Ultimate Hoops Bracket: Sweet Sixteen
Previously, we polled PowerMizzou.com subscribers to determine the best player in Tiger football history. Now we're taking the tournament to the hardwood.
Over the next six weeks we will run the same tournament for Mizzou basketball players. 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. As voting moves to the Sweet 16, here's how we got to this point.
THE CHIEVOUS REGION
1) Derrick Chievous vs 4) Norm Stewart: The best coach in school history meets up with perhaps the man who was his best player. It's all-time wins leader against all-time leading scorer.
Chievous has gotten more than 93% of the vote in each of the first two rounds, beating Mike Jeffries and Clarence Gilbert. He is Mizzou's all-time leading scorer by nearly 400 points, putting up 2,580 from 1985-88. For his career, Chievous averaged 19.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He shot better than 52% from the field and 79% from the free throw line on a school record 963 attempts. He has the highest career scoring average along with the single season and career marks for total points. He was the 16th overall pick in the NBA and draft and spent three seasons with Houston and Cleveland, averaging 7.1 points per game.
Stewart got more than 91% of the votes over Lynn Hardy in round one before beating all-time assists and steals leader Phil Pressey handily in round two. Stormin' Norman is most known as Mizzou's all-time winningest coach, but he was a good player in his day as well. Stewart ranks 34th on Mizzou's all-time scoring list despite playing in an era when freshmen weren't eligible. He averaged double figures in all three of his seasons, including 24.1 as a senior, tied for the third-best single season average in school history. Numbers aren't available for his first season, but Stewart averaged 8.9 rebounds a game as a junior and 10.7 as a senior. His 17.7 points per game are seventh on the all-time Mizzou list and his 9.2 rebounds are number seven as well. He played five games with the St. Louis Hawks in the NBA in 1957.
2) John Brown vs 3) Marcus Denmon: One of the first Mizzou all-time greats meets one of the most recent here.
Brown, who has gotten more than 95% of the vote in each of the first two rounds, was the first superstar to play for Stewart at Missouri. His 1,421 points were a school record when he left and still rank 16th on Mizzou's all-time list. He averaged 19.7 points for his career, including 21 in each of his final two seasons. Brown averaged a double-double for his career with exactly ten rebounds per game as well. He was a first-team all-Big Eight selection as a senior and is third all-time in career scoring average. In eight NBA seasons with Atlanta, Chicago and Utah, Brown averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds a game.
Denmon, who has also cleared the 90% total in each of his first two matchups, was a two-time all-Big 12 selection. He averaged 16.9 points per game as a junior and 17.7 as a senior. For his career he averaged 12.6 points per game and is the No. 5 scorer in school history. Denmon is second all-time with 283 three-pointers made and was a member of the winningest class in school history, chalking up 107 victories in his four seasons.
THE STIPANOVICH REGION
1) Steve Stipanovich vs 4) Arthur Johnson: Two of the better pure big men in Mizzou history do battle here.
Stipo dominated Jeff Warren and Keyon Dooling in the first two rounds. He started 124 of his 128 career games in Columbia and averaged double-figure points and at least six rebounds every season. He ended up at 14.4 points and 7.7 boards per game for his career. He led the Tigers to four consecutive Big Eight titles and left as the school's all-time leading scorer (he's now fourth) with 1,836 points. He ranks in the all-time top five in field goals made, free throws made and attempted, rebounds, blocked shots and minutes played. He was the 2nd overall pick in the 1983 draft and averaged 13.2 points and 7.8 rebounds with the Pacers before his career was cut short by injury.
AJ got 92% of the vote in each of the first two contests. He ranks sixth all-time at Mizzou with 1,759 points, and first in total rebounds (1.,083) and blocked shots (245). He has 88 more blocked shots than the No. 2 player on the list and his 1.9 blocks per game is a school record for a career. He ranks 4th in school history with 132 games played and started 123 of them. Johnson had 44 career double-doubles, the second-most in school history.
2) Willie Smith vs 3) Ricky Frazier: Two players critical to establishing Missouri as a national program go at it in this matchup.
Smith, who is the only Tiger to average at least 20 points per game for his career, beat Derek Grimm and Jevon Crudup to advance. His 23.9 per game over two seasons in 1975-76 are the most in school history by four points a game. He was a two-time all-Big Eight selection and was the league's leading scorer and an all-American in 1976 when he scored 25.3 points per game and led the Tigers to their first conference title in 46 seasons and the Elite Eight. He shot 79% from the free throw line and averaged 5.6 rebounds in his two seasons. His 43 points against Michigan in the 1976 NCAA Regional Final are the most points ever scored in a post-season game by a Tiger. He scored 30 points or more 12 times in 58 career games, second-most in school history.
