Missouri holds on for win over Oral Roberts

The Tigers won 92-83. Check the Missourian website for more information about the game.

Missouri men lead Oral Roberts at the half

The Tigers are up 43-35 at the half. A three-point shot banked in from half court by Oral Roberts’ Robert Jarvis at the buzzer was waived off by the officials.

Notes from MU women’s loss to Indiana

The Missouri women’s basketball team lost to Indiana 63-54 Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena. You can find the game story here.

Jessra Johnson posted her second consecutive double-double for the Tigers (1-3). The junior forward had 15 points and 12 rebounds in what was an otherwise tough game against the Hoosiers for Missouri’s post players. (The Tigers were outscored 32-18 in the paint and were outrebounded 45-34.)

“All that means nothing to me if we still don’t come out with a “W” as a team,” Johnson said after the game. “I can have 1,000 points, but if they have 1,001, it doesn’t matter.”

Missouri has relied heavily on Johnson, Alyssa Hollins and Shakara Jones for scoring so far this season. That trio has scored 150 points in MU’s first four games while the rest of the roster has combined to score just 70 points.

Not surprisingly, coach Cindy Stein said that was going to have to change.

“You’ve got to have other kids stepping up,” she said. “We had some kids have wide open shots that we created for them and not even look to shoot and, again, if we’re in that position then obviously we need to work a lot more on shooting because we’ve got to get some other kids stepping up.”

Eleven players saw time on the court for the Tigers, which is not unusual. The bulk of the playing time was given to just six players, though, a change from Missouri’s previous games. Coach Stein said the change was more about focusing on defense and trying to combat Indiana’s big lineup than setting a more strict rotation of players.

“I’m not sure I’m tightening it up,” Stein said about her playing rotation. “The kids that were picking stuff up in practice and doing what we wanted them to do, those are the kids that get the minutes. There’s a couple kids that are turning the corner a little bit in practice, like a Jas Otote. You know, if she keeps playing that hard like she has done the last two days in practice, her minutes are going to increase.”

Otote played eight minutes and made the one shot she took in the game, a 3-pointer with 3:04 left in the game that cut the Hoosiers lead to five points. The sophomore played just three minutes in Missouri’s opening game and did not play in its last two contests.

 

Missouri women trail Indiana at half

Alyssa Hollins made a free throw with 2.7 seconds left in the first half to pull the Missouri women’s basketball team within three points of visiting Indiana at the break, 31-28.

The Tigers trailed by as many 11 points in the first half but went on a 12-2 run heading into the locker room.

Hollins leads Missouri in scoring with nine points, and Jessra Johnson has seven rebounds.

Whitney Thomas leads the Hoosiers with nine points and six rebounds.

Missouri receiving votes in AP Poll

Apparently, the voters for the AP poll took notice of Missouri’s performance at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Missouri received 6 votes in the week 2 poll. That ties Missouri with Creighton for the 41st most votes.

Xavier, which Missouri came within a couple of made free throws of beating, jumped to No. 16 in the coaches poll after beating Memphis for the Tip-Off title. Xavier was previously unranked.

Paul, Bowers: Men of many talents

If you are looking for coverage of the men’s basketball team’s performance in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, you can find it here, here, here, and here. The Tigers finished fourth in the tournament, and with a win over No. 19 USC and a 2-1 record in the tournament Missouri fans have to be happy.

Missouri’s newcomers played a key role  in its success at the tournament. And the newcomers had a big hand in the collapse against Xavier as well. Playing in their first important, meaningful game, the freshmen off the bench seemed nervous against Xavier, and coach Mike Anderson only played them sparingly. But in the USC game, Anderson stayed confident in his youngsters, and they rewarded him with quality minutes.

Today I wanted to provide a little bit more information about two of those freshmen reserves: Miguel Paul and Laurence Bowers. Both Paul and Bowers have great genes for basketball. You can find out more about their family ties here and here.

But their talents don’t stop when they leave the basketball floor. According to his teammates, Paul is hilarious. He likes to do impressions of Anderson.

Paul is also a good dancer. Paul’s high school basketball coach, Drew Taylor, said that Paul loves to brag about how good a dancer he is. Taylor also said he thinks that Paul and Missouri are destined for big things this year.

“I can see him doing a victory dance somewhere down the road,” Taylor said.

Since he was young, Bowers has had an ear for music, and he is a skillful piano player. But his real talent is on the baseball diamond. Bowers quit baseball after his sophomore year to focus on basketball, but he still received scholarship offers as a pitcher. During his freshmen and sophomore years, Bowers earned all-conference and all-state honors on the mound. Once, he pitched a no-hitter in an all-star game.

