Basketball season is finally underway and now I get to give my first set of observations of the season.
I, like just about every other Mizzou fan at this point in time, care infinitely times more about the success of the football team than I do the hoops team. That said, basketball has always been my favorite sport. I played it throughout elementary and high school, have watched more games than anyone I know and it's the only sport where I feel like I could hold an extended conversation with a head coach at any level and not come off sounding like a complete jackass.
So I'm excited for this season if for no other reason than to share my encyclopedic knowledge of all things hoops with you, the reader. And away we go:
- Is it me or does Leo Lyons actually look like he might give a damn this season? I could gush about how well Leo's played offensively and how hard he's crashing the offensive glass. But I'll save that for a later date because Leo's guaranteed to have a few more solid performances on that side of the court. What I've been impressed with is that he's actually been exerting himself on the defensive side of the floor. On Saturday he was bodying up his man and consistently pushing him out of the lane (at least in the first half, didn't stay for the second). I know the Tigers have yet to play anyone significant, but these are very good signs.
- Great to see a completely healthy DeMarre Carroll. I pray that he stays that way because he is a joy to watch when he's at 100 percent. I don't know if I've ever seen a big man at Mizzou run the floor as well as he does. Although I've always argued that players with dreads just look like they play harder than everyone else because of how their hair bounces up and down.
- Speaking of DeMarre, I love the video they play on the jumbotron before the game now. For those of you that haven't seen it at the end of the video it flashes to DeMarre screaming at the top of his lungs a la Kevin Garnett at the :38 mark of this clip. I can't wait to hear Mizzou Arena when they play that before the kU game.
- Speaking of screaming, did anyone else see Justin Safford swat Chattanooga player's shot and blatantly get in his face and scream? How the hell do you not get T'd up for that? I love the intensity but that's a technical foul if I've ever seen one.
- Not sure what to make of Zaire Taylor. Physically he looks like a great fit for the system. And I love the rebounding and assist numbers. But if he's only hitting one-of-10 shots against these teams what's he gonna do against Big 12 defenses? We just got through with four years of Jason Horton. I'm tired of watching players that are essentially dead weight on the offensive side of the floor.
- Don't expect much from Keith Ramsey, Steve Moore or Laurence Bowers this season. They should provide some much needed size and depth, which will hopefully help with the Tigers' rebounding woes (most concerning weakness thus far), but they look very limited offensively.
- I was very impressed with the freshman guards: Miguel Paul, Marcus Denmon and Kim English. They all three were out of control a lot of the time the last two games but they were also all three sparkplugs. Paul, by the way, even looks like his all-star cousin.
- Check this out for an interesting statistical analysis of Saturday's game (from the same guys that brought 9 Steps to a Mizzou National Championship).
- The Tigers left this morning for Puerto Rico where they'll play Xavier at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. The game will be televised on ESPNU. Hopefully that will give us a better idea of where this team is at.
Posts
11 comments:
Could Denmon get more hype? Not saying it's undeserved, but it reminds me of the 'backup QB is the most popular guy' theory.
I'm excited with CMA's recruiting.
"Encyclopedic"? That's an overstatement if I've ever heard one. Not saying it's undeserved, but it reminds me of the "last white guy off the bench is the most popular guy' theory.
cocaine is a hell of a drug
Well said.
And yeah Denmon has a lot of hype but I'm not putting a whole lot of stock into what happened during the Black and Gold. Mizzou fans shouldn't expect him to be any sort of savior. I'm hoping he can play close to as well as Keon did as a freshman. Which was pretty damn good.
I'm not the biggest basketball guy in the world (can we get a hockey team, please???), but this looks like it should be the most solid Mizzou team in awhile.
When I see Zaire Taylor, I see Jimmy Mckinney. He's not a guy that's gonna score much, but his presence makes everyone better and his defense looks huge.
Also, I love that Anderson now has the ability to put 5 bigs on the floor if he needs to - something he hasn't been able to yet in his tenure here.
Completely unrelated but I thought you guys might get a kick out of this ad I found on youtube selling ringtones:
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CNGYn4TXsY_2xwEQrAIY7wEyCMQt8CiQnmtS
Not sure if that's the best guy to use to sell something to Mizzou fans.
Yeah, I'd have to agree with wolf in that Zaire's upside is his defense. From what I've seen of him so far (one game... yeah) he looks pretty solid on the ball and if he stays strong defensively it'll make up for his lack of offensive abilities. Stopping the other team from scoring two points is the same thing as scoring two points... isn't it?
I have a feeling he's just a temporary body to fill the starting line-up because of his defense and his experience. I'm sure when the Freshmen get more comfortable with college basketball one of them will start.
Oh, and we do have a hockey team.
http://www.mizzouhockey.com/index.php
I do believe they're going to actually start playing in Columbia now... don't hold me to that, though.
Yeah, but is Zaire Taylor going to be a movie star like McKinney?
But McKinney was a really good offensive player when he was able to play his natural position at the 2-guard instead of being forced to play the point like he was most of his career.
And I'm not quite sure I buy the whole defense is just as good as offense argument. I think that's something coaches say but don't really believe. In basketball you can hide a bad defensive player a lot easier than a bad offensive one. There's a reason Dominique Wilkins is in the hall of fame but Bruce Bowen won't be.
And I've seen that Ricky Clemmons ad before. I want to say I've seen it pop up on Tigerboard before. You'd think they could at least switch over to Stef Hannah.
Bruce Bowen won't be in the Hall of Fame because he cheats and nobody likes him. Also, Bill Russell is in the Hall pretty much because of his defense.
As nice as it would be have a player who could defend and score, say stop the other team from scoring two and then scoring two yourself for a four point swing, but if defense is the best that you have then stopping the other team from scoring two puts you at plus two for your team.
You know that whole offense wins games but defense wins championships? Yeah, so true.
Yeah, I'm not trying to underscore the importance of defense. I'm just saying that you have to at least be a capable offensive player. Bill Russell averaged around 10-15 ppg (I think). Bruce Bowen is (or at least was) a very good three-point shooter.
On defense if a player is terrible you can provide help defense, play zone, and do other things to hide that weakness. On offense you can not pass it to him, but then you're playing four on five.
A solid defensive player can make up for the weaknesses of poorer defensive players, and true you might just be down one scorer on offense, but you normally don't get very far in basketball without at least something to contribute offensively. Solid screening, passing, rebounding, something.
Just like how you can draw up defenses to help the weaker defender, you can draw up offenses so that a poorer shooter doesn't hinder your team.
Agreed. I don't think Zaire shoots 10 percent from the field the rest of the season. If he can average say 8-12 points, I'd be pretty happy considering how well he seems to rebound, defend, distribute, etc.
Post a Comment