March 7, 2004
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"SECOND SEASON" STARTS TUESDAY IN DALLAS FOR MIZZOU
The No. 7-seed Missouri women's basketball team (16-11, 7-9 Big 12) makes a final push for the NCAA Selection Committee starting Tuesday at the eighth annual Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament against No. 10-seed Oklahoma State.
? ? ? Fresh off its first win in the state of Texas in 14 years on Wednesday vs. Texas A&M - snapping a 21-game losing streak in the Lone Star State - the Tigers will try to avenge a two-point loss to the Cowgirls at Reunion Arena in last year's first round. MU's last tournament win came in 2001 against the Aggies.
UN-BELIEVABLE: THE BIG 12'S MOST VERSATILE PLAYER
Senior All-America candidate and two-time First Team All-Big 12 honoree Evan Unrau (Fort Collins, Colo. / Rocky Mountain HS) is the engine that pulls the Tigers' train, leading the team with her scoring and rebounding averages of 17.7 points and 9.0 rebounds a game. Unrau leads the Big 12 in rebounding, and is third in scoring (second among active players with the departure of OSU's Trisha Skibbe). In addition, the forward leads the league with 13 double-doubles, including a league-high eight in Mizzou's 16 conference games.
? ? ? Unrau put on the best display of her talents two weeks ago (Feb. 22) in a thrilling double-overtime performance vs. No. 8 Kansas State, scorching the Wildcats for a career-high and near school-record 40 points. She added 15 rebounds, four assists and two steals, and had just ONE turnover in playing all but the final 1.2 seconds of the 50-minute game. On Friday, she was named one of 10 women's semifinalists for the Creamland Dairies Collegiate Basketball Award of Excellence.
? ? ? On top of her scoring and rebounding prowess, Unrau is ranked among the Big 12's top players in A LEAGUE-LEADING EIGHT of the 12 categories the league office tracks weekly, making her arguably the Big 12 Conference's MVP (Most Versatile Player). That is one more than KSU's Nicole Ohlde, CU's Randie Wirt, UT's Tiffany Jackson and BU's Steffanie Blackmon, who are ranked in seven. Unrau is ranked in scoring (third), rebounding (FIRST), free-throw percentage (13th), 3-point FG percentage (10th), 3-pointers made (ninth), assist-to-turnover ratio (14th), offensive rebounds (FIRST) and defensive rebounds (eighth).
? ? ? Unrau is also shooting 86.7% (65-of-75) from the free-throw line in the last 11 games.
LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 61, TEXAS A&M 60
A free throw by Evan Unrau with 7.9 seconds left secured a key 61-60 win at Texas A&M on Wednesday in both teams' regular-season finale. With Mizzou's third straight win, the Tigers break a mysterious 0-for-20 drought in the state of Texas, and also are poised to hold the No. 7 seed for next week's Big 12 Conference Tournament. It also was Head Coach Cindy Stein's 100th win at MU.
CLOSE HOME LOSSES HAVE TIGERS SAYING, 'WHAT IF?'
It's always too late to play "What If...", but it bears noting that "if" the Tigers would have won their five home Big 12 games against Kansas, Nebraska, #11 Colorado, #9 Texas Tech and #8 Kansas State - games Mizzou lost by an average of 3.6 points, and games in which the Tigers did not have their normal starting lineup - then the Tigers would have finished third in the Big 12 with a 12-4 record. More importantly, the resultant winning percentage would have propelled Mizzou all the way to a current No. 10 in the WBCA RPI.
? ? ? Of course, it's a stretch to give Mizzou all five of those games, but matters still put the Tigers in the "lock" column of the NCAA's bubble teams with just three of those five games switched over to wins. If Missouri would have won the Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado games - in which the Tigers were missing one or two starters in all three - then the Tigers would have finished in a four-way tie for third. They'd have lost all tiebreakers and finished as the No. 6 seed, but would still possess the profile of a "lock" team: 19-8, 10-6 in the league and an RPI of 16.
STRONG SCHEDULE HELPING TIGERS
Mizzou is listed at No. 34 as of Sunday in the RPI coordinated by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, and despite the Tigers' recent struggles at home, are by no means out of the running for postseason play. Much of that is due to MU's strong schedule, which is ranked No. 10 in the country by the WBCA.
? ? ? MU's only non-conference losses were to teams that won their conference regular-season titles: SMS, who will host the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on its home floor this weekend, and UW-Green Bay, who played for Horizon League's automatic bid Monday night against Detroit. Austin Peay is already in the NCAA Tournament field after winning the Ohio Valley crown Saturday night, and Miami [Ohio] is the top seed for the Mid-American Conference Tournament starting Wednesday.
TRIO NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-BIG 12
Three Missouri women's basketball players - Evan Unrau (Sr., Psychology), Tracy Lozier (Sr., Communications) and Megan Roney (Jr., Business Administration) are among the 41 student-athletes who have been named to the 2003 Women's Basketball Academic All-Big 12 Team, officials from the conference office announced March 3.
? ? ? Only Kansas State and Iowa State, with four honorees apiece, had more players make the first team than Missouri. Nominated by each institution's director of student-athlete support services and media relations offices, the women's basketball academic all-league squad consists of 32 first-team members and nine student-athletes on the second team. First-team members are those student-athletes who have maintained a 3.20 or better grade-point average, while the second team are those who have a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.
? ? ? Missouri's three honorees bring to 25 to the number of basketball student-athletes recognized by the Big 12 in Head Coach Cindy Stein's six-year tenure.
FROM ROAD WORRIERS TO ROAD WARRIORS
While Mizzou's struggles on the road have been documented, it should be noted that when the Tigers win away from Hearnes, they're winning big - particularly in the last two years. Of six MU's largest margins of victory on the road in the eight years of the Big 12, five have come in the last two years, with three coming this season. Mizzou boasts a 9-4 road/neutral record this season, the third-best in the Big 12 behind only Texas (12-3) and Kansas State (10-4).
RANK-AND-FILE THIS
The Tigers lost seven games at the Hearnes Center this season. Six have come in Big 12 play, and six to teams that have been ranked at some point this season (Southwest Missouri State, Nebraska, Colorado, Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas State). Five of the seven losses were by a TOTAL of 18 points (3.6 ppg). That included a span in which the Tigers faced five consecutive ranked teams at home.
? ? ? Although five straight games at home against ranked teams is a challenge, it likely won't match the difficulty faced by the 2001-02 squad. That team, which went 14-15, including 9-6 at Hearnes, had six games in an eight-game home stretch against ranked teams - all Big 12 opposition. MU's only win in that span came in its last home win over a ranked team until Jan. 28: Jan. 9, 2002, against then-No. 10 Texas Tech.