“Laurence is a superstar at baseball,” said Arlyn Bowers, a successful starting guard for Mike Anderson and Nolan Richardson at Arkansas and Laurence Bowers’ uncle. “They really need to expose him to that baseball coach at Missouri.”

So far this season Bowers has struggled to find the floor, but junior forward Keith Ramsey indicated in a radio interview after the USC game that Bowers could become a much bigger contributor as the season goes on.

Ramsey said that no one can stop Bowers in practice, and that Bowers has simply been too nervous in games. If the freshman can calm his nerves, he might be able to give Anderson’s squad a shot in the arm on the boards, an area where the Tigers struggle.

Winning ugly

Cindy Stein’s Tigers notched its first win of the season Saturday night with a 61-54 victory over Western Illinois. In the process the Tigers avoided their first 0-3 start since the first season of the Big 8 conference (1975-76).

But this game brought new meaning to the term “winning ugly.” A victory over Western Illinois is hardly a resume builder. The Westerwinds only returned two starters from a team that went 14-16 last year and were picked by the media to finish fifth in the Summit League this season. Not one returning player averaged in double figures last year.

The Tigers were horrific through most of the game on the offensive end of the floor. There was very little ball movement and no flow or rhythm to speak of when the Tigers had the ball and they finished the game with a 32.9 field goal percentage, which was actually not that far off from their season average of 37 percent.

Senior guard Alyssa Hollins remained in her shooting slump by hitting only one of her 11 shots and missing all six of her three-point attempts. In the last two games Hollins has shot a staggering five-of-33 from the field. 

If there was one positive for the Tigers to take away from this game, other than the obvious fact that they won, it’s that they were somehow able to win despite giving up a shooting percentage that was 11 percentage points higher than what they shot. They did that by relentlessly crashing the offensive boards. The Tigers grabbed 23 offensive rebounds and ended up shooting the ball 27 more times than Western Illinois did (70 to 43). Had Missouri converted more of those second chances into actual points—they finished with only seven second chance points—we’d be talking about a blowout instead of a nail-biter.

Rebounding could be a potential strength for the Tigers this season. Sophomore and junior forwards Shakara Jones and Jessra Johnson were the leading rebounders on last year’s squad and both have been solid for the most part this season. Stein is also able to bring in a lot of size in off the bench with 6-5 freshman Kendra Frazier, 6-3 freshman Christine Flores and 6-2 junior Marissa Scott, all of whom have received significant playing in the early part of this season. 

Missouri will face a much stronger opponent on Tuesday when Indiana comes to Columbia. The Hoosiers were 18-15 last year and only lost one letterwinner in the offseason. Junior guard Jamie Braun could be handful for the Tigers’ backcourt. Braun averaged 14.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists last season.

Notes from Puerto Rico

After two days in Puerto Rico, we know a little bit more about this basketball team, but there’s still a lot to find out. If it weren’t for those pesky free throws, we’d probably know a lot more. As it is, the Tigers had a respectable performance in their first test of the year, and continued to show they have no problem taking care of business against smaller, less athletic mid-majors.

I’ve always believed that Coach Anderson’s style of play is great for taking advantage of superior talent, and the Tigers have shown that so far in their three wins. The simple fact that Missouri creates an above-average number of possessions may be the biggest reason that uptempo basketball seems to help prevent fluky upsets. Even if the Tigers start slow like they did against Chattanooga and Fairfield, there’s always plenty of time to come back and end up with a score that reflects the talent level on both sides. It’s probably a big factor in why Coach Anderson’s teams are undefeated in home non-conference play, and it’s also a credit to the coach for not letting his teams play down to the level of their opponents.

Of course, another helpful factor is the depth of this basketball team. Missouri has no problem going at least five deep off their bench, and I doubt there are any mid-majors who can even come close to matching that. However, this depth presents a bit of a dilemma against high-caliber opponents, at least for now.

Assistant Coach Melvin Watkins touched on this subject a little in his post-game radio interview today, and it’s easy to understand why using the bench in big games now is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the starters are going to be much better if they get adequate rest, but on the other, with so many unproven freshmen coming off the bench, it’s difficult to gauge just how much you can let them play and remain competitive. We saw some of this in the Xavier game, when Missouri’s bench played a lot less than they have against the mid-majors.

