COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA POSTSEASON TOURNAMENTS : Missouri Has a Lot to Offer

Missouri is my kind of school. I pulled for Missouri to defeat Syracuse in the overtime segment of Thursday’s NCAA basketball tournament game at the Sports Arena, which it did, 98-88. I will pull for Missouri to defeat Arizona for Saturday’s West Regional championship, so Missouri can make the Final Four. Go, Mo, go.

OK, so maybe I should try harder to be neutral. I apologize up front to Arizona people. Arizonans play good ball, too. So maybe I shouldn’t have enjoyed that amazing three-point basket by Missouri’s Kelly Thames that took that crazy bounce. And maybe I shouldn’t be rooting for Mizzou’s Melvin Booker to go to the Final Four so he can keep wearing his Final Four cap and stop fibbing that he isn’t really thinking about the Final Four. Don’t be handing us that stuff, Melvin.

All I can say is, I like people from Missouri. I like people from Missouri the way other people like people from Wisconsin.

I like the University of Missouri and wish I had gone to school there. I like actors like Brad Pitt and Tom Berenger, who did go to school there. I like actresses like Kate Capshaw, who went there before she married that movie director who won all those Oscars the other night. I liked Sam Walton, who built all those Wal-Marts. I liked Marlin Perkins, who liked all those wild animals. I liked Tennessee Williams, who went to Missouri, not to Tennessee. I have no idea where Missouri Williams went.

But poor old Missouri doesn’t win many of these NCAA things. Not many basketball championships. Not many football championships. What can I tell you? Missouri is seriously overdue. Norm Stewart has been trying to coach Missouri to a national basketball championship for so long now, I’m pretty sure it’s since Mark Twain held season tickets. Missouri is sick of Duke. Missouri is sick of Michigan. Missouri is sick of waiting. Missouri is ripe.

That’s why it was sort of surprising the way Stewart’s Tigers reacted after winning Thursday’s game. They played their hearts out. They did some of the best passing I have ever seen. And they never lost their cool when Syracuse came at them with a wild rally that dragged the contest into overtime. They kept getting big baskets from Big Game Thames and from Melvin “I Just Bought This Cap Because I Liked the Color” Booker.

Yet after winning, the winners weren’t jumping up and down.

Stewart said, “I don’t know why they’re not jumping up and down. Maybe they’re just tired. They did a lot of jumpin’.”

Much of the time they spent jumping trying to block the shots of one Adrian Autry of Syracuse, who snoozed his way to halftime with zero points, then loosened up after halftime with a cool 31. This did not include one basket that would have put Autry in the Western Heritage Museum of famous shots. He made it from his knees with 1:01 remaining in regulation, and it would have given the Orangemen the necessary points to win the game. If only the referee had let it count.

That one was one of the game’s two stupendous shots. The other came shortly after halftime, when Missouri was in the process of pulling ahead. A Syracuse player had just rejected one shot by batting it toward the seats, in the general direction of famous Syracuse alumni, including Dick Stockton and Jim Brown. This forced the Missouri players to hurry, inbound and shoot the ball in time to beat the 35-second shot clock.

Thames took aim. His long, long three-point shot struck the rim and the basketball went boinnnggggg, like a diver off a springboard, maybe 10 or even 15 feet in the air, higher than the shot clock. Ten astounded players watched it drop right back through the net, hardly disturbing the twine.

Seconds later, Thames, who needed only 30 minutes to score 24 points, threw down a monster, NBA All-Star Weekend kind of dunk that put Missouri even farther in front, 51-42.

“The coach told us to take it to the basket, just go up strong,” Thames said.

Hey, he goes up any stronger, he pulls a Shaquille and rips down the backboard.

Missouri was well on its way to its first regional title game in 18 years. Last time the Tigers reached a regional final, Norm Stewart was hoping for a congratulatory phone call from President Ford. He has been waiting a long time for a season like this season, one that nearly got away from him when Syracuse scored eight points in 35 seconds and nearly won the game in the final minute before overtime.

It was time for the Tigers to start thinking about tomorrow, about those Final Four possibilities. Right, Melvin Booker? You don’t really mean what you said about, “I don’t think we’re thinking ahead to the Final Four,” do you, Mel? I mean, not sitting there with that Final Four cap above your ears.

Melvin claimed, “I like this hat. It’s a nice color. That’s why I bought it.”

No, sorry, Melvin. Nobody is buying that. But you be proud of that cap. Thinking about the Final Four isn’t anything to be embarrassed about. Missouri people have been thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it. Come to think of it, so have Arizona people.