What a fun season.  Fun, fun, fun.  Watching the Missouri Tigers play basketball is really fun.  The word “fun” when used with competitive sports usually sets me off.  When I hear a coach say, “I just want my boys to go out and have fun.”  I say, “Oh yeh?”  Fun is a code word for winning.

Think this through.  Is it fun to lose?  Is it fun to win?  Be honest now.  Well, there was the one coed volleyball game we lost in junior high.  Nah, it sucked.  If it is truly a competitive sport, how can anyone have fun while they are losing?  I’ll just mention in passing that during the three years I was in high school, we never lost a football game.  Old East Side High.  Fun.

So if MIZZOU is fun to watch, they must be winning.  But it is so much more.  It is all the things they do in the process of winning.  First, in the era where seven footers are bumping into each other on the court, MIZZOU’s starting line up is short.  They play a four guard offense.  The four guards range from 6′ 6″ to 5′ 10″.  Ricardo Ratliffe is the only decent size player on the floor.  He is 6′ 8″ and is leading the entire nation in field goal percentage.  Sure, a lot of his baskets are from around the bucket, but all these seven footers are also scoring under the bucket.  As soon as his hands touch the ball, it is in the basket.  No bouncing the ball, no faking one way and then the other, just fast as a magic trick.  Ratliffe was a two-year JUCO first team All American before he moved to Columbia.

Next, in an era when college basketball teams are permitted to have 13 players on scholorship, MIZZOU has seven.  Laurence Bowers would have been number eight, but he tore his ACL before the season started.  Well, I guess he is still #8, he just can’t play.  So in the course of the battle only two subs come off of the bench.  Coach Frank Haith, in his first year at MIZZOU, has done a great job of shuffling players so as to keep them fresh.

So they are small and there aren’t many of them, and right now, they are 23 and 2 and ranked 3rd in the nation!  Talk about fun!  On the one hand, they would have made great boy scouts because they are constantly helping others.  Exceedingly unselfish.  Then, on the other hand, they are a group of artful dodgers pilfering the ball with great skill AND turning in fast break points.

Michael Dixon started last year and has been relegated to “sixth man” this year.  He could have bitched and moaned, but he has just accepted the roll and has played a key part in some of MIZZOU’s victories.  He has Bobby Knight’s vote for the NCAA’s sixth man.  I didn’t know there was such a thing.  I wonder if there is a 7th man or an 8th man.  Did I mention the Dixon and Marcus Denman shoot over 90% from the free throw line?  Couple all that with the fact that we have five players who can hit a clutch 3-pointer (they average 8 per game and make close to 4 out of every 10) and you are beginning to see how much fun it can be to watch them.

Flip Pressey, our point guard, is leading the Big 12 in steals and second in assists. They are just an unselfish bunch.  Kim English opted for the NBA draft two years ago and wasn’t picked up.  Last year, he was nothing special, but this year the senior has won games with every aspect of his skills.

What lies ahead?  Well, teams lose and I expect MIZZOU will get upset somewhere down the line.  That won’t be fun.  They have to play Kansas in Kansas in a couple of weeks.  Then there’s the Big 12 Championship and the NCAA finals.  Regardless of what happens, it’s been fun.  MIZ-

Written by PJ Rice at www.ricequips.com