SB Nation User Blog: mitch cumstein

Eastbound and down? Crash on I-70 could be a problem for KC Tiger fans

mitch cumstein — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:29:49 -0000

A buddy of mine texted me to say he was re-routed about 30 minutes ago. He talked to a HiPo who said they were thinking about shutting down I-70 altogether about 2 p.m.

Not good news at all for us in KC.

This is from kmbc.com

Crash On I-70 Shuts Down Lanes In Cooper County
MoDOT Says Several Tractor-Trailers Involved In Wreck
UPDATED: 12:20 pm CDT October 8, 2009, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A crash involving several tractor-trailers has closed both eastbound lanes on Interstate 70 near mile marker 90 in Cooper County, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

A westbound lane that had been closed was reopened just after noon.

Eastbound vehicles on I-70 between Route 65 and Route K will have to exit at Route K and are being detoured back to Route 65, according to MoDOT officials in a news release.

All eastbound vehicles prior to Route 65 are being detoured to southbound Route 65 and eastbound Route 50.

Emergency crews are at the scene and drivers are urged to avoid the area.

From Dave Matter's practice report

mitch cumstein — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:34:04 -0000

Sorry Bill C., but I couldn't wait for you to post this excerpt from Dave's Friday practice report at behindthestripes:

"His touch on the short, intermediate and downfield throws has been so impressive, I'm starting to believe Gabbert will be as good as his receivers allow him to be."

Damn if this last quote doesn't have me excited as hell for the upcoming season. Gabbert's inexperience is my No. 1 question mark this year and if he's as impressive as Dave says (and like I said yesterday, as long as I've known Dave, he's never been someone I'd call a sunshine pumper), then I think the overall team speed and athleticism will be enough for us to compete for the North title once again.

I've said all along that going 6-6 and to a bowl was all I wanted out of this season. But Gabbert's development (caveat: if Dave is correct in his assessment), might have me ramp up my expectations to 8-4 and a shot at the North title.

[Promoted for Front Page Friday!]

Can MU lay claim to 1922 basketball national championship?

mitch cumstein — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:59:25 -0000

Check out the following article from my man Bradford Doolittle over at the Upon Further Review blog at kcstar.com (SIAP). Anyway, Bradford researches two of kU's basketball national title claims (given ex post facto by The Helms Foundation). Bradford has found that MU could in fact stake a claim to the 1922 mythical national championship. Turns out a college professor did similar research in 1993 and put Mizzou at the top of the 1922 season. How much different would it be if we had a "national championship" on our resume? Probably not much considering it was 1922. But at least it could be something to throw back in kU's face that we -- and not them -- actually won the national title.

The text of Bradford's entire blog after the jump (it's all his words, I didn't add anything):

MU versus The Helms Foundation: Part II

In the introduction to this series as well as Part I, my primary emphasis was to better evaluate the pre AP Poll seasons for the Jayhawks – meaning everything before 1948. To be honest, at the time I started, I didn’t even factor in Missouri. Of course, most (nay, all) the reason was because I wasn’t familiar with MU’s early basketball success. I quickly realized The Helms Foundation was extremely borderline – and that’s being very kind!

Fortunately, one of our beloved readers (Mark) made me aware of another reference point to rate the teams by. The alternative is that I would have had to spend countless hours researching on my own in order to come up with a top-20 ranking for each season. Fortunately, that had already been done (Premo).

MIKE DOUCHANT

To the best of my knowledge this Premo annual top-20 list can only be found in one place – Inside Sports College Basketball 1998, Mike Douchant. This is a tremendous resource and extremely valuable for anyone with an historical perspective on college basketball. It’s over 700 pages and covers just about everything you might want to know.

I bought a new copy on line for $29, so you don’t have pay the $50 Amazon wants to charge. But, whether $29 or $50, it wouldn’t have mattered to me. It’s easily worth it.

PREMO POWER POLL

In 1993, a St. Bonaventure professor (Patrick Premo) decided to do the same thing I was tempted to do – go back in time and figure it all out. You see, the problem with The Helms Foundation is that it appears (and despite my best efforts, I’m not 100% sure of this) that a single person – Bill Schroeder – picked the "national champion". He did this in the late 1930’s retroactively. I strongly suspect he didn’t have the information in 1939 that Premo had in 1993. Of course, I doubt Premo had the information that I have in 2009, but I’m willing to let sleeping dogs lie.

The bottom line is that Premo ranked the top 20, not just the top 1. There will be a day when I take a given season and tear it all down looking at each team and opponents and make my own top-20. I will compare it with Premo. If I like what he came up with, I might end my research at one season. But, in the meantime, I’m accepting his work as the gospel.