Frazier had no problem with Jason Sutherland or Kim Anderson in the first two rounds. He won three Big Eight titles, was a two-time all-conference player and was the Big Eight player of the year and an all-American in 1982 despite sharing the spotlight with Stipanovich and Sundvold. He is 14th on the school's all-time scoring list, but is second among players who played fewer than four seasons. Frazier averaged 15.4 points per game and shot 59.4% from the field for his career, which ranks third in school history. He averaged 6.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.
THE SMITH REGION
1) Doug Smith vs 4) DeMarre Carroll: Two players who made their mark with their versatility match up with an Elite Eight spot on the line.
Smith has been the bracket's most dominant player through two rounds, getting 98% of the vote each time. He is the second-leading scorer in school history with 2,184 points. He is the only Tiger to have 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds for a career. He is in the top ten in school history in each of the following categories: field goals made (1), field goals attempted (1), free throws made (7), free throws attempted (7), rebounds (2), rebounds per game (10), steals (5), steals per game (9), blocked shots (4), blocked shots per game (8), games played (10) and minutes played (8). He was the 1991 Big Eight Player of the Year. He was a first round pick of the Dallas Mavericks and averaged eight points and 4.2 rebounds over five NBA seasons.
Carroll beat Al Eberhard in the only second round matchup that was very close. He was a Tiger for just two years after transferring from Vanderbilt, but he made them count. Carroll put up 1,046 points in his two seasons and averaged 14.9 per game. He shot 54.9% from the floor and averaged 6.9 rebounds a game. Carroll was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in his first season and helped lead the Tigers to a school-record 31 wins as a senior. He has averaged 8.9 points and 4.3 rebounds over an 11-year NBA career.
2) Melvin Booker vs 3) Kareem Rush: Two of the top scorers and better all-around players in school history match up in one of the bracket's best contests.
Booker was the Big Eight Player of the Year as a senior when he led the Tigers to an unbeaten record in the Big Eight and their last regular season conference championship. He averaged 18.1 points, 4.5 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game that season. That capped a career in which Booker was the No. 7 scorer in school history. He is ninth in career three-pointers made, tenth in field goals made, eighth in free throws and third in assists.
Rush is the top scorer in school history among players who played fewer than four seasons. The smooth left-hander piled up 1,584 points in just 84 games. Rush was the Big 12 rookie of the year when he set a Mizzou freshman record averaging 14.7 points per game. His 21.1 points per game as a sophomore are the most in Mizzou history in that class as well. He averaged 19.8 a game as a junior and was a two-time first-team all-Big 12 player. Rush is fourth in career scoring average and fifth in three-pointers made. He spent seven seasons in the NBA, averaging 6.4 points and 1.7 rebounds.
THE PEELER REGION
1) Anthony Peeler vs 5) Rickey Paulding: Two high flyers and maybe the two most athletic players in Tiger history meet up.
Peeler is just behind Doug Smith in terms of dominance through the first two rounds. He 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.
After averaging seven points in 17 minutes as a freshman, Paulding posted double-figure averages in each of his final three seasons and ended his career No. 10 on the Tigers' all-time scoring chart with 1,673 points. A two-time second-team all-Big 12 pick, Paulding averaged 12.8 points and four rebounds for his career. After starting his career on an historic cold streak from three-point range, Paulding ended up seventh on the career list with 191 made triples in his career. That included nine in the NCAA Tournament against Marquette, the second-most in a game in school history. Paulding also had a seven-steal game against Colorado, which is the second-most in school history.
2) Jon Sundvold vs 3) Larry Drew: These are not only two of the best players in Mizzou history, but two of the more successful Tigers in the NBA.
Drew was the 1980 Big Eight player of the year when he averaged 12.9 points, five assists and 2.8 rebounds per game. He is No. 18 on the school's all-time scoring list and No. 4 with 433 assists. Drew was a first round pick of Detroit in the NBA Draft and averaged 11.4 points over ten seasons. He has scored more points in the NBA than any other player in Mizzou history.
Sundvold is the No. 11 scorer in school history with 1,597 career points and most wonder where he could have ranked if there was a three-point line when he played. Sundvold is the career leader in minutes played at Mizzou and helped lead the Tigers to four consecutive Big Eight Conference titles. He averaged 17.1 points per game as a senior and 12.5 for his career. He was a first round draft pick of the Seattle Supersonics and spent nine years in the NBA, averaging 7.7 points and shooting 39% from three-point range. Sundvold is also second in career free throw percentage at Mizzou.
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