by Benjamin Herrold
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For Missouri Tiger fans, certain events are associated with different parts of the calendar. March is for basketball tournaments, conference and hopefully NCAA; August is excitement for the football season about to begin; and October brings the traditions of Homecoming. And every year, a few days before Christmas comes the annual Braggin’ Rights game with Illinois in St. Louis.
It’s a fantastic atmosphere, with the crowd split between Tiger and Illini fans taking turns rocking the arena depending on which team is making a run. The tradition is renewed this Saturday (1 p.m. on ESPN2).
The Braggin’ Rights game comes at a good time for Tiger fans, as this season is still the very early stages of a rebuilding project under first-year coach Kim Anderson. Anderson, who played for Missouri under Norm Stewart in the 1970s and coached Central Missouri to a national championship last season, can coach. But he inherited an inexperienced team and a program that had been moving in the wrong direction.
The Tigers are 5-5, lost their season opener to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and have been beaten soundly in games against major conference competition.
The trend continued last Saturday as Missouri lost 74-58 at home to Xavier (8-2). Despite a Saturday afternoon start time against a Big East opponent, Mizzou Arena was barely half full. That’s a reflection of Missouri’s shift to being a football school, but surely also of this team’s struggles.
The game was close with about 10 minutes to go. But then Xavier shifted into another gear and pulled away.
Still, I saw some reasons for optimism in the game for Missouri. The Tigers are not good right now, but they have an intriguing core of freshmen and sophomores.
Freshman Montaque Gill-Caesar had a rough game against Xavier, but he has shown flashed of scoring ability. Sophomore Johnathan Williams III had 17 points and nine rebounds against the Musketeers. Freshman Jakeenan Gant, playing in his first game this season after being ineligible, scored 13 points off the bench and blocked two shots.
These young Tigers will have to show poise on Saturday in a raucous atmosphere against a quality opponent.
Illinois (7-3 through Sunday) has notched a win over Baylor, but lost three of its last four through Sunday to Miami, Villanova and Oregon.
In a development you don’t see every day, the Illini are led in rebounding by a 6-foot-4 guard, senior Rayvonte Rice. Rice also leads the team in scoring with 17.8 points per game. Sophomore Malcolm Hill is second on the team in scoring and rebounding. Hill is a big guard who could be a tough matchup defensively.
Illinois leads the series with Missouri 28-16 overall and 21-12 since the event became a neutral-site game in St. Louis in 1980. Last year’s Illinois win broke a streak of four straight Missouri wins in the Braggin’ Rights game.
Missouri will be the underdog on Saturday, but a win in this rivalry game would be a huge boost of momentum for the program.
Editor’s note: Benjamin Herrold grew up in Daviess County and graduated from Gilman City High School. He then graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and now writes as the field editor for Missouri Farmer Today and is based in Columbia. He visits home frequently and owns a farm in Daviess County.