SB Nation User Blog: Michael Atchison

Mitchell makes it official

Michael Atchison — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:07:28 -0000

Mitchell makes it official

Tony Mitchell signs his letter of intent to destroy all who would stand between the Missouri Tigers and global supremacy.

Mizzou Basketball Preview (Part Five): Industrial Strength

Michael Atchison — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:47:14 -0000

Photo: Parker Eshelman / The Trib

In the late 18th Century, a French gunsmith named Honoré Blanc appeared before a committee of scientists and demonstrated that a functional musket could be assembled by randomly selecting fabricated parts from various piles. While fellow Europeans were dismissive, Thomas Jefferson, American Ambassador to France, was enthralled with Blanc's manufacturing advance, and carried the concept across the Atlantic, where it was adopted by Eli Whitney, who spread the gospel of interchangeable parts stateside, thus hastening the arrival of the industrial revolution.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with Missouri basketball? To which, I respond, what doesn't it have to do with Missouri basketball?

Welcome to Mike Anderson, Year Four. Perfect the pieces, perfect the machine.

As J.T. Tiller begins his senior season, we reach a milestone, a culmination of the new generation. This season, for the first time, every second of every game will be played by athletes who have known no coach but Mike Anderson. By reviving the program and remaking the roster, Mike Anderson now owns Missouri basketball.

All of the players recruited by the previous regime are gone. And though Mizzou will hardly be better off without Leo Lyons and Matt Lawrence, they were molded to fit the program, not manufactured for it. For the first time, every man on the squad was hand-selected by Mike Anderson not for what they are - guard, forward, center - but what they do - defend, disrupt, demoralize. Anderson no longer has a lineup, he has an assembly line.

Tiller and Taylor. Denmon and Dixon. Paul and English. Drive, dish, drop a three.

Ramsey. Safford. Bowers. Moore. Bang, board, block a shot.

Plug them in. Swap them out. Fire up the machine.

Anderson has already changed the program by changing the axis. A vertical game played at the rim is now a horizontal game played on the run. And this season, the industrious evolution continues beyond mere basketball. Anderson won't make substitutions. He'll change lines - Tiller, Taylor and English hit the bench while Denmon, Dixon and Paul hop the boards. Welcome to Hockey Night in Columbia. He won't take time outs. He'll take on fuel and tires. Welcome to the Hardwood 400.

Change the parts, change the game.

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, I wrote that Mizzou hoops had lost its connection with the fans, that it had been completely eclipsed by football, and that it was time to believe again. But last season's Tigers embodied the hoariest Missouri cliché. They were a Show-Me team. They showed everyone through their tenacity, through their triumph, and through their embrace of the fans who embraced them back. Last November, if I had asked which of Missouri's big revenue programs inspired the most faith in you, I know what the answer would have been. And if I asked the same question now, I'll wager the answer might be different.

Recently, Mike DeArmond wrote of how Fight Night at the Athena became the portal from past to future. It's when the bad blood was washed away and the true Tigers stood up. Since that moment, what defines Mike Anderson basketball has come into sharp relief: effort, heart, commitment. These Tigers know how to play, and they love to play. And there's nothing a Missouri crowd loves more.

What happened last year, wasn't just magical, it was methodical. It was a process that peaked earlier than expected. It was also more than that. I'm not much for supernatural explanations for athletic success. Carolina and Kansas don't win because of want-to or momentum or chemistry. They win because they have bigger, better, more skilled players, and coaches who orchestrate success. But watching Missouri's paranormal run through the NCAA Tournament last year led me to believe in the unseen. As the Tigers dissected one of the field's favorites in the sweet sixteen, it struck me that John Calipari probably wouldn't have recruited a single player in a Mizzou uniform. It wasn't that they couldn't play the game, it was that they didn't look the part. Their merits couldn't be measured by a tape or a scale. J.T. Tiller wasn't born to play guard, he was born to play hard. Every player on that team internalized the things that Tiller and Mike Anderson and DeMarre Carroll were and are all about. The conditioning, the will, the dedication. And those things will carry over to this season and beyond. Kim English, Marcus Denmon, Justin Safford, Keith Ramsey - they all have it. The hunger to run one more mile, to shoot one more shot, to dive for one more loose ball, their own internal combustion engines. They might look different, but they're all the same. Cut them open, it's plain to see.

These Tigers have interchangeable hearts.

Tigers land third hoops commitment for 2010

Michael Atchison — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:11:10 -0000

Tigers land third hoops commitment for 2010

Kadeem Green, a 6'8" forward, joins Phil Pressey and Ricky Kreklow as Tigers in waiting. Positivity week rolls on.

DJ Steve Porter's "Press Hop" is sheer genius. (Hat tip: Joe Pos)

Michael Atchison — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:56:22 -0000

DJ Steve Porter's "Press Hop" is sheer genius.

(Hat tip: Joe Pos)

The One Where Bill Self Gets Feisty

Michael Atchison — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:57:36 -0000

The One Where Bill Self Gets Feisty

Can't say that I blame Bill for the reaction, inasmuch as he lives in the post-Eustachy world.

Wayman Tisdale succumbs to cancer

Michael Atchison — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:18:02 -0000

Wayman Tisdale succumbs to cancer

One of the greatest players ever to visit the Hearnes Center has passed at age 44.

There needs to be a Missouri-Kansas version of this ad.

Michael Atchison — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:22:04 -0000

There needs to be a Missouri-Kansas version of this ad.

Thomas and Appleton Leaving Kansas

Michael Atchison — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:36:30 -0000

Thomas and Appleton Leaving Kansas

As recruiting season hits the home stretch, two scholarships come open.

Mizzou Hoops History Slide Show

Michael Atchison — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:28:07 -0000

Courtesy of MizzouWire. Enjoy.

We Can Be Heroes

Michael Atchison — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:46:11 -0000

This isn't going to be my normal fare. I'm not going to wax poetic or eloquent, and I'm not going to go back and edit and shape this into a museum piece. I'm just going to pour it onto the page, because that's what these Missouri Tigers make me want to do. In the words of classic garage rockers The Hombres, Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out).

Which, in turn, leads to the words of the far more sophisticated David Bowie. We Can Be Heroes.

As I watch the highlights again today, I'm struck by how many of the current Tigers have authored an iconic moment this season, a game or play for the ages. DeMarre Carroll, like Doug Smith or Steve Stipanovich before him, is for all time, the kind of player best remembered for a body of work. But many of his teammates, like a handful of Tigers through history, simply freeze time.

If I say Mark Dressler, you say Notre Dame, 1980. If I say Lee Coward, you say Jayhawk Assassin. If I say Corey Tate, you say The Shot, Circa '97.

And now, if I say Zaire Taylor, you say Texas and Kansas. If I say Kimmie! you say 15 points in 6 minutes. If I say Leo, you say The Shot That Beat Marquette. If I say Marcus Denmon, you say The Shot Heard 'Round the World.

And if I say J.T. (pardon me, Jesus Tyrannosaurus) Tiller, you conjure up an image of a basketball Atlas, with shoulders big and broad enough to carry a program's impossible hopes past an immovable object. If I say 2009, you say The Team That Would Not Die, The Season That Would Not End.

In The Wild One, when bad boy Johnny Strabler is asked what he's rebelling against, he replies "What you got?" In twenty years, when someone asks me who was the hero of Mizzou's 2008-09 season, I'll just say, Brando-style, "Who you got?"