The Border War was disgusting. Outside of a five minute span early in the first half in which Mizzou went on a 14-2 run, Kansas straight thumped the Tigers on their home court. And made it hurt. Stefhon Hannah, the "could-be Duke point guard," fouled out with eight minutes to go after dropping 19 points. Hannah played well, but outside of he and Kalen Grimes it was pretty ugly. The seemingly reborn Kalen Grimes actually played quite well for the Tigers, he netted 16 points.
The Tiger defense was atrocious and weak, nasty and grotesque. Which is probably a nice way of putting it. The only thing worse than watching the Tiger's broken press and terrible rebounding was having to look at the official who looked like he just climbed off the GQ-reject pile of boy toy model wannabes. And the only thing worse than his officiating, and that of the entire officiating staff, was his hair.
Mike Anderson got a technical foul late in the first half that was well worth whatever he said to the rogaine representative in zebra stripes. His exact words were "that was ******* terrible." It wasn't the only F-Bomb Anderson dropped during the extremely frustrating 40 minutes, the camera caught his lips moving to the rhythm of a "what the **** are you doing?" directed to Leo Lyons during a timeout that quickly followed the seven footer throwing up an arrant three ball that was closer to row six than the rim. That moment, and the silent treatment from Anderson during the rest of the timeout was the highlight of the game, barely edging Grime's left-handed power dunk over KU's Sasha Kaun in the first half and Anderson's half-time antics that involved him staying on the court long after both teams and all officials had hit the locker rooms.
I don't know if it was because Kansas is a great basketball team or if it was MU just being terribly bad, but I've never seen so many wide-open lay-ups. There were more Kansas players untouched and above the rim than there are tattoos on Grimes' body. That's a hell of a lot. I don't remember one instance where I saw a Missouri player block out a Kansas player. The glaring holes in Missouri's defense were abundant from start to finish, it was like watching college kids beat up on skinny high schoolers most of the game. Seriously, you had to be wondering the entire game why MU wasn't changing from man-to-man into a zone in order to stop the easy lay-ins, and once they finally heard your prayers Brandon Rush promptly drove from the the three-point line, into the zone, past all five Tiger mannequins and laid the ball off the glass and into the net. It was almost as if Grimes and his posse thought if they touched Rush they'd be cursed into eternal damnation.
I'm not sure how long its going to take Anderson to get his boys playing good basketball, but it was obvious on Saturday afternoon that they are no where close. And I think everybody was left wondering whether or not they even cared? After all, this was Kansas-Missouri. The players are supposed to be hyped up, they're supposed to care. Or at least act like it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Carpe Diem, Clitz. Would've been a different game if we only had to play the 9th ranked Jayhawks. But, unfortunately, we(mizzou fans) had to play the 9th ranked Jayhawks and a bunch of a**hole officials. At one point in the first half, Mizzou had 11 fouls to KU's 3. Not exactly a home court advantage. Hannah also needed an autopsy at halftime to boot. You didn't see it today, but I think they are playing some decent basketball. When was the last time MU beat a big 12 team on the road by 22 (Iowa St.)? We are one decent big man, who can actually get a rebound, away from being a legit tournament team. Let Quin's lazy players get out of there and we will see something. Stag beer makes your ears bleed.
Hannah had 19 points, but I think he also had 19 turnovers. He is a nice player on a poor team. You gotta give Anderson a couple of years, but I believe they took a huge step back yesterday. Their play was uninspiring. How can you not get your team to play against its biggest rival? (Butterfield played hard as usual)
Post a Comment