Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Missouri will put teamwork to the test this basketball season

COLUMBIA | Missouri coach Mike Anderson, when told that the notes for tonight’s exhibition basketball opener against Truman State listed seven Tigers as possible starters, sought out his publicist.

“You’ve got seven?” Anderson said. “Good job.”

The listing of three forwards and four guards allowed Anderson to trot out one of his favorite lines about his team being the ultimate team.

And if you look at the scoring averages of the returners from last season’s 31-7 Elite Eight squad, Anderson’s line is more true this year than last.

Senior guard J.T. Tiller — among those seven possible starters — leads the pack at 8.4 points per game. Senior point guard Zaire Taylor hopes to improve on his 6.7 points per game from last season.

But all you had to see was Missouri’s Black & Gold scrimmage to suspect that the Tigers’ scoring leader this season might be sophomore Kimmie English.

English scored 32 points in the scrimmage. Missouri might not have made it to the Elite Eight had not English scored 17 points off the bench against Marquette.

And Anderson knows all this; has already, in fact, given English the speech that he gives annually to the likely top-shooting guard on most of his teams.

“You should know every inch on this floor,” Anderson said. “Know all the dead spots, the live spots on this floor.”

No problem with English on that account. No Missouri basketball player has likely ever spent as much time practicing his game. A year ago English frequently slept at Mizzou Arena, so as to be able to shoot after practice and before class the next day.

The practice has been catching. A lot of players are doing the same thing now.

And yet there is this about English. He knows his place in the hierarchy of this team. And it isn’t, he insists, out front.

“My leaders are J.T., Zaire and Keith (Ramsey),” English said, ticking off the names of the senior Tigers. “Whatever people say is what they say. But I follow J.T., Zaire and Keith.”

English defers, he insists, to the leadership of those seniors.

That doesn’t mean English will play a deferential role on the court at Mizzou Arena and in road venues from Vanderbilt to Kansas. Or, in St. Louis against Illinois, where Missouri will try once again to break a nine-game losing skid to the Illini.

“What happens on the court, happens on the court,” said English, who added, “Coach Anderson and my team here would never call a play for me.

“I wouldn’t expect them to. Everything just happens because of the unselfish basketball we play.”

Tiller acknowledged that English will take his share of shots, but perhaps not as many as some fans expect.

“People say Kimmie has never met a shot he didn’t like,” Tiller said. “But that isn’t true.”

It is exactly that point that English says Anderson was referring when he was referencing knowing every inch of the floor at Mizzou Arena.

“I think that’s more of a metaphorical way of saying know when to pick my spots and just think the game more,” English said. “Being a year older and a year into the system, I’m thinking the game more.”

English understands the message.

“He’s taking me under his wing,” he said of Anderson. “He’s telling me stuff. He’s being more insightful.

“Letting me know some things I ought to be looking for, so I can play with these guys.”

Tonight’s exhibition game against Truman State will provide the first evidence of how these Tigers — minus DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons and Matt Lawrence — will play within the continuing context of team.

It should not be a question of winning and losing for Missouri. Truman State finished 6-21 last season and 1-19 in the MIAA.

What everyone will be looking for is how the Tigers play the game.

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