Column:

MU is finally 'on the move'

By Shawn Garrison, Sports Columnist; csg446@mizzou.edu

Published Feb. 27, 2007

Every time the Missouri Tigers take two steps forward, they seem to immediately take one step back.

After winning their first nine games at home to start the season, the Tigers dropped games against Purdue and Illinois in the annual Braggin' Rights Game.

After completing their non-conference schedule without any bad losses, they promptly lost their first four conference games.

Then, after nearly playing their way back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble by winning three straight games, including a season-saving victory against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., their tournament bubble has finally burst for good by losing on Saturday to Nebraska.

A win on Saturday in Lincoln, Neb., along with a home victory next week against Colorado would have set up what would have essentially been an NCAA Tournament play-in game against Texas A&M in the season finale.

That was not to be as Missouri fell to junior center Aleks Maric and the Cornhuskers for the second time this season. Maric played the Tigers to the tune of 31 points and 19 rebounds and was able to get post-position whenever and wherever he wanted.

Despite the disappointment of the loss, it was hard to ignore the fact that Missouri had made significant strides since the first time the two teams met. The Tigers are still very weak inside. Junior center Kalen Grimes and junior forward Marshall Brown are still putting out pathetic performances, but Missouri's guard play is much more consistent than it was a month ago.

After being a non-factor in the first meeting thanks to a box-and-one defense employed by Nebraska, junior guard Stefhon Hannah had one of his better all-around performances of the season. He scored 17 points, dished out five assists, and most impressively, led the Tigers with 10 rebounds.

The emergence of freshman guard Keon Lawrence has also been more than a little encouraging. Despite a sub-par outing on Saturday, Keon has been the Tigers' MVP of the past couple weeks and is beginning to draw comparisons to Kareem Rush and Keyon Dooling. Most encouraging about his rise is his improvement in rebounding. In the first four games in which Keon played at least 24 minutes, he pulled down five total rebounds. He has averaged six boards per game since. Nebraska was not able to use the same box-and-one defense against Hannah on Saturday because of Lawrence's presence.

Yes, the Tigers' backcourt should give MU fans plenty to look forward to next season. With a full year of experience under their belts, Lawrence and Hannah will be one of the best guard combos in the Big 12 and one of the quicker tandems in the nation. You can't find a better fit for Mike Anderson's up-tempo system than these two.

If the Tigers can finish this season with a decent run in the NIT, then missing the Big Dance next season would be considered a major disappointment. Missouri will only lose senior forward Marcus Watkins and gains Demarre Carroll, who could be one of the conference's better rebounders if he lives up to his hype.

If Brown can start averaging more than four boards per game, the Tigers will be in business.