After last night’s football shellacking in the Big 12 title game, it was cathartic to see the basketball Tigers win convincingly. It’s hard to say how good Cal is at this point, but they can’t be terrible. Mike Montgomery can coach.
Missouri’s biggest problem last year was arguably a lack of scorers; that is no longer the case. DeMarre Carroll is healthy and looks like a different player. Leo Lyons is showing the same confidence he had at the end of last season. The three freshman guards can all score.
Before the season, I thought Mizzou would have to be one of the two or three best perimeter defensive teams in the conference to compete for an NCAA tournament bid; so far, so good. We’re quick, relentless, and deep. We also have a lot of big guys – Lyons, Carroll, Safford, and Ramsey – who can switch on pick-and-rolls and recover from traps without giving the opposition a huge mismatch.
You have to love any system that starts with the defense. Missouri’s defensive style requires hard work and teamwork, something that carries over to offense. The Tigers’ cutting and passing yesterday was beautiful.
Let’s not get carried away, but this team should make the NCAA tournament. That is now my expectation, barring injuries. If nothing else, it’s certainly an exciting, blue-collar team that deserves better support. Time to hop on the Mizzou basketball bandwagon again.
