Robinson knocked down 3s within a minute of tipoff. The duo took fastbreaks straight to the rim for layups. Tamar Bates pump-faked a shot from the corner and took it inside for a couple more paint points.


Dotted throughout, Grill converted some signature who-needs-separation 3s; Tony Perkins made the Tide pay at the line and in the mid-range; Mitchell drew and-1 after and-1; and the Tigers turned 12 steals into instant offense.

Mizzou caught fire and rode that into a win that takes the Tigers into a tie for fourth place in the SEC. With a third top-five victory on the résumé and a sixth Quad 1 win, Gates’ team will likely soon receive projections for a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama didn’t have answers.

And when it looks like that, who could?

“When everybody's playing like that, I just think it's a tough matchup for anybody," Grill said. "We've just got to keep continuing, as coach said, to keep moving forward and keep getting better each day.”
[Reply]

Just have to put away the piggies this weekend and we’re looking at or in top 10. They’re led by Thiero and Flanders who both score 15 a game. Thiero is a forward so Mitchell needs to shut him down. They score 76 per game for 110th overall, 7.5 threes per game, and a 1.3 rpg differential. We gotta be tough on the glass and limit the threes. They only shoot 13 free throws per game so we need to get to the line like we normally do and cruise to a 10 point win. We are 5.5 point favorites which seems low but pomeroy does have them at 37.
[Reply]

No.

Any game where they play that well, they'll win.

They play 6 games like that in the NCAA tournament, they're going to win the championship.

Will they play 6 games like that? No. I'm not sure they've played 6 games at that level over the last 25 years.

But no, nobody is beating them when they play as well as they played vs. Alabama.

Nobody.
[Reply]

Auburn and Duke would like a word.
[Reply]

Great teams.

I don't think either of them is going to beat Mizzou playing like they did on Wednesday.

I think Auburn's A game is just a hair higher than Duke's so I'd listen there.

But Duke is very dependent on Flagg. Kneuppel and Proctor are also damn good but Duke is as good as Flagg is.

And i've said in the NBA thread that Flagg is as good a prospect as I've seen in a very very very long time. And as a player he's obviously better than Mark Sears -- but can he play much better than Mark Sears played in that game? Man, I'm just not sure he can. Sears was INSANE. And it wasn't enough.

With Sears effort being a reasonable proxy for what Flagg will likely give Duke in a matchup like that, I think they're extremely comparable teams. And Mizzou took, IMO, Alabama's best shot and won by double digits.

Again, I'm not saying anything about who wins a best of 10 series. I'm just saying that Mizzou showed a ceiling that is absolutely as high as anything I've seen from any team in college hoops this season.

Except for Auburn. That's fair. Broome is SUCH a problem matchup for Mizzou and with so much senior leadership at G with Mazara, Kelly and Jones, Auburn has a really deep and difficult team to deal with.

I'll probably give you Auburn.
[Reply]

Plus Pearl is a damn good coach.
[Reply]

I think Duke has a higher ceiling than Auburn does solely due to Flagg and the potential for him to play at a high level in March compared to Broome. Sears shouldn’t be even mentioned in the same atmosphere as the two players who arguably the best in CBB this season.

You are correct in that Duke is very dependent on Flagg, but their ceiling is much higher than Auburn’s, albeit with a much lower floor due to volatility with freshmen.

Auburn is arguably the most complete college basketball roster constructed in like a decade in terms of performance and how the players compliment one another.

I think Mizzou has a high ceiling, but I’m not sure I’d say F4 or title one unless the defense improves.
[Reply]