Purdue may be winning a few games now and then, but Mizzou is certainly not. They've lost 8 of their last 9 games, with the only
win coming over Nebraska at home. During that stretch, they've been beaten by Texas Tech and Kansas State at home, been blown out at Texas A&M and Kansas State, and also lost to bad teams Colorado and UNLV -- the latter of which happened
last night.
Ugly.
Mizzou's team this season reminds me a lot of Indiana's, since they both share several characteristics:
1) both coaches (Mizzou's Quin Snyder, IU's Mike Davis) inherited programs from legends (Mizzou's Norm Stewart, IU's Bob Knight) and achieved success in the NCAA tournament early on, but after disappointing '03-'04 seasons, both are on the hot seat this year
2) both teams have a "premier" player (Mizzou's Linas Kleiza, IU's Bracey Wright) who hasn't quite produced like he should, due to various reasons
3) both teams have few, if any contributing seniors (Mizzou's Jason Conley is the only one averaging significant minutes)
4) both teams have several freshmen who play a lot (Mizzou's Jason Horton, Marshall Brown, Kalen Grimes, and Glenn Dandridge, IU's D.J. White, A.J. Ratliff, and Robert Vaden)
I see promise next year for both teams -- however, both coaches may or may not return to their respective teams. IU sits currently at 10-10 (5-4 Big Ten), while Mizzou has dropped to 10-13 (2-8 Big 12). While Davis' team appears to be playing better of late, and still has a reasonable shot at an NCAA bid, he
does not have a vote of confidence from his AD -- something Snyder
has. I am of the opinion that regardless of the outcome of this season, Snyder (like Gary Pinkel) should be allowed to return next year with his young core of players mostly returning -- but if he doesn't produce a 20+ win season and more than a first-round NCAA exit, he should be fired.
: 2:26 AM