The quiet one, so rarely speaks
Unlike both Mike and Kim
His jump shot had been lost for weeks
‘Til he found it in the gym

When the hour was turning late
And the game was on the line
The Tigers needed more than eight
So he simply gave them nine

Sometimes the fates write poetry. Sometimes you get the game that you deserve. Three months ago, no one foresaw that Missouri and Kansas would each enter Saturday night’s contest with single-digit rankings. But it feels right, doesn’t it? After 106 uninterrupted years of conflict, the ancient rivals will meet in Columbia for the last time and for first place. And it will conjure echoes of what has made the Border War so meaningful and why it will be so hard to let go.

This game will be the other bookend in a set that goes back to the beginning of basketball time. In Missouri’s first season, the Tigers hosted Kansas for two games and won them both. They were the last games coached by James Naismith, leaving Missouri 2-0 all-time against the man who invented the sport. That’s a good way to start.

And this is a good way to end. On national television, hosting ESPN’s Gameday, in the most meaningful meeting since the last time Missouri held a number four ranking when hosting Kansas. That was in 1990, when Kansas entered with the nation’s number one ranking and the Tigers left with it. The rivalry has been terrific when played for pride. It has been transcendent when played for more.

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Given that Bill blew off the roundtable today, we turn it over to you, loyal readers.  Do your best with these four questions.

1) Which new player are you most excited to see this weekend and why?

2) Fill in the blanks: James Franklin will throw __ times for ___ yards, with __ touchdowns and __ interceptions, and he’ll rush __ times for ___ yards with __ touchdowns.

3) What’s the best realistic option for a program to replace A&M and get the Big XII to ten schools?  What’s the best achievable option for getting to fourteen schools?

4) Taking inspiration from this video, say something nice. 

We also have a special section where our Roundtabl'ers attempt to predict the height/weight/time of birth and name of the female Baby Bill C.  Their responses after the jump, and feel free to add your guesses to the thread!

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After a long hiatus (hey, I get busy), we’re back to survey the world of hoops.  Let’s go around the nation.

That’s more like it:  The past week’s relatively comfortable wins over Kansas State and Iowa State put the Tigers back on track, but it was really just holding serve.  Those were games Missouri needed to win, and should have won. 

In conference play, the Tigers have had two opportunity games – at Colorado, where they should expect to win, and at Texas A&M, where it was in their hands – and have come up empty.  Come March, the last minute of overtime in College Station may continue to reverberate for Mizzou.

Now comes big opportunity.  Win at Texas, and it’s all square.

Win at Texas, and you play for seeding the rest of the way. 

Lose at Texas, and then you go into Stillwater, Oklahoma hoping not to fall to 3-4 in the league.

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Can you smell it?  Conference play is in the air.  Let’s go around the nation.

Old Domination:  It seems like ages ago now, but it has been less than a week since Mizzou’s thorough destruction of Old Dominion.  I’ll confess that I thought that the Monarchs, with their heady mixture of size, experience and talent, had a great shot to hand Mike Anderson his first non-conference loss ever at Mizzou Arena.  But, as we know, I’ve been wrong before.

There’s no need to rehash the game; Bill already did that. 

Instead, let’s try to figure out what it means.  First, it confirms that this team is really, really good.  Even though Missouri looked sluggish early in the season against lesser opponents, once the competition got tougher, so did the Tigers.  Falling behind Georgetown by 18 in the first half was the he best thing that has happened to this team.  Since that moment, the Tigers have been one of the nation’s elite teams.  They got staggered and they responded.  That’s a great sign.

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The holidays got in the way.  Instead, consider this an open hoops thread.  Tell us who impressed you this past week (Mizzou, Texas) and who didn't (Baylor, Kansas State), and give some nominations for the Hoop M Nation non-con All Big 12 team, which will be announced next week .  Talk about the defections (Standhardinger), the suspensions (Pullen, Kelly) and the ascencions (Selby).  Reevaluate the conference race based on what you've seen so far.  Who's up?  Who's down?  Who's the big surprise, both good and bad?  Let's hoop it up.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  Braggin’ Rights is here.  Let’s go for an abbreviated trip around the nation.

