Matt Hoch: No to Mizzou, Yes to Iowa
Little Matt Hoch of Harlan, Ia, all 6'5" and 230 pounds of him, has decided to not join his older brother Dan on the Mizzou football team. Instead, he will attend the University of Iowa.
Little Matt Hoch of Harlan, Ia, all 6'5" and 230 pounds of him, has decided to not join his older brother Dan on the Mizzou football team. Instead, he will attend the University of Iowa.
Mizzou is ranked 21st, but in a poll where the lower the rank, the better the rank.
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.
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.
Read the whole thing.
Via Tigerboard
Seth Davis.
Jeff Gordon drinks from the same cup.
And Vahe Gregorian:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.