Presumably, Coach Anderson will know his players well enough by Big 12 play, or perhaps even by the Illinois game Dec. 23, that he’ll have a good feel of how to walk the line between fatigued starters and too much time for the bench players. Ideally, the younger guys will be developed enough that it won’t be too much of a difference when they step on the floor. This could easily happen at the guard position, but the gap seems to be wider in the frontcourt, mostly because Lyons and Carroll are clearly Missouri’s two best players right now.

Watkins seemed to think the coaching staff didn’t do as well as they could have in the substitution area in the Xavier game, so it’ll be interesting to see what changes they’ll make in that regard against USC Sunday. The Tigers should be counting their blessings that USC was upset by Seton Hall, as it gives them a great chance to put a quality win on their resumé, and even a close loss could be benificial.

It seems a bit early to be thinking about games that way in November, but when you’re predicted to be on the bubble and you’ve got a non-conference schedule that doesn’t include any other teams that are currently even receiving votes in the two major polls, it’s something that has to be given some consideration. Not only that, but a win against a young USC struggling to find its identity could be much easier now that it will be in a couple of months. Yet the committee would probably still give it just as much weight by the time March rolls around.

The Tigers should be well-rested after a relaxing day in Puerto Rico, where Matt Lawrence said it was 85 degrees today (I’m jealous), and this game should be well worth watching.

Tigers prepare for Illini

The MU women’s basketball team will fly to Champagne tomorrow morning for a showdown tomorrow night with the University of Illinois.

Illini coach Jolette Law is in her second year as head coach and her team is coming off a 20-15 season. Illinois finished ninth in the Big 10 last year but then made a run to the finals of the Big 10 Tournament before losing on a last second shot to Purdue in the championship game. The Illini were then selected to play in the WNIT and advanced to the third round of the tournament before getting knocked of by Marquette.

The Illini return three starters but only four letter-winners and feature five newcomers this season. The Tigers will have their hands full with junior center Jenna Smith and junior forward Lacy Simpson. Smith averaged 18.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per game last season and was an Honorable Mention All-American selection by the Associated Press. Simpson averaged 7.2 points, five rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last year and is off to a hot start this season averaging 15.5 points, 10 rebounds and five steals per game thus far. 

The Tigers struggled to contain South Dakota State’s senior forward and leading scorer Jennifer Warkenthien in Friday’s game, especially down the stretch in the fourth quarter when Warkenthien scored 10 of her 15 points. That could spell trouble for MU against the Illini. If the Tigers are going to contain Smith in the post they are going to need Shakara Jones to stay out of foul trouble, which she failed to do in the first half of Friday’s game. 

“You got to try to make her (Smith) work at both ends of the court,” said MU coach Cindy Stein. “And I think that’s the most important thing. I don’t think you can be afraid of her. I think you’ve got to go at her and you’ve got to make her defend. I think all of those things and we’ve obviously got to limit her touches.”

Be sure to check ColumbiaMissourian.com tomorrow night for results of the game and postgame reactions from MU coach Cindy Stein.

South Dakota State notes

To the untrained eye Missouri’s 55-50 loss to the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Friday night might seem like another disappointing loss to a lackluster opponent for Cindy Stein’s Tigers. But make no mistake, while South Dakota State might not have what basketball fans consider to be a sexy name this was indeed a high-quality opponent for the Tigers to play in their season opener.

The Jackrabbits finished 23-7 last year but didn’t advance to the NCAA Tournament or the Summit League conference tournament, not because they weren’t qualified, but because they weren’t eligible. The Jackrabbits were in the process of transitioning from Division II to Division I. SDSU has only been competing at the Division I level since 2004-05 and this is the first season the Jackrabbits are eligible for either tournament per NCAA rules.

SDSU has averaged 22 wins per season since they started competing at the Division I level and they’ve hardly been playing cupcakes. Last season they notched wins over schools such as Oregon, Missouri and Oral Roberts. They have also been tabbed by the media to win the Summit League this season. 

All that said, it’s impossible to ignore that the Tigers flat out let this one get away. SDSU coach Aaron Johnston even admitted as much. 

“Missouri’s going to look back at this and feel like they had a ton of opportunities,” Johnston said. “I think from the free throw line they missed some big ones when they could have had some and they missed some shots around the basket. And I don’t say that to be critical at all but I know this one will be one that probably stings from their standpoint because in many ways they played as well as we did and we came away with a win. But I don’t know that we outplayed them in many aspects.”

