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Our best ball is in front of us

Gates has said we haven’t played our best yet, and after yesterday I agree. Mosley and Diarra have shown elements we were lacking earlier in the year and getting them into more rhythm means our lineup is on the upswing going into feb, and we have the chance the peak at the right time. When’s the last year we could say that? 2008-09?

Plus Shaw is gaining confidence and the law of averages mean hodge/East/honor will not stay 3pt slumps for the entirety of the season.

Gonna be a good March.

NEW STORY LADY TIGERS LOOK TO BOUNCE BACK AGAINST VOLS

Quick preview of today's game from Caleb Logue. Caleb will be interning with us this semester, covering women's hoops, softball and maybe a little baseball

BASKETBALL CLOSING THOUGHTS FROM MIZZOU ARENA

*I figured this game was over about 15 minute before tipoff when we found out Kobe Brown wasn't playing. Alabama is legit. I agree with Dennis Gates that the Tide is the best team in the country. Mizzou would probably lose to them at full strength more often than not. They weren't winning without their best player. Just a bad day for ankles in the Show-Me State.

*That said, Missouri didn't just roll over and die. They were in a tie game late in the first half before an Alabama run in the final two minutes (that's a little bit of a trend against the Tigers this year and it's a little concerning). Mizzou even made a couple of pushes to get it back to 12 or 13 in the second half. You never really thought they were going to win, but they were a couple of baskets away from making it interesting.

*But they didn't make very many baskets. 32% from the field. 3/28 from three (that's virtually impossible). 7/16 on layups. You may not beat anybody in the SEC shooting the ball like that. You're definitely not beating the league's best team. I didn't think Missouri was taking bad shots for the most part. They just didn't go in. Bad day to have a bad day.

*It's worth monitoring the three-point shooting of Sean East and D'Moi Hodge. Hodge is now 4/25 in his last four games. East looks like he isn't really even taking threes anymore. Is this a slump or a sign that when the competition ramps up, these guys aren't great shooters? I don't know yet.

*I'm not worried about Isiaiah Mosley. He's 1/12 from three in two games, but the jumper is going to take a little game time to get there. Gates said after the game he thought he played Mosley too much and caused him to lose his legs a little bit. Even without the three being a weapon he had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assists. You'd like to cut down on the four turnovers, but Alabama's really good and he's now played twice in a month. I saw a lot of things to like out of him. I said earlier in the year I wasn't sure this team needed him. I was wrong. He's going to be a vital piece.

*This was never a game I counted as a win, Kobe Brown or not. In my path to the tournament, I had this as a loss. Missouri now faces a five-game stretch in which the goal is 4-1. You're at Ole Miss Tuesday and that needs to be a win. Then you have Iowa State and LSU at home, at Mississippi State and home against South Carolina. 5-0 is possible there, but 4-1 is the goal. 3-2 doesn't kill you, but 4-1 is the goal. If you win four of the next five, you're 18-6 and you're on track for the tourney bid. That's a success for sure. If by sitting Kobe today you made sure he was healthy for those games, it's 100% the right move.

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PS: Patrick Mahomes may not be human. And I'm a big Chad Henne fan tonight too. If the guy that was mad at me for a tweet about Nick Bolton recovering a game changing fumble during the Mizzou basketball game is a subscriber (which I highly doubt) I would like to take this chance to personally apologize to you for the great pain it caused.

Conference Schedules

The comments about Alabama being the best team in the country got me questioning. Looking only at conference wins, the top 4 teams so far shake out this way:

Alabama is 7-0 and played only one team in the top 1/2 of the conference so far. They played KY at home and won, they do have 4 road wins in conference but MU has the best conference record of any of those.

Tennessee is 6-1 and played only one team in the top 1/2 of the conference so far. They also played KY at home and it is their only loss. They also have 4 road wins but all against the bottom of the conference.

Auburn is 6-1 and played only one team in the top 1/2 of the conference so far. Florida is that team and Auburn beat them at home. Their loss was on the road to GA a middle of the pack team so far, and Auburn has 3 road wins against bottom teams.

A&M is 5-1 has road and home wins against Florida and a road loss at KY. So three games against top half of the conference. They have two road wins with the second being against SC.

Of note, none of these top 4 teams have yet played each other.

Mizzou has played 4 of the top half already, KY, A&M, FL and AL going 1-3. As said previously the schedule starts to lighten a bit as long as the team takes care of business against those bottom teams.

*** Didn't find this info anywhere so I created my own spreadsheet, if you find errors, I will stand corrected and appreciate the help tracking.

OFF TOPIC Breaking Bad, Ozark, now what?

I have put part of my stay-at-home time towards Netflix and Amazon streaming series, most notably the two in the title of my post. Yes, I have seen GOT and liked it too.

I welcome your suggestions for the next series to watch. It should be well written and acted, and full of action, like Breaking Bad, Ozark and GOT. It needs to be on Netflix or Amazon streaming. Thank you for your input.
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