Mizzou Turns Up Heat on Big 12

If Missouri coach Mike Anderson knew any more about heat, you might suspect his family tree runs through a furnace on one side and a volcano on the other.

There's heat, as in his defense, the full court pressure that could make a prairie dog sweat that Anderson honed under Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson's famed "40 minutes of hell." As it turned out, even hell could get a little hotter.

There's heat, as in the hot seat he sat on for two years as Missouri's program was just good enough to realize it should be a whole lot better.

And there's the heat of a sold-out Mizzou Arena with reigning national champion Kansas coming to town.

But none of them have anything on the heat surrounding a team that's not just the breakout team of the Big 12, but may just be the best team in the nation you aren't already afraid of.
"I think our people are excited," Anderson said about the perception of his program. "We're in the race for a conference championship, and we hope that excites [our fans]. There is a buzz about basketball at Missouri right now."

And, unless he can devise a defensive strategy to single-handedly bail out the economy while proposing some sort of cure for the common cold, might be Anderson's greatest trick.

When the former Arkansas assistant and UAB head coach relieved coach Quin Snyder, Missouri basketball wasn't simply a black eye for the institution, it was a face full of welts. There likely have been people who looked worse than the Missouri program, but they probably went 12 rounds with Tyson or bought 12 rounds with Daly.

So, after two disappointing seasons with a 34-28 record, the former head coach who turned UAB into a Conference USA power and toppled top-seed Kentucky in the second round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament, found himself broiling on the hot seat. Two years in, about the only thing positive you could say for the Tigers in March is that their kids didn't have to change spring break plans. They missed the postseason altogether in both years.

And that's when Anderson turned the heat up again.

It started with another misstep, when Keon Lawrence left the program in the offseason. But the Tigers improved without last year's leading assist man. Zaire Taylor and J.T. Tiller took over and have both been more valuable offensive performers.

Then his last recruiting class developed into an turn-key success. Heck, Anderson probably spends more time on his hair than he spent getting this group to contribute. Freshmen guards Marcus Denmon, Miguel Paul, and Kim English have combined for better than 18 points and just under five assists a game, while contributing 45 minutes to Anderson's breathless defense. Junior college transfer Keith Ramsey earned rookie of the week honors in late January and has been a defensive force for a team that, in past years, has had less depth than a Lindsay Lohan interview.

And when Leo Lyons found himself in trouble again after committing a traffic violation in January, Anderson suspended him for a game and benched him for another four. Lyons returned to the starting lineup with a 30-point effort in a win over Baylor.

That night, the Tigers sold out Mizzou Arena for the first time this season. They were 18-4 and 5-2 in the Big 12. And the best was still yet to come.

Unlike an earlier-season rout by Illinois or last month's upset by Kansas State, the Tigers came out tswinging. They knocked off Texas in Austin, then went on the road again against Craig Brackins and Iowa State and just plain suffocated the Cyclones.

And all along, Anderson was there to downplay the pressure on his team.

"We're playing some pretty good basketball," is all the praise Anderson was willing to give in assessment of his team.

Which might be the kind of understatement as saying they play some pretty good defense.

And that's exactly why the Tigers may be the most dangerous team in the Big 12. According to Ken Pomeroy's rating system, the Tigers are already the league's best team, not Jeff Capel's Oklahoma squad or the reigning national champions.

They're ninth overall, according to Pomeroy, and, more importantly, rank in the top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency -- each of the last eight Final Four participants matched that profile. Only Kansas, which sneaks in with the 24th-rated offense, also qualifies out of the Big 12.

Now, Anderson has exactly the instrument he needs to bludgeon opponents for all 40 minutes. He's got a Swiss Army knife of guards to slide in and out and keep pressure on defensively at all times. They're 12th in the nation in creating turnovers, and 11th in hanging on to the ball, thanks to the emergence of Tiller, who has 19 assists in his last three games without a single turnover.

In the frontcourt, DeMare Carroll and Lyons are leading the team in scoring and providing enough rebounding to keep teams from treating the glass like a shoot-and-rebound hockey game. Last year's 16-16 team ranked 219th in offensive rebounding and 274th in defensive rebounding. This year, they're 71st in offensive rebounding and a middle-of-the-pack 179th in defensive rebounding, both tremendous turnovers for a team that had all the depth of a Lindsey Lohan interview in the frontcourt.

And on the defensive end, the Tigers keep coming, and coming, and coming, less like they're trying to take a basketball and more like they're trying to take a beachhead.

"Defense is what we hang our hats on," Anderson said.

Somehow, with that less than sexy pitch, he's gotten 10 guys to sacrifice more than just the socks they sweat through every game. No one, not even the senior leading-scorer Carroll, plays more than 26.5 minutes a game. And thus far, no one complains.

"I think when you're winning, they're all ears," Anderson said. "We play a lot of guys and they're happy with that. "

And now, for the first time since the Snyder era, success breeds expectations heading into tonight's border rivalry with Kansas. That the Tigers are an NCAA Tournament team is established, that they can beat an NCAA Tournament champion, even one as de-fanged as Kansas, is up for spirited debate.

The Jayhawks, after all, still have point guard whose both a Wooden and Cousy award (given to the nation's top point guard) nominee, who barrels through defenses like a greased bowling ball that can shoot 43 percent from the floor. They also play emerging big man Cole Aldrich, who made his name silencing Tyler Hansbrough in last year's Final Four.

Heck, the Jayhawks couldn't be a tougher test for Missouri if they had to take the LSAT at halftime just to play the second half.

But, like always, Anderson is cool in the middle of all that heat.

"I think these guys understand the big picture," Anderson said. "We don't talk about it. I know a lot of people don't like to here it because it's cliché, but we focus on what we can control, the next practice, the next game. ... We're just trying to get better."

Which might be a scary though for everyone else in the Big 12. But beat Kansas and it only gets harder – and hotter – from here.

Fortunately, that's one thing Anderson knows how to handle.