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GEORGE GEARHART

Free Mountain Dew

George Gearhart

Free Mountain Dew
I was sitting here, typing this up, and Pat looked at me from the fridge and said, "Hey, your Mountain Dew bottle is a winner."

Me: "Did you open it just to find out?"

Him: "Yeah."

Me: "Cool."

So I guess I won more than Mizzou did Saturday.

Jason Cracker wins the Heisman
Moving along...

Student Seating for Mizzou Hoops (part 2)
I haven't received a single email about student seating (scroll down on this link to catch up)? I was going to give my free Mountain Dew to the third person who sent in their thoughts, but that contest wasn't too popular. I guess I should have publicized it.

I'm still trying to track down a bit more information. I've gotten replies from people at Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Texas Tech, and UCLA. I'm waiting on Illinois, Iowa State, Nebraska, OU, and a couple more non-conference schools. I've already done more research on this subject than I ever did for a term paper or project. But it's funny, because I'm still paying student loans, and I didn't have to spend a dime to email these people. Huh.

Anyways, this will probably be its own column soon. Get your ideas in -- I'm looking for any complaints about the current policy, and any suggestions for improvement.

Michigan State/Kentucky Game Sets Attendance Record
But there were less than 7 minutes left in the first half when CBS finally aired the game, thanks to overtime in the Mizzou-Gonzaga contest. What would have happened if the MU game went into double overtime? We probably would have missed their stupid half-time show bragging about the record. Even though the Wildcats and Spartans played a good game, it wasn't about the game to begin with. I'm glad I wasn't sitting in the end zone, because it was probably easier to watch from my couch.

Gonzaga
Fouls
Some, including Nick, would argue that the refs had something to do with the loss to the Bulldogs. I, personally, wouldn't ever criticize officials in a public forum. I do investigate numbers, though.

In the first half, Missouri was charged with 7 fouls, Gonzaga with 8. Pretty even. In the second half and overtime, Mizzou accumulated an additional 21. However, after half time, Gonzaga was whistled only 11 times. They shot 40 foul shots, compared to Mizzou's 26. Three Tigers fouled out, but for Gonzaga, only Cory Violette, scorer of two points (but collector of 12 boards) had to take a seat early.

Was there some sort of impropriety? No comment.

Defense
It doesn't seem like Mizzou can get everything clicking at once. There has been a hole (or two) in the defense every game -- this time it was inside, as opposed to recent games where we couldn't stop the 3. In 8 games, only Georgia has held the Zags to less points in regulation (that game also went to overtime) than the Tigers did Saturday. The effort was there, but it's kind of tough to play aggressive D when everyone is sitting on three or four fouls.

Offense
Most of my analysis of the offense is below, but basically, Mizzou couldn't get the ball in the basket Saturday. They took 19 more shots than Gonzaga, but made one less. Clank.

Random Thoughts
Spencer Laurie does a good job recognizing defenses and getting the offense set. If he can develop his body enough to gain a quick first step, allowing him to drive to the bucket, he could be a stunning backup point guard, or even a solid starter.

I've never been a huge fan of Josh Kroenke, but he's out there every game, playing pretty hard and occasionally knocking down a big 3. I've decided to give him the same treatment that I gave Clarence Gilbert his senior year; I was never fond of either of them, but Gilbert was surprisingly better than average during his final campaign, and he was kind of fun to watch. I'm hoping Kroenke has the same in store, especially if he's going to play so many minutes.

McKinney shouldn't wait until the end of games to drive to the hoop and get fouled (or score). If he was that aggressive all the time, it wouldn't be so tough to get the ball to the bigs.

If anything, this year's Tigers have the remarkable ability to keep my eyes glued to the television until the final buzzer sounds. There were plenty of chances to run away with this one, but Gonzaga kept hanging around, and they hit their free throws in overtime. Hopefully Mizzou will get another shot at them in March; this was a pretty good game. Wish it would have gone the other way, though.

The Fine Line

Gonzaga made more foul shots than Mizzou attempted (29-26, respectively). There is no reason for this to ever occur to the Tigers. On top of that, the Tigers only were only 61% on FTs. If Mizzou would have made 2 or 3 more in the 2nd half, Gonzaga would have been fouling at the end of the game instead of MU.

Mizzou had 18 offensive rebounds, which helps explain how they didn't get blown out -- Gonzaga outshot them from both the foul line and the floor.

Both teams had 16 turnovers. If the Tigers can get this number down to 10-12 a game, they'll have a better chance against teams like Gonzaga. They did, however, have a positive Assist/Turnover ratio Saturday.

Josh Kroenke played 7 minutes less than Travon Bryant and Linas Kleiza combined, and there were an extra five minutes to go around. It helps to have your best players on the floor as much as possible.

Missouri shot 26 three-pointers, and actually shot a better percentage from 3 (39%) than they did from inside the arc (34%). Something has to give here.

Gonzaga is 2-0 in overtime this season, and Missouri is 0-1.

Rickey's Ankle (part 2)
He played 44 of 45 minutes today, and he took an Iverson-like number of shots. It didn't look like it bothered him too much.

Up Next: UNC Greensboro
The Tigers have a 7 day break for finals before their 2nd home game of the year. I don't like the whole "play a game, wait a week, play a game, wait a week" thing that's going on. Luckily, after Greensboro, Mizzou doesn't have more than four days between games for the rest of the season.

It's kind of tough to look ahead to next weekend, and I don't have the zest to look into UNC Greensboro right now. Based on their schedule so far, it looks like they lack many of the qualities of a good team, but they have beaten Campbell twice. The game is next Sunday at 2:00 on MSN.

The Tip of My Tongue
I watched KU for the first time this season (I have 3 TVs in my living room, especially for snowy afternoons like Saturday. I need to get satellite though.) Padgett and Giddens are skinny.

Don't vote in the Uber Shack Tournament finals on Monday. Neither finalist deserves to win.

You can reach George by sending an email to georgetb@horklezorp.com.

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