Season of progress

It wasn’t a season burdened with high expectations.

The eighth-place finish projected for the Tigers by the Big 12 Conferencecoaches was considerably higher than most national publications, some of which even had Missouri finishing in last place in the conference.

If anything, the Tigers were only expected to show progress and give their fans some reason to forgive the MU basketball program for three seasons of disappointment, mediocrity and controversy.

And that, Missouri coach Mike Anderson said, was a great challenge.

“It was work. No doubt about it. It was a lot of work,” Anderson said after his first season in Columbia.

In the past three seasons, Missouri had gone from a team ranked in the 2003-2004 preseason Top Five to a team that wasn’t able to defeat Sam Houston State and Belmont at home, or barely win any games on the road. By the end of the 2005-2006 season, any national talk about the Tigers was usually negative, whether it was how the department of athletics had botched the dismissal of Quin Snyder or how a new arena was never filled to capacity.

This season, the talk wasn’t about contending for a national championship. But, at least it wasn’t about probabation or university investigations.

“We got talked about this year. People were talking about us, and that’s progress,” Anderson said of his team, which finished 18-12 and in sixth place in the Big 12. “You’ve got to start somewhere. Last year or the last couple of years, people probably weren’t saying much about Missouri, so for the most part, we’ve got some more pride back in the program, some more respectability and we are going to be a team (to watch out for).”

The recovery officially started in October with practices that emphasized running and conditioning almost as much as basketball fundamentals. To win games, and endear themselves once again to their fans, the Tigers were going to out work and out run their opponents.

They didn’t promise wins, but they did promise hard work. If the Tigers were going to lose games, it wasn’t supposed to be because of a lack of hustle or grit. Instead, it was going to be from a lack of talent and experience.

And, like Anderson said throughout the season, getting over the “newness” around the program. None of the Missouri players had ever played in a system similar to Anderson’s, nor did they know each other 3Bvery well. In fact, seven of the team’s 14 players were newcomers.

“Any time you have a new system, new players, it’s going to take a little getting used to,” forward Marshall Brown said. “I think, for the most part, we adjusted pretty well.”

But something funny happened while the Tigers were adjusting. It turned out that Anderson may have inherited more talent than he, or many others, thought. Kalen Grimes, Matt Lawrence and Leo Lyons, three players who rarely contributed last season, earned much more playing time. Grimes lost at least 15 pounds in the early-season conditioning sessions, helping him keep up with what his teammates were doing.

Lawrence, who scored only 37 points in all of 2005-06, exhibited a jump shot that was consistent enough that former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson

called him “Layups” for his ability to make shots like they were close to the basket.

And Lyons, a 6-foot-9 forward blessed with quickness and athleticism, showed an improved jump shot to go along with an ability to drive past any forward who defended him away from the basket.

“There was so much improvement on this basketball team. It is going to take me a while as I get away from it, to come back and look it,” Anderson said. “Look at Matt Lawrence. This was a guy that averaged 1.5 points per game and here’s a guy that averaged double-figures in our league. He’s one of the top three-point shooters in the country. Kalen Grimes. Here’s a guy that probably didn’t play a whole lot the previous two years because of foul trouble or just didn’t play. He’s in my starting line-up. He’s one of our most physical low-post players.”

But the two players who provided some of the most memorable moments for the Tigers this season were newcomers Keon Lawrence and Stefhon Hannah. Hannah, a junior, and Lawrence, a freshman, formed a friendship that resembled brotherhood, with the older Hannah providing guidance and friendship to the freshman.

That friendship may have even become closer on Feb. 6 in Ames, Iowa. Before that snowy and windy night in Iowa, the Tigers were just 2-6 in the Big 12 and were just three days removed from a loss at home to Nebraska. Both Anderson and the players acknowledged that something was missing from the team, a team that had started the season 11-2. Whether it was to reward Keon Lawrence or just to try something different, Anderson put the freshman from Newark, N.J., into the starting lineup. The Tigers won that night 77-55, and Keon Lawrence started every game but one the rest of the season, winning a Big 12 Rookie of the Week award three weeks later.

Hannah, however, may have proved to be the biggest difference between this and last season.

In prior seasons, Missouri lacked a point guard who could consistently make the outside jump shot while having the ability to penetrate and score points. In Hannah, Missouri got one of the best point guards in the conference, and the best newcomer. Hannah won the Big 12’s Newcomer of the Year award.

Missouri fans can hope that night in Ames is a preview of next season. Other than prep forward Justin Safford and redshirt DeMarre Carroll, the Tigers will return mostly the same players from this season, with only Marcus Watkins leaving.

Next season, “newness” will not be a crutch for the team. And that is something Brown will relish.

“We were comfortable, but I mean you got to learn as you go, especially with it being a new system,” Brown said. “With it being a new system you have to start from Square One. Now that we’ve been in it for a year we know what to expect, know what to do. So it’s not going to be as much teaching as it is playing.”

If anything, the “newness” of Carroll should be something to help the Tigers fix their biggest deficiencies this season: rebounding and aggression near the basket. Those deficiencies cost the Tigers wins against Iowa State and Nebraska at home. If the Tigers had won those games, Missouri probably would have made the National Invitation Tournament. Matt Lawrence said he hopes that Carroll can provide some of what the Tigers lacked near the basket.

“With the addition of DeMarre, and his ability to rebound and score for us, and his defensive ability as well, I’m really excited,” Matt Lawrence said. “I want next season to start right away.”