Every week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag. This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post. Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries.
TigerGath100 asks: What players have potentially earned some playing time in the fall that nobody would have expected before spring practice started?
GD: Nobody. Eli Drinkwitz was clear multiple times during the spring that a depth chart doesn't exist. I'm sure one does exist loosely, but spring isn't about who's playing in August. It's about getting better individually, working on specific skills, etc. It's actually the thing I appreciate most about covering Drinkwitz. When something is meaningless, he's not going to pretend it's the most important thing in the world. And I'm not saying spring ball is meaningless, but as far as determining who's on the field for the season opener, it's pretty close to meaningless. This is a question that can't be answered until at least midway through fall camp.
TigerCruise asks: Which Mizzou tournament team, regardless of where they lost, do you think was the best historically?
GD: A lot of people will tell you the 1976 team or maybe the 1982 team was Missouri's best. And that may be true, but I never saw either of them play (maybe I saw the '82 team play, but I don't remember it). Here are the teams that would be in the discussion for me:
1989: I think this was Missouri's most talented team. Byron Irvin, Doug Smith, Nathan Buntin, Anthony Peeler, Gary Leonard, Greg Church and Mike Sandbothe was the rotation. Finished the season No. 6 in the nation and lost to Syracuse in the Sweet 16.
1990: This was the most heartbreaking tournament loss to young me. They had a lot of the same guys back from the year before, sat 25-2 and spent every single week of the regular season ranked in the top ten. Lost four of their last five, including a buzzer beater against Northern Iowa in the first round.
1994: Unbeaten in the Big Eight, lost the regional final to Arizona
2009: This was the Missouri team I most enjoyed watching. DeMarre Carroll, Leo Lyons and Matt Lawrence as seniors, Kim English and Marcus Denmon as freshmen with J.T. Tiller and Zaire Taylor in the backcourt. They were really fun to watch. Lost the regional final to UCONN.
2012: 30-4 in the regular season, blitzed through the Big 12 tournament on the way out the door and then, well, you all know what happened.
Including the tournament runs, the 1994 team was probably the most successful, but 2009 is right there. The 1994 team probably didn't have as much talent all told as the rest, but it was one of those seasons of destiny. Like I said, I think 1989 was probably the best team, but Sherman Douglas and Billy Owens combined for 52 points and Derrick Coleman had a double-double and Mizzou lost to a loaded Syracuse squad.