One of the key junctures of the game was when sophomore forward Shakara Jones picked up her second foul at the 9:03 mark in the first half with the Tigers up 15-8 and looking as though they were about to open the game up. Jones had seven points at that point and was having her way in the paint against the Jackrabbits’ interior players. Jones would not return until the start of the second half and the Tigers failed to increase their lead. After halftime the Jackrabbits were able to get into a better offensive groove despite Jones being back on the floor. 

Other Notes:

• Junior forward Jessra Johnson turned her angle trying to jump in front of a pass with about 15 minutes left in the game. She limped down the floor before leaving the game and being tended to by the team’s trainer, but she returned quickly. After the game she downplayed the injury.
   
  “It feels good,” she said before admitting, “I tweaked my ankle a little bit. I’m alright though.”

• The Jackrabbits shot just one-of-16 from behind the three-point line. Odd considering SDSU averaged 7.7 made three-pointers per game last season (ninth among Division I squads) and hit 37.1 percent of their three-pointers as a team (17th in Division I).

• The Tigers will travel to Champaign, Ill. on Wednesday for a midweek matchup against the Fighting Illini. MU coach Cindy Stein and associate head coach Lynnette Robinson were teammates at Illinois during the 1981-82 season. Check the Columbia Missourian next week for more on that story and a preview of Wednesday’s game.

MU women fall to South Dakota State

The Missouri women’s basketball team was outscored 38-26 in the second half of Friday night’s game against South Dakota State and lost 55-50.

To read more about the game go to ColumbiaMissourian.com for stories from reporters Shawn Garrison and Rachel Crader, and come back to the MizzouHoops blog for additional information.

MU women lead South Dakota State at half

It’s halftime at Mizzou Arena and the Missouri women’s team leads South Dakota State 24-17.

Shakara Jones leads the Tigers with seven points and three rebounds, but she had to leave the game with foul trouble with nine minutes left in the half.

RaeShara Brown has six points and five rebounds.

Women Sign Recruit, Ready for Season

Missouri women’s basketball coach Cindy Stein said the team had signed Trenee Thorton after her team’s practice on Thursday.

Thorton is a 5-foot-6 guard from Central High School in Kansas City who was a first team, All-Stater in Class 4 last year. Here’s what Stein had to say about Thorton:

“She’s just a tremendous young lady — good student, very polished player, can play the one or the two, very athletic, smart. We’re really excited about her.”

Stein said she expects to a couple late-signing recruits to next year’s class but did not mention any names.

I included a quote from Stein in my story for Friday’s paper about her belief that the team has something to prove this year, but she bristled at the idea of using things like being picked to finish last in the Big 12 conference for “bulletin board material.”

“Not anymore,” she said. “I think that can spur people on for a little bit, but really when it comes down to it, it’s what’s inside—kids have got to be competitive inside. If you need gimmicks to get them fired up then you probably recruited the wrong kids.”

None of the Tigers have injuries that could affect their play heading into the season, according to Stein.

“Not too much. You always have tweaks here and there, nothing that we’re worried about,” she said.

Missouri plays South Dakota State at 6:30 on Friday at Mizzou Arena in its first regular season game. I will posting a short update here during halftime, so be sure to check back.

Signing Day

The first day of the new signing period has come and gone, and most of the news is revolving around athletes finalizing commitments that were made long ago by signing their name on a letter of intent.

For Missouri, it was Mike Dixon, a decent recruit, but not nearly as high-profile as the one who recently dropped the Tigers from his list. That would be Michael Snaer, a shooting guard from California who rivals.com rates as the #11 high school senior in the country. He dropped Missouri and UCLA from his list, leaving Florida St., Marquette and Kansas.

Of course, recruiting at Kansas is a lot easier than at Missouri, so some KU fans might be hoping Snaer doesn’t sign with the Jayhawks so that they have enough scholarships left for the top recruit, John Wall, and the third one, Xavier Henry. Bill Self seems to have it a little easier on the recruiting trail than Mike Anderson. Maybe it’s because of that storied program and that national championship thing.

Now, one might wonder why a kid from California would have those three schools on his wishlist. I don’t know, but if I were to venture a guess, I would say he’s got connections through either his family or the AAU circuit. That seems like the best way to get recruits these days.

Kansas State’s got two more top-notch commits from the DC Assault, the AAU team that also produced Michael Beasley, as well as current Wildcats Dominique Sutton and Ron Anderson.

Coach Anderson has found a solid pipeline himself with the Kansas City Pump N Run. Dixon was on that team and played alongside freshmen Marcus Denmon and Steve Moore.

Apparently the lesson to coaches is, find a good AAU team, make friends, and suck the best players from it until the well runs dry. Just like sports journalism, sometimes recruting is all about connections.