Mizzou Falls Despite Elite Effort

Isaac Bruce Springsteen would like to congratulate Missouri's basketball team on reaching the round of eight in the NCAA tournament. UCONN prevented the Tigers from achieving their first-ever Final Four appearance, but not without a fight. Mizzou played a great game and the Huskies needed to play an even greater game to make it to Detroit. And that they did. Mizzou could never get a substantial lead on UCONN, even though they had a lot working for them. The refs were extremely lax, especially compared to the ticky-tack referees for the Memphis-Mizzou catfight. Mizzou forced many turnovers and kept it close until the closing seconds. While the clock wound down, the difference between these two teams (besides Mizzou's Shaq-like performance at the charity stripe) became apparent. Missouri did not have a go-to guy who could pull out a win for the Tigers. They were unable to make clutch shots until it was too late. Sure, Matt Lawrence is a great catch-and-shoot guy. Leo Lyons can get the job done in the paint. And DeMarre Carroll is a junkyard dog in all aspects of the game. But the reason Mizzou made it this far was because of its system. This team is essentially that--a team; a group of faceless players who play great defense and make outstanding passes. This bodes well for the future of the team. They can plug anyone willing to work into the lineup and succeed. All the Tigers need is one star recruit who can push them over the top and past the Elite Eight. And with a 31 wins and the national exposure that came from their tourney run and upset of Memphis, recruiting should significantly improve for Mike Anderson's club in the coming years. As for now, all I can say is thanks for following up a mediocre .500 effort with possibly the greatest season in Mizzou history. Oh yeah, and one more thing: MIZ! ... ZOU!

CD I'M LISTENING TO: "Aha Shake Heartbreak" - Kings Of Leon

CD I NEED TO GET: "Stadium Arcadium" - Red Hot Chili Peppers

CD I WANT TO GET: "Face Control" - Handsome Furs

CD I'M INTERESTED IN: "Dark Was the Night" - Various Artists

(including The Decemberists, Feist and Arcade Fire)  

Upcoming Posts

Dear Reader(s),

Sorry I haven't posted in forever. Took a trip to NYC with my family over spring break. That Motion City Soundtrack review should be coming soon. Also, some more tournament commentary may be coming your way. I leave you with a quick anecdote about an interesting sports-related incident during my trip:

While I waited for our flight from New York (La Guardia) to St. Louis, I snuck over to a bar to catch the end of the Missouri-Marquette game. As I watched Mizzou squeak its way into the Sweet 16 (aided largely by a Marquette player's inability to make an inbounds pass without going inbounds himself), I realized that the man standing next to me happened to be my pilot, who was also rooting for Mizzou. I knew I was in safe hands.

CD I'M LISTENING TO: "Broken Boy Soldiers"-The Raconteurs

CD I NEED TO GET: "The Spirit of Radio-Greatest Hits 1974-1987" - Rush

CD I WANT TO GET: "Grrr..." Bishop Allen

CD I'M INTERESED IN: "War Child - Heroes, Vol. 1" - Various Artists (including Beck, TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Lily Allen)

Mizzou's NCAA Tournament Seed

Mizzou is a 3 seed. They play against Cornell in the first round of the West regional in Boise, Idaho. You heard it here first(ish). More thoughts on the tourney coming soon...

MOVIE YOU NEED TO SEE: Gran Torino

MOVIE I NEED TO SEE: Watchmen

Tigers Basketball: Good News, Bad News

Congratulations to the Missouri Tigers for defeating Baylor in the Big 12 Championship game. Its hard to fathom that Mizzou holds this title only three years into the Mike Anderson regime. A world of credit goes to Anderson for helping the team climb out of the huge hole caused by former "coach" Quin Snyder. Anderson has developed a team that can win without shooting well, as evidenced by the semi-final game against Oklahoma State, thanks to its relentless "40 minutes of hell" defense. Yes, they were lucky to avoid Oklahoma and Kansas in the tourney. Yes, they slipped up when they played Goombas to Illinois's and Kansas's Mario in the regular season (Super Mario Bros. anyone?). But this team has the D to frustrate any team and the potential to go deep into the Big Dance.

As for the Oakville Tigers, they were bounced out of the semi-finals in the Missouri Class 5 state basketball tournament by Kansas City's Grandview High School. To hang tough with a one-loss Grandview team was an accomplishment. An even bigger accomplishment for OHS was making it to the final four; defeating the top team in the area on the way and putting Oakville in the spotlight. Senior Keith Pickens stepped up as usual, putting up 21 points and seven boards. While it wasn't enough to earn a championship bid for the Tigers, Pickens should have a bright future at Missouri State. And as with Mizzou, praises are due to the coach. Nick Traxler has toughened up the team in his few years here and has produced an over-achieving product this season of which the whole area can be proud.

WATCH OUT: NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Sunday @ 5 pm (central) on CBS

SONG YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT: "Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit. Think trippy indie-techno (if there is such a thing) mixed with the Chipmunks. 

REVIEW: "Sawdust" - The Killers

In 2006 The Killers released their second CD, the platinum "Sam's Town." Their next LP, "Day and Age," was voted the "Readers' Best Album of 2008" by Rolling Stone magazine. What did the group do in '07? There's no way they could've had time to do much in the time sandwiched between those two mega-hits, right? Wrong. They released another CD--a damn good one at that.

"Sawdust," a collection of B-sides, covers and more emerged rather quietly on November 13, 2007. There wasn't much hoopla surrounding this release, most likely because of its EP status. But you'd be a fool to have low expectations of this CD. They are The Killers after all--that Las Vegas group with the Mormon lead singer who dons a eagle-feathered jacket, the lead guitarist who's saving up for the first commercial trip to outer space and on top of it all, immense amounts of imagination. And those ideas are displayed more on "Sawdust" than any of their CDs so far (and yes, I am including "Day and Age" which consists of steel drums, saxophones and a teaspoon of insanity).

The disc kicks off with the unique "Tranquilize," a spooky, yet catchy, track that features a demented children's choir and Lou Reed, former frontman of the infinitely influential The Velvet Underground.

Later comes a piano-led live version of "Sam's Town" from Abbey Road and a eight-minute remix of "Mr. Brightside" by Jacques Lu Cont (a.k.a. Stuart Price), producer of "Day and Age."

I'm not going to critique this CD track by track, but I easily could. There is not a bad song on the disc. In fact, even when The Killers cover "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," a country (no, that's not a typo) song by Kenny Rogers, they manage to make it tolerable and--dare I say it?--likable. Whether it's the techno-laced "Shadowplay," the Queen-esque rocker "Leave the Bourbon On the Shelf" or, my personal favorite, the beautiful "Romeo and Juliet" (a Dire Straits cover), The Killers make every song beg to at the top of your playlist. 

Oh, and as for the wisdom teeth extraction, check out my twitter page.

CD I'M LISTENING TO: (see above)

CD I NEED TO GET: "Queen: Greatest Hits"

CD I WANT TO GET: "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand"

CD I'M INTERESTED IN: "Troubadour" - K'naan 

Upcoming Reviews

Dear Reader(s),

I haven't had time to do a real blog post yet but watch for (at least) two CD reviews coming soon: "Sawdust" by The Killers and "Even If It Kills Me" by Motion City Soundtrack. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out soon so I should have a lot of extra time on my hands. Heck, I may even go off-topic and blog on my anaesthetic experience...maybe.

Keep reading, por favor.