Previously, we polled PowerMizzou.com subscribers to determine the best player in Tiger football history. Over the last six weeks, we took the tournament to the hardwood.
The brackets will be posted and explained below. Then, on our premium message board, we will start a poll for each matchup. The polls will remain open through the week, closing on Friday night. The winners will move on to the next round, we will update the bracket and publish a new story and new polls the following Sunday. After six weeks, we will have the best Tiger hoops player as selected by our subscribers.
There are no set criteria for the vote. You can vote for your favorite player, the best player, the most important player, the player with the best socks or the best hair or however else you want to choose. With voting completed, here's how we got to this point.
Our subscribers selected Anthony Peeler as the best player in Tiger basketball history.
Peeler was the most dominant individual in the Sweet 16, getting more than 97% of the vote over Rickey Paulding, but then had the closest Elite Eight matchup, picking up 68% in beating Jon Sundvold. In the Final Four, he took out Doug Smith, his teammate for three seasons, by a nearly 2-1 margin. That followed easy wins over Kassius Robertson and Malcolm Thomas.
Peeler came out of Paseo High School in the Class of 1988 as Missouri's Mr. Show Me award winner and the No. 3 rated recruit in America by the Sporting News behind only Alonzo Mourning and Billy Owens. He was a member of the McDonald's all-American team with players like Chris Jackson, Malik Sealy, Christian Laettner, Todd Day, Lee Mayberry, Shawn Kemp and LaPhonso Ellis. Reports at the time had Peeler headed to Kansas to play his college ball, but uncertainty about Larry Brown's future in Lawrence sent Peeler the other way down Interstate 70 to Columbia to play for Norm Stewart.
Peeler is the No. 3 scorer in school history with 1,973 points. That was capped by a Big Eight Player of the Year senior season in which he averaged 23.4 points per game, bringing his career average to 16.8. AP averaged double figures all four seasons as a Tiger. He is fifth in career field goals made and second in free throws made. He held the school records for both steals and assists when he graduated and still ranks tied for first and second in those categories, respectively. His 43-point game at Kansas is tied for the fourth-most individual points in school history and his nine 30-point games are also fourth.
His senior season saw Peeler named the Big Eight Player of the Year and Male Athlete of the Year and a second-team all-American. Peeler averaged 23.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists that season. He was also an all-Big Eight pick as a sophomore in 1990.
Following his college career, AP was drafted 15th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. He played in 77 games as a rookie and scored more points than any Laker rookie in nine years (10.4 per game). After four seasons in Los Angeles, Peeler would play for the Grizzlies, Kings, Timberwolves and Wizards, averaging 9.7 points per game over a 13-year NBA career.
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