April 4, 2001

Columbia, Mo. - The 2000-01 college basketball season has barely begun to settle into the history books, and the prognosticators are already looking at next season.

But that's good news for the Missouri Tigers, as two recent media outlets have recognized MU as being one of the nation's up-and-coming teams.

Missouri was ranked fifth in the country in a pre-season ranking by CNNSI.com's Albert Lin. His top 10 included: #1 Florida, #2 Maryland, #3 Kentucky, #4 Michigan State, #5 Missouri, #6 Kansas, #7 Memphis, #8 UCLA, #9 Iowa and #10 North Carolina.

Missouri finished the 2000-01 season with a 20-13 record, and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling in a valiant effort to eventual national champion Duke, 94-81 on March 17 in Greensboro, N.C. The highest Missouri has ever been ranked in a pre-season Associated Press poll has been 8th, prior to the 1987-88 season. Missouri ended that season 19-11 and unranked in the final polls. The last time Missouri began the season ranked in the A.P. pre-season poll was prior to the 1995-96 season, when MU was ranked 14th. The Tigers finished 18-15 that season and reached the second round of the NIT.

Individually, junior-to-be Kareem Rush certainly turned heads over the course of a brilliant 2000-01 season in which he averaged a Big 12-best 21.1 points per game, and earned honorable-mention All-American status. Rush was named one of the nation's best eight players for the upcoming 2001-02 season by ESPN.com analyst Dick Vitale.

Vitale's top eight players for next season included: Jason Williams (Duke), Joseph Forte (North Carolina), Casey Jacobsen (Stanford), Kareem Rush (Missouri), Troy Murphy (Notre Dame), Troy Bell (Boston College), Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky) and Brett Nelson (Florida).