Tigers open conference play against OSU

Friday, January 6, 2006

By R.B. Fallstrom

AP Sports Writer

At least one Missouri player has an abundance of confidence heading into Big 12 Conference play.

Senior guard Jimmy McKinney has high hopes for the Tigers (7-4), who were picked to finish in the bottom third of the league. Missouri struggled in the early season, losing its opener to Sam Houston State, but enters Saturday's opener in Columbia, Mo., against Oklahoma State (10-4) with a seven-game winning streak at home.

''We're at the top,'' McKinney said. ''I don't care what anybody says, I truly believe that we're at the top.

''We can play with anybody in the country if we dial in and play hard on every play.''

Coach Quin Snyder is much more guarded about the Tigers' prospects.

''I wish I could tell you what exactly to expect, but we just haven't shown that level of consistency and that's something we're working towards,'' Snyder said. ''Sometimes it's two steps forward, one step back, and we've had a couple steps back at times, but these last few games have been pretty good steps forward.''

Missouri's final pre-conference tuneup was a blowout, a 73-44 victory over Louisiana-Monroe on Monday night. But the Tigers needed a 16-4 run at the end of the game to finish off Oakland, Mich., last Friday in a 16-point victory.

They also lost by 30 in the annual ''Braggin' Rights'' neutral-site game against Illinois on Dec. 21 and went down to the final minutes before securing a victory over Furman Dec. 18.

That's just the last few games.

''We need everybody to play all the time,'' Snyder said. ''We don't have the margin to kind of have a couple guys not show up.''

The most consistent player, by far, has been junior guard Thomas Gardner, who leads the Big 12 with a 19.9-point average and is shooting 46 percent from 3-point range. Senior center Kevin Young also has been solid with averages of 8.7 points and 8.9 rebounds.

But McKinney, sophomore forward Marshall Brown and sophomore point guard Jason Horton all have struggled more than they've prospered.

''We're not there yet, but we're getting there,'' Young said. ''We keep improving and that's the big time.''

Snyder has been so busy trying to mold this team he said he hasn't paid much attention to the rest of the Big 12 in the pre-conference season.

''I think there are a lot of teams in our league that will change over the course of the year,'' Snyder said. ''I think Oklahoma State is probably one of them.''

But after last season's disappointing 16-17 finish, Snyder is hopeful for a team that is more of a factor.

''We're picked eighth so I'd like to do better than that, and a lot better,'' Snyder said. ''When we get out of character individually and try to do more than we can do, our guys don't look as good. But when we play the right way, they stay within themselves, we look really good.''

Gardner expects the level of competition to increase significantly.

''Big 12, it's tough, it's brutal,'' he said. ''You get banged up in it and you've really got to come and play.

''So our expectation is to be competitive and be in all the games toward the end of the game.''

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