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Stay updated full coverage of the Big 12 Championship tournament. Senior Staff Writer Ross Taylor will be filing live analysis, full game stories and videocasts from the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, along with photo updates by Dann Wunderlich and Andrew Feiler. Make The Maneater your hub for the tournament from the opening round to the championship game.
March 14, 2009
Missouri takes lead in unexpected fashion
Kim English has been mired in a month-long shooting slump. Keith Ramsey has had trouble at the free throw line all season long. Miguel Paul hasn't found the shooting touch that was promised during his recruitment to Missouri.
But those three players are curing their ails and have help spot Missouri out to a 23-19 lead with 7:23 left in the first half. Ramsey helped Missouri spark a run to catch Baylor by hitting 2-of-2 free throws after being hacked by Mamadou Diene. Paul and English have combined for 3-pointers to give Missouri the lead.
Momentum to Baylor early
Missouri didn't start particularly well in either of its two Big 12 Championship games before facing Baylor, and the Tigers appear set to continue that trend. Missouri trails Baylor, 15-9.
The Tigers are having trouble offensively, shooting 28.6 percent from the floor.
The game has been relatively clean, with only two fouls in the first eight minutes. The game does not appear to be as physical or as fast as the games these two teams played in the semifinals yesterday.
Neither team shooting well early
Neither Missouri nor Baylor has come out shooting the ball well early in the Big 12 Championship final. It's been like a carbon copy of the Missouri-Oklahoma State game last night with half the intensity, believe it or not. The teams are a combined 5-of-20 from the field.
With 15:13 to play in the first half, Baylor leads, 7-5.
Ford Center crowd slow to arrive
It remains to be seen whether or not the absence of an Oklahoma-based team will put a dent in today's attendance at the Ford Center. Since Thursday, sessions involving either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State have been near sellout status. Other sessions have been far less attended.
Right now, the arena isn't even 40 percent full, with 23:00 until tipoff. The "home court" edge right now appears to favor Baylor, whose fans appear to be finding their way to their seats earlier than Missouri fans.
UPDATE: The Ford Center is probably 70-80 percent full now, with an edge going to the Baylor fans.
Missouri off in shootaround
You can't put too much stock in shootarounds, but if you could, they'd be a bad omen for Missouri.
Baylor looked loose and locked in on its jumpers in shootaround, meanwhile Missouri seems to have carried over its poor shooting from last night's game against Oklahoma State. At one point, I counted nine consecutive Missouri misses before Keith Ramsey (of all people) hit a DEEP three.
Again, shootarounds are not a barometer for success, but I thought it might be of note...
No. 3 Missouri vs. No. 9 Baylor: Starting Lineups
No surprises on the Big 12's announcement of today's starting lineups. Both teams are riding the lineups that got them to this point.
NO. 3 MISSOURI
1 D. Carroll
4. J.T. Tiller
5 L. Lyons
11 Z. Taylor
33 M. Lawrence
NO. 9 BAYLOR
0 C. Jerrells
23 K. Rogers
24 L. Dunn
45 T. Carter
50 J. Lomers
Keys to the Game: Baylor edition
Missouri and Baylor are set to tipoff in about an hour in the Big 12 Championship final here at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. Here's a couple keys to the game for Missouri to end the evening with a Big 12 title in hand:
-- Baylor's legs: After Missouri's win over Oklahoma State on Friday night, Missouri coach Mike Anderson insisted that conditioning played a big role in the Tigers' victory, as Oklahoma State was playing its third game in three days. Tonight, Baylor will be playing its fourth game in four days after three consecutive upsets to reach the final. Does Baylor have enough left in the tank to keep pace with Missouri's frenetic style of basketball?
-- Identify the ace: Baylor is unlike most teams in the country in that they are loaded with firepower without any identified go-to scorer. The Bears are loaded with guys capable of putting the ball in the hole at alarming rates on any given night. Baylor's top three weapons in the tournament have been seniors Kevin Rogers and Curtis Jerrells and sophomore LaceDarius Dunn. All three will end up with their points, but it's imperative that Missouri doesn't allow any of them to go off.
-- Win the battles in the fast break and turnover categories: Missouri had issues slowing down Oklahoma State on the fast break last night, as the Cowboys counterpunched Missouri's up-tempo style with some speed of their own. In a pregame interview with Missouri radio announcer Gary Link, Baylor assistant coach Matthew Driscoll noted the importance of Baylor winning the battle of the break and avoiding falling victim to the Missouri press.
"When they get turnovers, they get easy buckets," Driscoll said.
Driscoll also placed the onus on Baylor's offense to capitalize whenever the guards are successful in breaking the Missouri press.
In Missouri's 89-72 win over Baylor in January, Missouri won the turnover battle, 18-14.
