Mizzou hoops, better than Greek tragedy

In case you didn’t see Big Head’s big announcement last week I, RTC Fan, (shameless plug alert) author of RTC Talk, am going to be breaking down the MU hoops season during Big XII play.

Guess I picked the right day to start writing.

What an effort yesterday. I can’t remember feeling as good about a performance since the run to the elite eight in 2002 and the wins over Miami, Ohio State and UCLA.

Saturday was a breath of fresh air for sure.

Like many of you I suffered through some terrible Mizzou football years in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, and basketball was the one thing that kept the fire for MU burning.

You remember it, don’t you? Norm Stewart basketball. Saturday afternoons in Ames, Iowa, or Stillwater, Oklahoma, when Norm would bring a group of tough and confident ballplayers on the road and kick somebody’s ass. I used to love MU road games. And home games? In Columbia? Forget it. Game over before it began. That’s the Missouri basketball I remember. Not the Quin bullshit of “finding ourselves” or “making sure you’re worthy of my passion”.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that in the late 90’s I was in the ‘it’s time to move on’ camp. And I still believe to a certain extent Norm staying the last few years probably set the program back even before Quin arrived. Lots of transfers and in-state high school players leaving left the cupboard bare. Norm got it together for one last run with Keyon, Clarence, and Albert, but by that time the atrophy had already started to set in on the program.

The promise of reversing that trend was a main reason that I was excited when QS was hired. Young, vibrant, motivated coach Snyder was going to build his own little Duke franchise in the Big XII. He was coach K to Roy Williams’ Dean Smith.

Didn’t turn out that way and I think if you’re reading this you know at least some of the reasons why. When Quin was fired resigned by to Gary Link Mike Alden the ensuing clusterfuck of activity made the fact that we even landed a coach amazing. That the coach was as accomplished as Mike Anderson, and that the hiring took place on the same day Mike Alden was almost fired, was more fascinating and bizarre than Britney's house on a Thursday night.

The funny thing is, even to this day, I don’t hate Quin Snyder. The fact that he wasn’t ready isn’t his fault. It was a bad hire by MU. But at that time I wasn’t crazy about Bill Self either. I still have my doubts about The Wig's ability to coach, but that’s a discussion we’ll have in March.

Today I’m waiting for a return to the days of Mizzou hoops when everyone in the conference knew (including the visiting team) that when they played in Columbia they were leaving with an ‘L’ and there was a good chance if they were hosting the Tigers they were going down, too.

To give you some frame of reference of where I’m coming from, my favorite Tigers of all-time are (in reverse order for dramatic effect):

5. Mike Sandbothe
4. Doug Smith
3. Al White
2. Lamont Frazier
1. Anthony Peeler

We're going to have a few features each Sunday that may get tweaked a little as we go but for now....

As I said earlier, I don’t dislike Quin Snyder. I think I’m kind of facsinated by his rise and fall. Has a Greek tragedy quality to it. Anyway, we’re going to keep track of his new ball club for you in this space everyweek with our creatively named:

Austin Toros update:


Quin’s team took a six-game win streak into Saturday against the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. Despite 36 points from former Beaker Keith Langford and 22 from former OSU Cowboy Shane Cheyne Gadson the Toros fell to the T-Birds 123-117 in front of 1,925 fans in Austin. It was the Toros first home loss in 12 games.

Despite the loss the Toros remain No. 1 (out of 14 teams) in the D-League power rankings with an overall record of 13-5.

We’ll also track, Keyon, Linas and Kareem (and any other Tigers who join the ranks of the National Basketball Association) in our, again, creatively named section:

NBA Tigers:

Keyon Dooling: 8.3 Points, 1.3 Rebounds, 1.8 Assists. Magic record: 23-16.
Kareem Rush: 6.8 Points, 1.6 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists. Pacers record: 17-21.
Linas Kleiza: 10.7 Points, 4.0 Rebounds, 1.3 Assists. Nuggets record: 22-13.

We’ll take a stroll down memory lane every week with our:

Former Tiger of the Week
Lamont Frazier
1993-94 Stats


And we’ll finish things up with a reminder that, while being a Mizzou fan is tough sometimes, we’ve got it good compared to (insert someone who did something really stupid), in this case Wesley Snipes, aka Willie Mays Hays.

Next post will be either: a. after Mizzou is 2-0 in conference following a Wednesday road win in Ames and getting ready for a Saturday showdown with Kansas or b. after Mizzou blows a golden opportunity to go 2-0 in conference by losing in Ames and will never have a chance against Kansas and Mike Anderson, Mike Alden, Gary Pinkel and the coach of the Golden Girls should all be fired. (Just kidding, Shannon, we love you).

Here’s hoping it’s ‘a.’ It’s a lot more fun to write about a winner. Thanks for reading.