Sunday, April 23, 2006

Just when you thought it was safe to be a Mizzou fan...

By Tiger Fan

Rumors are now swirling that multiple MU basketball players are in legal trouble that, if true, would be enough to have them kicked off. Since it hasn't been reported anywhere, I'm not going to perpetuate the rumor by repeating it here (not to mention the fact that I don't have all the details). Let's hope it's not true because it's the last thing the athletic department needs... more PR problems

The biggest issue is that if every rumor regarding Mizzou players that is being published on the Internet right now is true, we will barely be able to field a team next season. Let's assume for a moment that Thomas Gardner really has no plans to come back. And let's assume that Keon Lawrence really does want to weasel out of his Letter of Intent and go to Big East school. And let's assume the new rumors are true. Combine all this with the graduation of Kevin Young and Jimmy McKinney and we are left with this roster:

Leo Lyons
James Douglas
Marcus Watkins
Jason Horton
Nick Berardini
Matt Lawrence
Vaidatus Volkus

Again, that's assuming that all this rampant speculation is true. Ideally, it's all BS and there are four or five more guys on next year's team, plus a recruit or two that Mike Anderson is able to nail down. Either way, I feel back for Coach Anderson. He probably knew the situation here was bad, but I'm sure he never imagined that he would have six scholarship players at the beginning of next season. I think he's a good coach, but no one can win with the line-up listed above. Let's just hope the rumor mill is wrong...

How has it come to this? Three years ago, we had a team with two preseason All-Americans (Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson), an NBA prospect (Linas Kleiza), a guy who led the nation in scoring as a freshman (Jason Conley), a former McDonald's All-American (Travon Bryant) and several solid role players (Josh Kroenke, Jimmy McKinney, Thomas Gardner and Kevin Young). It's crazy to think how quickly it all happened. Unebelievable. Nice work Alden.

1 comment:

Bryan said...

The good news? It's sounding more and more like the rumor about players being in trouble with the law is just that: a rumor. That's definitely good because it is now being reported that James Douglas has not been practicing with the team and is likely done as a Tiger. That means if EVERY semi-credible rumor is true, we'd only have six guys left on the team... and only five scholarship players. I'm going to go work on my jump shot...