1921-22

Kansas is, of course, given credit for the 1921-22 "national championship" – sometimes called a "mythical championship" since The Helms Foundation credited KU in 1922. They also gave KU the championship in 1923. That’s where the Jayhawk faithful come up with five championships. Otherwise, it would just be three.

Here is the top-20 by the Premo Poll for the 1921-22 season.

Rank Team Rec.

1 Missouri 16-1

2 Kansas 16-2

3 Army 17-2

4 Idaho 19-1

5 Oregon St. 21-2

6 Wabash 21-3

7 Holy Cross 14-3

8 Purdue 15-3

9 Michigan 15-4

10 CCNY 10-2

11 Butler 23-4

12 Princeton 20-5

13 Illinois 14-5

14 Wisconsin 14-5

15 Pennsylvania 24-3

16 Texas A&M 18-3

17 Navy 15-3

18 Wooster 14-1

19 Beloit 12-0

20 Texas 20-4

-

In Part III (tomorrow), I will be evaluating Premo’s decision versus Helms’ decision. Unfortunately, we don’t know where Helms’ ranked Missouri – only that KU was #1.

I’ll also be relaying a fascinating account by Phog Allen of the second game between the two schools that season.

ESPN College Football Live

mitch cumstein — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:29:56 -0000

Yesterday was Big 12 day on ESPN College Football Live. Dari Nowkhah and Andre Ware spent about 20 minutes talking exclusively about the South (as well they should, the power is still down south, obviously). But when they finally got around to talking about Mizzou and the North (and interviewing Coach Pinkel to boot), Andre Ware dropped this bombshell, and I quote: "I have a hard time finding five wins on Mizzou's schedule".

So let me get this straight, Andre. You're basically saying Mizzou is going 4-8 next year?

Hey, I'm expecting a pretty sizeable letdown, no doubt. We lose a ton of talent (QB, two best receivers, three starters of DL, three starters in seconday, All-B12 kicker). I know it's going to be tough. In fact, my baseline expectation is only 7-5 (just get bowl eligible baby) and anything past that is gravy.

But I think predicting a 4-8 season is a little overboard. In fairness, he's pretty consistent. He did predict that Texas Tech would have six or fewer wins as well.

In the immortal words of Lou Brown, I hope we can give Andre a big sh*tburger to eat.

I know it's only Andre Ware, but if this is the kind of offseason attention we'll be getting, it's going to be a long summer. I'll be interested to see what Phil Steele, Athlon's and others have to say.

Charis Prep ... not good in eyes of NCAA

mitch cumstein — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:26:36 -0000

[UPDATE: Bumped from FanPosts]

Pulled this from the comments section of one of Walentik's articles in the Trib. It doesn't look good in terms of getting Keith DeWitt to Mizzou:

The NCAA High School Review Committee has issued a decision to uphold the not cleared status for Charis Prep school in Wilson, N.C.

Charis Prep appealed the NCAA Eligibility Center staff’s decision in September 2008 that the school was “not cleared”, meaning core courses, grades and/or graduation would not be accepted when determining prospective student-athletes’ initial eligibility to compete in intercollegiate athletics. This original decision was upheld by the NCAA High School Review Committee after an appeal was held on Feb. 23.

During the spring and summer of 2008, the NCAA Eligibility Center staff reviewed Charis Prep’s curriculum, class schedules, teacher schedules quality control practices and enrollment figures. The review also included an in-person site visit.

Specifically, the review identified several areas of concern, including quality control and curriculum.

The school was notified of these and other concerns and given an opportunity to respond to the specific issues. The written appeal, supplemental material and the arguments made by Charis Prep during the appeal failed to sufficiently address the irregularities and deficiencies of Charis Prep identified by the NCAA Eligibility Center staff review.

Students currently enrolled for the 2008-09 academic year may have their individual academic records reviewed through the initial-eligibility process. A determination will be made regarding their NCAA initial eligibility status based on this review.

The high school review process was created after presidents from several NCAA member institutions raised concerns about the legitimacy of high school academic credentials presented by some incoming student-athletes. In response, presidents in Divisions I and II adopted legislation to provide for the review of high schools and individual prospective student-athletes records in the initial-eligibility process.

Kimmeh! strikes again

mitch cumstein — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:57:53 -0000

If he isn't just about the most likeable kid we've had at Mizzou in forever, then I don't know who is. Trying to pick up in the middle of the biggest game of your life. Gotta respect this kid's game (on and off the court). This is from The Trib's notebook today:

Midway through the second half, the Memphis bench was assessed a technical. This time, English sank both foul shots and smiled broadly as he jogged back down the court. As he waited to inbound the ball, he tried to chat up members of the Memphis dance team, but apparently they gave him an earful.