Buzzkill:  I was in the midst of writing a Hoop M Nation built around the singular talents of Phil Pressey when word broke that the freshman point guard has fractured the ring finger on his right hand, an injury likely to keep him out for two weeks.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that serious an injury, but even a relatively minor impediment to Pressey’s ability to handle the ball and pass could be a major obstacle to his effectiveness when he returns.

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As we head into the light week of hoops precipitated by finals, it’s time to take stock of the caped crusaders and masked men who make up Missouri basketball.  Let’s go around the nation.

Dr. Impossible:  I don’t need to tell you that Marcus Denmon is playing at the highest, most heroic level we’ve seen from a Missouri guard in years, or that this team’s identity is coalescing around him.  I don’t need to point out that the Tigers certainly would have lost to Vanderbilt without him, or that they might also have dropped games against La Salle and Oregon absent his inspired play.  I don’t need to note that his steal and old-fashioned three-point play in the closing seconds against Vandy will stand as one of the most thrilling and unforgettable moments ever witnessed in a non-conference game in Columbia.  And I certainly don’t need to cram Denmon’s recent heroics into an overwrought narrative about the intersection of triumph and tragedy.  Instead, I’ll just reprint these words from Mike DeArmond’s Presbyterian game wrap-up from Sunday’s Kansas City Star

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It seems like ages ago that the Tigers last played, but they still managed to pack a lot of living into the past week, with one loss you’ll always remember and one win you’ll gladly forget.  Wanna make sense of it all?  Let’s go around the nation.

Marcus O RLY-us?:  Mizzou hoops sports information director Dave Reiter delivers the tweet of the week: "What a week for #Mizzou's Marcus Denmon. 15-19 FGs, 8-11 treys, 46 total pts, 23.0 ppg and 7.0 rebounds per game. 22 total treys in 7 games."  

I mentioned this Friday on my award-winning performance on The Closers (it hasn’t won any awards yet, but that seems like a formality at this point): Marcus Denmon is becoming Melvin Booker, or something very much like him.  Booker’s scoring averages in his first three seasons: 8.3, 11.6 and 15.8 points per game.  Denmon’s through the seventh game of his junior year: 6.0, 10.4, 16.4.  The comparison isn’t exact.  Denmon plays off the ball more than Booker did, and takes (and makes) considerably more of his shots from three-point range.  But from their size to their demeanor to their ability to take the ball to the hoop or to stop and pop, the two players have lots of similarities.

Denmon is currently shooting 56.4% from three-point range and averaging a ridiculous 1.67 points per shot (his points per shot number is exactly the same as Kemba Walker’s, who, as noted below, is having some kind of year).  Will those numbers stay sky-high?  Probably not.  But Missouri has already played roughly one-fifth of its full schedule.  We have a pretty fair sample size, and it cuts across all kinds of venues – the convention center weirdness of Cancun, the home cooking of Mizzou Arena, the NBA-style backdrop of Sprint Center, the old-school hostility of Oregon’s McArthur Court.  In other words, it’s not a fluke.  Marcus Denmon is for real.

How soon I forget:  With word that Denmon and Ricardo Ratilffe had been named the Big 12 player and rookie of the week, respectively, I wondered when the last time two Tigers had been so honored simultaneously, assuming it was a once-in-an-epoch event.  So I asked Dave Reiter.  His answer?  It last happened less than a year ago, when Kim English and Michael Dixon earned props for their efforts against Illinois and Austin Peay.  

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We begin the second installment of Hoop M Nation with a modest proposal.  Let Justin Safford start for the Tigers with everyone else coming off the bench.

With that, we go spanning the sphere.

