Into the Belly of the Beast
A special report from our reporter on the spot, Mr. Chris Thompson...
This weekend I get a voicemail from my sister Debbie. She is cutting out on the message, but I catch something about going to
So I set out on Sunday morning and headed into crazy
I am headed to Mizzou aiming for a 2:00 tip-off, but my sister Debbie calls me half-way there and informs me the game starts at 4:00. With time to spare I pull off in
Continuing on, I get to
I started towards the stadium and found Paige Arena. There seemed to be plenty of parking up near the arena, which is located next to the
Paige Arena is located on
I get my tickets and I head inside. Their arena is extremely nice, sadly. It is equipped with luxury boxes and is brand new. My ticket is directly behind Stetson’s bench. As I enter the arena I immediately spot Brian down on the bench. We greet and chat about various things. He informs me that Stetson has all of two players that have played D-1 basketball before. Looking at their roster, they have one upperclassman on the entire team. I ask him what he thinks their chances are. He tells me that if they can handle Mizzou’s full court press, they should be able to keep it respectable, if not they will lose by forty. With this prediction I head to my seat and allow Brian to get back to work. There is still 30 minutes before tip, so the empty arena does not seem all that strange to me. I am slightly worried that some booster will claim I am in their seat and I will have to move. These worries are quickly deemed ridiculous. As empty as the arena was when I walked in is how empty it stays. There were no more than 1500 to 2000 people there. Later when the attendance is announced as 4400, even the Mizzou student section laughs.
The student section, which calls itself the Zou Crew, get it?, has about 15 rows full by game time and that’s it. The famed Antlers are present though. Brian described them to Stetson’s coach as Cameron Crazy wannabes who are really just rednecks. My seat is very close to the student section and I hear the taunts of the Antlers all game. Their favorite target on Stetson is a guard named Chris Thomas who is missing his index finger on his left hand. They don’t really have any clever comments they just remind him it is missing. Anyways he drains a three in their face and dunks on an alley-oop. Their other taunts are just sad. For Stetson guard McMillian… “McMillian… McSucks” is what they come up with. And my favorite, for a forward named Okafor “Okafor plays like Okafive!” I am at a loss. They are just sad.
Mizzou’s intro for their starting line-up consisted of an animated video. A tiger comes out to half-court, and begins to run around the computer-generated Paige arena. Interestingly he runs with both his front paws and back paws sticking together. And he doesn’t seem to move all that well. Eventually his two paws jerk forward and hit a basketball into the hoop which explodes. This sends the student section into an ear-piercing 15 decibel cheer. Brian says to me at halftime, “I think Dominic (his two-month-old son) could have drawn a better tiger.”
The game starts and Stetson forces a few early turnovers and hits some shots and goes up early. I think, This is cool. Mizzou can’t hit the broadside of a barn so they never can establish that fearful full-court press. It is the Stetson Hatters who apply the pressure and continue to stay in the lead for most of the first half. Mizzou finally figures out to get the ball to Kaleon Grimes, their one big post man, and he pulls the Tigers back in front. But the Stetson coach quickly switches to zone to stop the post man. It works and the Hatters go ahead again. Halftime score: Stetson 27 Mizzou 25. I tried to hide my smile but I can’t. This is Stetson. A team in the Atlantic Sun Conference, and they are beating Mizzou, which, remember, considers itself a basketball school, at halftime in front of a Paige Arena that is less than a sixteenth full. As a Jayhawk, I am in heaven.
Sadly, Mizzou pulls it together in the 2nd half and starts to pull away from the Hatters, and win 66-45. Their new scorer this year is Matt Lawrence who can shoot the 3. He has played three games this year and already surpassed his season total from last year. The second half is not as fun. The Tigers look pretty good against this formidable foe. The best thing in the second half was the
The game ends and Mizzou receives their trophy for winning the John Thompson Foundation Classic. (Does John Thompson know they are using his name?) Yes, Mizzou had a trophy celebration for winning their tournament. And Grimes was named MVP, which the student section starts chanting, “M-V-P! M-V-P!” At this point I even feel embarrassed for them.