He turned and told them, “Be nice.”

TWISTED HISTORY: Speaking of English, he said Missouri wouldn’t be satisfied with merely making the Elite Eight.

“Do you know who made it to the Elite Eight in 1996, all eight teams? No,” he said. “But you could tell me who won it all in ’96.”

So, who won it all in ’96?

“Was it UConn? I think it was UConn,” English said.

It was Kentucky.

Can we give Ken Pomeroy a little love?

mitch cumstein — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:21:58 -0000

For believing in us when we didn't even truly believe in ourselves? I remember seeing kenpom's new projection system a little before the Illinois game and he had us at something like 24-7, with a 12-4 Big 12 record. I think that's what it was. He might have actually had us winning the Illinois game, with a 13-3 record for 26-5. Heck now that I think about it, it might have even been 27-4.

Regardless, he was way out in front of the Mizzou basketball bandwagon this year. I thought it was a stretch that we'd get to 23 wins, even with winning 13 games in the non-con. But kenpom was right on his prediction. I'll give him and his numbers all the credit in the world.

So on this beautiful Friday afternoon, can we give a little love to someone who believed in us when we didn't even believe in us? A bully for Ol' Ken Pomeroy!

[Promoted for Front Page Friday!]

What's with all this lyin' around s*?!

mitch cumstein — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:30:04 -0000

[Editor's Note: Promoted from FanPosts. Solid work from our friend mitch cumstein.]

I'm going to channel my inner Bluto Blutarski right now and give this site a little pep talk. (not that this site particularly needs it, most of you are pretty levelheaded ... but I can't post on PM or TB at work, and I really need to give myself a pep talk ... thanks for letting me vent, and feel free to add on).

Was it over when we shot 25 percent at the line in the last five minutes against Xavier? Hell no. Was it over when Dmitri McCamy was raining threes and threading dimes all over the place? No. And it ain't over now!

Yes, yesterday sucked. Extremely. We sucked. kU doesn't suck, which really sucks. Basically, yesterday, we were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

But a couple points: (1) We still have a great opportunity on Wednesday; (2) No matter what happens on Wednesday, or Saturday for that matter, we're still dancing; and (3) If this were Vegas, we'd still be playing with house money. A lot of house money.

After an insanely hot run at the blackjack table, we're up five figures on the casino. Granted, yesterday was like trying to bluff a pair of eights against a nut flush, but you know what, we were smart and held 75 percent of our chips back in the room safe, just because we thought we might do something horribly wrong.

So now we're back in our room, regrouping, licking our wounds and getting a good night's sleep and getting ready to give the craps table a try.

None of us thought we'd be 24-5 at this point in the season. None of us thought we'd be 11-3 in the Big 12. And none of us thought we'd have a first-round bye locked up at this point in the year.

So, with all that said, let's not let one loss beat us twice. OU is going to be a tough challenge, no doubt. But let's give OU a little taste of what we experienced yesterday, a nasty crowd, an intimidating atmosphere and a barrage of transition buckets. (Oh, and if we do all three, we just might get ourselves a nice little 6-10 big man for next season too). Big game on Wednesday!

Dave Matter reporting Nevada game moved ...

mitch cumstein — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:05:45 -0000

...

... to Friday night, the 25th, instead of Saturday, the 26th.

Although I don't have as much a problem as a lot of you do with moving the Nebraska game, I'm not a big fan of playing on Friday night. Maybe it's the bad taste from the Troy State game or something like that. I just feel like Reno will be a little more hostile at night. Or, maybe I'm wrong. What's the blog's opinion?

Took this from The Big Lead ...

mitch cumstein — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:07:02 -0000

It's basically saying that because the mid-majors are down this year, then all it might take is a .500 conference record (and good RPI) to make the tournament if you're in a power conference. I've been flying under the assumption that Mizzou needed to get to 10-6 to get into the Big Dance.

Hopefully what he's saying has some truth to it. I'd still love for us to get to 10 wins and virtually assure ourselves of a berth. But I'd take a 9-7 or 8-8 season getting us there. I just want March to be relevent in my household again.

http://thebiglead.com/?p=11284#more-11284

Rank	Team	Rec.
1	Missouri	16-1
2	Kansas	16-2
3	Army	17-2
4	Idaho	19-1
5	Oregon St.	21-2
6	Wabash	21-3
7	Holy Cross	14-3
8	Purdue	15-3
9	Michigan	15-4
10	CCNY	10-2
11	Butler	23-4
12	Princeton	20-5
13	Illinois	14-5
14	Wisconsin	14-5
15	Pennsylvania	24-3
16	Texas A&M	18-3
17	Navy	15-3
18	Wooster	14-1
19	Beloit	12-0
20	Texas	20-4