Double hotdamnity:  Over the last four games, Ricardo Ratliffe is averaging 12 points and 11.5 rebounds per game.  Missouri basketball sports information director Dave Reiter tells us that Ratliffe is the first Tiger with four straight double-figure rebounding games since Arthur Johnson recorded six straight eight years ago.  I was hoping for 14 points and 8 boards per game from Ricardo this season, but 12 and 11?  Even better.

The next step for Ratliffe is to embrace his inner beast.  Even though Missouri has run little half-court offense for him, Ratliffe has displayed a rare and precious gift for finding the ball in his hands within two feet of the basket.  During Sunday’s radio broadcast, Gary Link implored Ricardo to attack the rim; the result ninety percent of the time will be either a dunk or a trip to the free throw line.  Too often, Ratliffe’s instinct is to go up softly or to fall away.  He’s too good and too strong for that.  More than any other player from the past, Ratliffe calls to mind Jevon Crudup, a big, strong and effective rebounder who seemed reluctant to tear down the rim.

There had been some talk entering the year that Ratliffe hoped to jump to the NBA after just one season.  I think we can put that speculation to rest until he dramatically expands his offensive arsenal.  A 6’11" player can make it in the league by defending, rebounding and scoring on put backs.  A 6’8" guy needs to display markedly different skills.

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Welcome to the first installment of what (we hope) will be a weekly run of concentric circles around Mizzou, Big 12 and national college basketball.  The title is tentative.  If you have a better one, post it in the comments.

The week that was. 

Let’s start with a quick look at what we learned in a squeaker against Western Illinois and a blowout of North Florida.

Sometimes it is that simple.  The 2010-11 College Basketball Prospectus provides this gem.  Last year’s Tigers were one of only two teams since 2004 whose opponents turned the ball over on more than 27% of their possessions.  In the season’s first game, Western Illinois turned the ball over just under 24% of the time.  Missouri won by five.  In the season’s second game, North Florida turned the ball over on 40% of its possessions.  The Tigers won by 38.  Turnover percentage doesn’t tell you everything, but for a Missouri team, it tells you a lot.  Another stat that tells you a lot: Pace.  The Western Illinois game yielded 67 possessions per team.  The North Florida game yielded 85.  The Leathernecks dictated the opening game’s pace, and that may be the most effective thing a less-talented team can do against Mizzou.

Your English is improving.  For the season’s first 62 minutes, Kim English played far below his ability, and teams with ability far below the Missouri Tigers managed to hang perilously close.  Then English made a jump shot with 17:51 to play against North Florida to increase the lead from two to four, a layup with 15:04 left to increase the lead from five to seven, and two treys over the next eight minutes to help blow the game open.  Here’s a truism:  When Kim English makes shots, the Missouri Tigers are exceptionally hard to beat.  Last season, English shot 25.8% from beyond the arc in losses, and only shot better than 33.3% in two of those games (2 for 5 against Texas A&M and 3 for 7 against Vanderbilt, two contests that came down to the final minute).  In Mizzou’s wins, Kimmie made 42.6% of his tries.  It’s no coincidence that Western Illinois pushed Mizzou to the limit when English went 0 for 3 from three-point range, or that North Florida rolled over when Kim when 2 for 4 from behind the arc (and 5 for 7 overall).

Part of the problem is that when he doesn’t make shots, English’s erratic ball handling bogs down the offense.  Through two games, Kim has twice as many turnovers as assists, and there have been other times when bobbles have killed a fast break or slowed the half-court offense.  To make the leap from shooter-with-potential to game-changing offensive force, English has to become better with the ball. 

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In 1976, when I was eight years old, I walked into my local record store and walked out with the defining artifact of my childhood, a package that perfectly synthesized two of my favorite things, cartoons and loud noises.  It was the KISS album Destroyer, and the cover alone filled me with the kind of awe and anticipation I later felt the first time I climbed aboard a roller coaster or stepped onto a New York City sidewalk.  What have I gotten myself into? 

There were four heavy metal gods, menacing and muscled, standing atop the smoldering remains of either Babylon or some hockey arena they had just obliterated and seeming to say there will be rock, there will be fire, there will be blood.

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