Mizzou basketball jumps into top-10 spot
More than 15,000 fans filled the Mizzou Arena to watch their Tigers defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 70-47 on Feb. 14. Photo by Shane Epping.
Valentine’s Day was not lost on several female MU fans in the front row of the students’ section. Top (left to right): Andrea Hoffman, Ann Oldenburg and Candace Clayborne-Harris. Bottom: Allison Sicking, Molly Krutek, Kayla Wohldmann and Sarah Bourne. Photo by Shane Epping.
During a timeout, head coach Mike Anderson encourages freshman guard Miguel Paul to focus. Photo by Shane Epping.
Junior guard J.T. Tiller, the admiration of above-mentioned fans, takes it to the hoop. Tiller scored 11 points and had 4 assists. Photo by Shane Epping.
Senior forward DeMarre Carroll, another Valentine’s Day fan favorite, scored 13 points and had 3 defensive rebounds. Carroll did his part to hold Nebraska to only 47 total points. Photo by Shane Epping.
Coach Anderson gives a quick shout-out to fans sitting above the tunnel where players and coaches enter and exit the arena. Photo by Shane Epping.
Story by Ryan Gavin
Following Mizzou’s 70-47 Valentine’s Day massacre of Nebraska on Saturday, a third-consecutive sellout crowd was moving toward the exits in a celebratory mood. Over the loudspeakers, Matchbox 20’s song “How Far We’ve Come” began to play. Although it may have been a random selection, there couldn’t have been a more perfect fit.
Two weeks ago, the team was just a vote getter and assumed to be a beneficiary of a weak early schedule. No longer. With the Nebraska beatdown and comeback thriller against Kansas last Monday, Mizzou (22-4, 9-2 Big 12 Conference) moved up to No. 10 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and to No. 11 in the AP media poll.
Still, to get a grasp on where this year’s Tigers have come from, it’s important to look back on the Nebraska road loss at the start of Big 12 play. At the time, Mizzou was 14-2 with some nice wins against USC, California and Georgia, but the Tigers lacked defining victories. Many college basketball experts expected the Tigers to fall back to the middle of the pack once conference play began. The 56-51 loss at Nebraska seemed to affirm those beliefs.
“I thought the game at Nebraska really helped us,” Anderson says. “It changed our approach. The games are getting bigger, so the key is how you deal with it.”
And so the Tigers didn’t collapse; instead they became resilient. With nine wins in the 10 games that followed that loss, and with the loss to Kansas State the only blemish, Mizzou is one of the hottest college basketball teams.
“Tiger basketball is about never giving up,” coach Mike Anderson says, his basketball philosophy echoing the team’s mentality this season. “We’ve got some guys who will fight and scratch and claw to give themselves a chance.”
Speaking of chances, Mizzou has an outside shot at taking the Big 12 regular-season title. What once seemed far-fetched is now not so impossible. First, the Tigers have to take care of business on their end by beating Kansas in Lawrence and Oklahoma in the regular-season finale at Mizzou Arena. Secondly, fans need to clench their teeth and cheer on the Jayhawks against Oklahoma on Feb. 23. If the scenario were to play out, Mizzou would finish a game ahead of Kansas and tied with the Sooners but would win the title based on the head-to-head victory.
To even be discussing the possibilities this late in the season speaks to how far Anderson has brought this team. Mizzou is 15 years removed from its perfect 14-0 conference season in 1994, which was the last time the Tigers won either a regular or postseason title in men’s basketball. And with this week off to prepare for a road contest against last place Colorado, Anderson doesn’t plan on letting his foot off the accelerator.
“I don’t ever take it easy on them,” Anderson says with a laugh.
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