Loss to Colorado Is Low Blow for Missouri

Playing for a coach who has been fired, Colorado’s bottom-seeded basketball team pulled off the biggest upset of the Big Eight Conference postseason tournament’s history Friday, never trailing in beating top-seeded Missouri, 92-88, in overtime.

In what also qualifies as one of the major upsets of the 1989-90 college season, Coach Tom Miller’s Buffaloes (11-17) became the first team to eliminate a top-seeded team in the Big Eight tournament’s opening round. Just nine days earlier, Miller learned he would not be rehired for next season. Two weeks before that, his father died.

Miller watched in agony at Kemper Arena as his team squandered a 10-point edge in the final 76 seconds of regulation play. Missouri failed to make a basket in the first four minutes of the five-minute overtime.

The Tigers couldn’t even capitalize on the absence of the Big Eight’s leading scorer and rebounder, Colorado center Shaun Vandiver, who fouled out with 1:29 remaining in regulation with 23 points and 11 rebounds.

Missouri kept making the mistake of fouling Stevie Wise, with whom they should have been more familiar since he, like four of Missouri’s starters, hails from Detroit. Of Wise’s 28 points, 15 came on free throws, the Buffaloes going to the line twice as often as Missouri. As Missouri guard Anthony Peeler was doing an interview, Oklahoma players began barking in his direction as they passed him on the way to the court for a game against Nebraska. There isn’t much love lost between the top dogs of this league.

On Feb. 19, Missouri was ranked No. 1 in the nation. Norm Stewart’s Tigers (26-5) have lost three of their last four games--including a 31-point embarrassment at Notre Dame--and have an NCAA recruiting investigation hanging over their heads. It is not exactly the way Stewart wanted to approach next week’s national tournament.

Unless Colorado stays hot and wins this tournament, it won’t be going to the NCAA tournament or even to the NIT. Friday’s victory was seen mainly as an opportunity for today’s opponent, Oklahoma State, to enhance its postseason chances. The fifth-seeded Cowboys (16-12), who beat fourth-seeded Kansas State, 82-78, prefer not to leave their NCAA bid to the whims of some committee.

Colorado’s victory over Missouri was a nice bonus for an athletic program that came within one game of the national football championship. Buffalo basketball players wear black armbands in memory of Sal Aunese, the late quarterback. They also feel sympathy for Miller.

His firing could cost Colorado the services of Vandiver, a 6-foot-10 All-Big Eight junior center from Bolingbrook, Ill., who is considering a transfer. After the Missouri game, Vandiver again expressed disappointment with people who “didn’t give us time to do the job we have to do.”

When Athletic Director Bill Marolt, who served Miller’s walking papers, emerged from the Colorado locker room, he said: “It’s great. It’s wonderful. The kids played their hearts out, and that’s all I’ve got to say.”

But the school president, Gordon Gee, was moved enough to issue a written statement of congratulations, adding: “I am especially pleased for Coach Tom Miller, who remained committed to providing the leadership and support for his team, despite last week’s decision by the university to make a change in the head-coaching position.”

If Colorado came to prove a point, it did so quickly, taking a 14-2 lead. Ten of those points were scored by guard Reggie Morton, all from the field. Morton dominated the first half, scoring 17 of his 24 points, and then guard partner Wise took over, scoring 23 of his 28 points after halftime.

Doug Smith, the Big Eight’s player of the year, handled most of Missouri’s reply. No other Tiger managed more than one basket in the first half. Smith ended the game with 32 points.

A crowd of 16,194 saw a wild finish, one amazingly similar to a Big Eight first-round game of a year ago, when Colorado had Oklahoma on the ropes only to lose in double overtime.

Even with Vandiver fouling out, Colorado led, 76-66, with 1:17 to go. Peeler answered with a three-pointer and Missouri took its last timeout, looking hopelessly beaten.

Three times, though, the Buffaloes missed the front end of one-and-one free throw opportunities. When Wise missed one for the first time Friday with 21 seconds left, Missouri had a chance to tie, and Jamal Coleman’s rebound basket--his only score--got the job done at the 14-second mark, 78-78.

In overtime, Wise quickly nailed five more free throws, stole the ball and fed Rodell Guest for a dunk, then scored himself on a sleeper play for an 88-80 Colorado lead. Missouri was sunk.

Until Friday, the conference tournament’s top-seeded team had reached the championship game eight consecutive times.

Second-seeded Oklahoma, by the way, nearly woofed too soon. The Sooners (24-4) staved off seventh-seeded Nebraska, 78-65, after trailing by two points at halftime.

Did Kansas, too, struggle? Hardly. The third-seeded Jayhawks (29-3) kissed Iowa State good night by halftime, 64-25, on their way to a 118-75 snooze, easing into today’s game with Oklahoma.