Break out the SEC! shirts again to celebrate.

MU’s Bowers out for at least two games with sprained knee

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/09...#storylink=cpy

We have quite a few tough road games on the schedule this year. I know the SEC is seen as a down conference, but I think a good conference season will require plenty of gutty road victories against the likes of Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas and Ol' Miss.

Ole Miss becomes a much tougher game if Missouri has to play small with Ross at the 4 (if Criswell is still out or limited).

They still SHOULD be able to win (and likely would still be favored). But it's much tougher that way (especially with Jankovic limited because of his acid reflux issue).

Criswell should be back by then, I would think.

UK is coming on. No surprise. They will be seen as a top team once again sooner than later.

As for Arky, they I think are going to be like most of MA's Mizzou teams, very tough at home and not much on the road.

If you pay attention to their fan boards, these seem to be their main concerns:

1) We don't rebound well
2) We give up a ton of wide-open layups and easy buckets
3) The Refs should screw us when we're on the road
4) We don't have any offense
5) If we aren't turning teams over and playing in transition, we have a really tough time scoring the basketball.

Familiar tunes for Missouri fans, eh?

Under Anderson's system, the refs don't screw you on the road. They screw the other team when you're at home by not calling 50 reach-in fouls that are legit fouls.

Truth.

Beakers are the same way. If they're not getting the breaks on the road, it's because the Refs are out to screw them. No, that's not the case, its just that you're not getting the blatant home-cooking you got in Lawrence.

Anderson's teams needed that as well. They hand-checked so much and so blatantly that if a ref had a quick whistle, we were in a ton of trouble.

Once we hit the road, those close calls evaporated and suddenly Pete was in the game threads bitching about how we were getting screwed. Nah, not really (though there is always at least a little home-cooking in college basketball), its just that things were a hell of a lot more evenly officiated than they were at Mizzou Arena.

Haith's squads aren't quite as prone to that and I think it's because of their size; they can body you up if you get past the first line, so they aren't as desperate with the reach-ins.

Glad you're still so worried about Mizzou. ROFL

Hate.....Venom

Haith's squads don't rely on overplaying and gambling, either.

Thought this prediction would be of interest to some of you. It's a game by game prediction of Mizzous conference schedule. It picks them to be sec regular season champs losing at Kentucky, Florida, & Arkansas and winning the rest.

Check out "SEC Hoops Prediction - Missouri" at http://missouri.rivals.com/content.a...6698&PT=4&PR=2.

I couldn't paste the story from my phone, just the link. Sorry