ZooRahBlog

Mizzou Paid Norm Stewart Nearly $800,000 as a Volunteer Since 2004

KS Star story here.  Um, aren't volunteers supposed to work, well, voluntarily?  I'm not talking about the "voluntary exchange" in economics where people trade.  I'm talking about the one-way street:  you give me your time and I give you thanks.  Maybe this is just semantics here, but Norm wasn't a volunteer.  He was a paid employee.

Don't Let the Barn Door Hit Ya, Keon Lawrence

Seton Hall is getting Mizzou's old baggage.

Lawrence announced July 1 that he was leaving Missouri to be closer to his home in Newark, N.J. Missouri coach Mike Anderson confirmed later that day he had granted Lawrence his release from MU.

That separation came when Lawrence informed Anderson he had been unhappy at MU and, as in December, he was looking around.

Sources have confirmed that Lawrence actually had second thoughts about leaving MU but that the MU coaches — tired of talking Lawrence into staying — told him goodbye and good luck elsewhere.

It didn’t take Lawrence long to move out of Columbia and just slightly longer to decide on Seton Hall, where he will have to sit out one season and then have two to play as a Pirate.

This guy would have been nothing but trouble had he stayed at Mizzou, and it would have been trouble for him.  I hope he does well as a Pirate.

Keon Lawrence and Mike Anderson: A Bad Match

Keyon Lawrence has left the Mizzou basketball team (stories here, here, here, and here), and I'm not sad to see him go.  It's a tough go-around whenever a new coach comes into the fray, and that's what I think is going on here.  Lawrence, an athletic guard from Newark, NJ, was recruited by former coach Quin Snyder, but he got to play for a much more demanding Mike Anderson.  When a coaching change happens, there's going to be a few players who won't fit the style of the new coach, and a bad match ensues.  The match looked like it might work out in his freshman season, but that was not the case last season when Lawrence struggled with his confidence early in the season.  He seemed to regain it in the latter part of the season, but it's obvious now that the match wasn't going to work.

When a player initially expresses dissatisfaction with a program, it's not a bad idea to try and sell him on the program.  This depends, of course, on the particular situation.  With a player as talented as Keon, the strategy is to try and convince him to stay around, initially.  But when a player repeatedly expresses his desire to leave, there is no reason to keep him around: the player knows that it's a bad match and it's best for him to move on.  If he does stay around, chances are he will be a cancer and will bring down the team.  It's best to let him go.

I wish him well, and I think this will work out better for both parties in the end (it usually does). 

Thankfully, Mizzou's 40 Minutes of What-The-Hell is Over... Finally

The Missouri Tigers finished the season with the all-too-familiar lame effort, thudding to the floor in a heap against Nebraska in the Big XII tournament, 61-56.  The Tigers have taken Mike Anderson's 40 Minutes of Hell styled basketball and turned into "40-Minutes-of-What-The-Hell?".  Mike Dearmond's goat last night?

Missouri coach Mike Anderson. Leo Lyons wasn’t going to help Missouri by spending 13 minutes on the bench, and Missouri still doesn’t know what to do with the game on the line in the closing minutes.

I disagree.  They know what to do:  fold like a hand of bad cards, and they are good at it, having practiced the motions so many times in 32 games. 

Now we can say goodbye to the senior class.  bye.  Now we can all turn our attention to some top 10 Tiger teams, one in practice (which is more interesting than watching the "senior-laden" men's basketball team fritter away game after game), and the other on the baseball diamond.  Now I can  cancel my Yahoo! radio subscription.

It may sound like I'm really pissed, but I'm little more than disappointed.  Usually I'd be chomping at the bit to watch/listen to games.  But I've been little more than mildly interested, at best, during this entire season.   By looking at the crowds at games and during the first half of last night's game, I'm not alone.  And that's one thing that Mike Alden, the Mizzou AD, has to be concerned about.  After the Quin years and the beginning of the Mike Anderson "40-minutes-of-what-the-hell?" era, many of us don't get too excited about Tiger basketball anymore.

Mizzou Ends its Basketball Regular Season at 16-14

I know how the pasha feels.

Cross posted at Market Power

Mizzou Rap

OMG WTF?

Michael Beeeeeeeeeeeasley and Leo Lyyyyyyyonnnnns!

Mike DeArmond is annoyed.

I agree with his assessment of "It's another Wildcat first doooowwwwn."  I disagree with him that Leo Lyons' game last night was the best since Clarence Gilbert hung 43 on ISU in 2001.  That was a good performance by Gilbert, but it came on 12 of 36 shooting in 4 OT's.  Leo hit 12 of 13, and on his one miss, he got the rebound and a put-back as I recall.  In every possession in which Lyons shot the ball, the Tigers scored.  I think Walentik may be right:  that might have been the most dominating performance in a long time.

Pathetic Effort, Tiger Fan

A team hits 14 of 24 from 3-point land, they ain't gonna lose, brother.  Even if Leo the Lyons finally plays a full game, anyone who hits 58.3% on 24 shots from behind the arc is going to win.  Coming into the game, Okie State had hit 34.3% from beyond the arc.  Assuming Okie State has a good day beyond the arc, hitting 40%, all else equal Mizzou wins this game by 8.

But what grates me is that only 7,600 people showed up to the game.  WTF?  Is 20 degrees F too cold for all y'all?  Does the Heidelberg have a special on Heidelburgers?  Shakespeares have a sale on Windex?  Was it the ESPNU broadcast?  Hell, I'm just as disappointed as anyone in this team, but I'd expect at least 8,000 to attend a conference game, even if it is on Tuesday and against a fellow bottom feeder. 

It's not the ticket prices.  Tickets are priced similar to the Nebraska game and the Iowa State game... the cheapest of all the Big XII conference home games, and 10,100 showed up to the watch the Huskers take on a depleted Tiger squad.  What gives?  Too much Flat Branch over the weekend?