-- Eyes on the prize: With ESPN cameras filming B-roll of the Big 12 Championship trophy at mid-court, Missouri freshman guard Kim English walked by and began doing pushups next to the trophy, pretending to kiss it on the way down. Missouri has to walk the fine line of playing with urgency in the championship game without letting nerves affect their play.
Need further proof of the game's magnitude?
Just in case you're somehow missing the significance of today's Big 12 Championship final between No. 3 Missouri and No. 9 Baylor, look no farther than the media advisories that line press row today (see photo).
ESPN announcers Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla will be in the house for an ESPN HD broadcast, and the Ford Center presentation crew will be pulling out the full stops, from dimming the lights for more dramatic player introductions to warning press members about the two confetti cannons that will be discharged after the game.
All year long, coach Mike Anderson has said his team would "be in the hunt for something, we just don't know what." The focus of that hunt is clear today, as Missouri sits one victory away from its first Big 12 title.
Missouri still in 'uncharted waters' as it readies for Baylor
Senior forwards Leo Lyons and DeMarre Carroll carried the Tigers over the Bears on Jan. 31 at Mizzou Arena with 30 and 25 points, respectively. The teams will face off again tonight for the Big 12 title game.
Before Missouri's semifinal showdown against Oklahoma State on Friday, Mike Anderson said his team was in "uncharted waters." Not only does Anderson's statement still ring true heading into Saturday's Big 12 Championship final against Baylor, it now takes on even more meaning.
"It is special but it can really, really get special," Anderson said. "I think these guys have paid a price and you are seeing the rewards."
Asked by a reporter if Missouri was putting pressure on itself because of Baylor's propensity for "upset specials" in the Big 12 Championship tournament this year, Leo Lyons quickly dismissed the notion.
"I don't consider it an upset because we are not that type of team you have to come out and dominate somebody," Lyons said. "We are going to stop what they are doing because their guards have been hot. We witnessed it before."
After Missouri's win over Oklahoma State, Anderson noted the role conditioning and fatigue played in the game. Like the OSU game, when Missouri faces Baylor, the Tigers will have had an extra day of rest on its opponent thanks to Missouri's first-round bye.
"There is a lot at stake for both teams, and so I think sometimes the conditioning and all that stuff kind of goes out the window," Anderson said. "You get an opportunity to play in the championship game, that's a big deal."
Anderson was also extremely complementary of Baylor's run through the Big 12 Championship tournament thus far.
"They are playing awful well. As a matter of fact, it brought back some flashbacks from two years ago," Anderson said. "You got [guard Curtis] Jerrells and [guard] Tweety [Carter] playing well, [guard/forward Kevin] Rogers playing well. Of course, the addition of LaceDarius Dunn. He was unconscious."
And, in wrapping up his postgame news conference, Anderson perfectly summarized the common theme surrounding Saturday's title game.
"I know everyone didn't come to this particular championship game in, but it should be an exciting game to say the least," Anderson said.
What to expect when you're expecting: Baylor edition
It's three hours into Saturday, and even though I still haven't slept, that means I can officially start previewing the Big 12 Championship final between third-seeded Missouri and No. 9 Baylor.
The last time these two met was on Jan. 31, as Missouri ran away from Baylor in the last five minutes en route to an 89-72 win at Mizzou Arena.
Here's the game flow from the teams' last meeting:
Of course, the Baylor team Missouri will face Saturday evening is far different psychologically than the one they faced in January.
Before the season, Baylor was nationally ranked and thought to be among the Big 12's elite. The Bears were picked in a tie for third by Big 12 coaches in the preseason poll, even garnering two first place votes. Baylor coach Scott Drew has developed a small but deadly shooting team.
But as the season progressed, Baylor began to lose its identity and tailspin into Big 12 mediocrity. The Bears went on a six-game conference losing streak from Jan. 24 to Feb. 11 before beating Texas A&M at home to end the slide. Baylor finished conference play 5-11 in the Big 12.
However, something clicked for Baylor's players as soon as they stepped foot in Oklahoma City. Baylor has since reeled off upsets of No. 8 Nebraska, No. 1 Kansas and No. 5 Texas.
After the win over Kansas on Thursday, Drew broke down Baylor's roller coaster season.
"We were playing good ball [in non-conference]. And then got into conference and 3-1, we start losing a couple. Couple tight ones. We go to some places that are tough to play," Drew said. "We lose and then it was like putting a weight vest on. That was 10 pounds after losing four games in a row. Then when we lost five in a row, went to 20 pounds.
"I mean, it is tough when you have expectations, you were not meeting them and you are frustrated. I mean, that's how the conference season went for us. Now, once we got to the conference tournament, the vest came off because it is a new season. We were great in the non-conference. We want to be great in the conference tournament in the post season."
But Drew perhaps summed up Baylor's run best when he referred to a strong senior class that's refused to tarnish its legacy.
"When you have seniors that care and you want to go out in style, it makes [them] a tough out," Drew said.