Last year was a pretty good start to the Stan Haith era at Mizzou – even if it ended with a thud due to a first round exit against Norfolk State. <\/p>\n
Missouri Tigers
\nSEC
\n2011-12 Record: 30-5
\nOdds to win title: +8000
\nOdds to win conference: +800<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nKey losses:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Kim English: \u00a0Silky smooth wing shooter who was actually a pretty decent power forward in the Tigers unconventional lineup.
\nMarcus Denmon: \u00a0Leading scorer was very streak but when he was on the Tigers were very tough to beat.
\nRicardo Ratliffe: \u00a0Lone productive inside presence was one rebounding partner away from leading the team to something special.<\/p>\nTop Newcomers:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Alex Oriakhi – The UConn transfer power forward has championship experience and an NBA body to bang in the post.
\nKeion Bell – Another transfer he was a very good scorer at Pepperdine who should fill it up on the wing for Mizzou.
\nJabari Brown – A high level recruit who quickly bolted from Oregon to the Tigers. \u00a0Tremendous upside if he can fit into system right away but might chafe if he needs the ball all the time.<\/p>\nTop Players<\/strong><\/p>\n
Phil Pressey – One of the best point guards in the country and the guy who makes the Tigers attack go.
\nMichael Dixon – His numbers which were good last year could explode in his senior year with a more leading role in the offense at 2 guard.
\nLawrence Bower – The senior forward is coming back from an ACL injury but was a very productive system player until hurt.<\/p>\nThe Tigers used their frenetic pace to win 30 games making Big 12 basketball must see TV in their final tour through the conference. \u00a0If they thought trying to climb to the top of a conference was tough with Kansas in the way, wait till they get a look at that other blue blood K program – Kentucky.<\/p>\n
This year there will be a lot of new faces at Mizzou. \u00a0No team in the nation has more impact transfers than the Tigers and a couple of them are of the senior variety so they haven\u2019t been on campus all that long. \u00a0They are also in a new conference but one in which I think they will be able to compete from the get go. \u00a0The SEC is a more defense oriented league but Mizzou has so much talent they should be able to do just fine in their debut season. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
Strengths:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Last year the Tigers were loaded in the backcourt and will be again with Pressey, Dixon, Bell and Brown joined by unmentioned transfer shooting guard Earnest Ross. \u00a0All Ross did was average 13ppg two years ago in the SEC at Auburn. \u00a0If there is a deeper backcourt out there someone please tell me about it.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\n
The question about this year\u2019s Tigers is how long it will take to for them to come together. \u00a0Last year\u2019s season ended prematurely and now there are a lot of new and important faces. \u00a0This should be a very dangerous team because each game should improve their cohesiveness but it might look a little clunky early on. \u00a0When they click look out.<\/p>\n
Top Games<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dec 22 – The annual Bragging Rights game unaffected by the new conference affiliation (I am looking at you Kansas)
\nDec 28 – Hosting the big bad Bruins of UCLA will give the nation a good idea of how good both of these teams are going to be.
\nFeb 23 – A visit to Kentucky should be exciting with great fast paced action.<\/p>\nPrediction:<\/strong><\/p>\n
This team is going to be going through a lot of different transitions this year. \u00a0I like the way they are composed and think that once they get pointed in the right direction they can be fantastic. \u00a0They might have less scoring but more size which will be a benefit in the new conference. \u00a0Look for this team to get hot and ride it all the way to the Final Four after last season\u2019s major disappointment. \u00a0Bold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Missouri Tigers Season Preview \u2013 CBB Handicapping Last year was a pretty good start to the Stan Haith era at Mizzou – even if it ended with a thud due to a first round exit against Norfolk State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":24304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[39626,56882,6250,4207,4633,2974,2973,56887,4785,21162,1120,1229,11523,11524],"class_list":["post-56560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-39626","tag-2012-college-basketball-gambling","tag-cbb-odds","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-picks","tag-missouri","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-missouri-tigers-season-preview","tag-ncaa-basketball-futures","tag-ncaa-basketball-predictions","tag-sec","tag-tigers","tag-tigers-odds","tag-tigers-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56560"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56806,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56560\/revisions\/56806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}