Ramblings: On the Season That Made Me A True Fan

Marcus Denmon’s miracle shot, and the big win over the Memphis Tigers that followed after 20 more minutes of basketball, was an accumulation of a season that for me evolved from casual observance to obsessive rooting over the course of a season that will go down in the history books as one of the most successful in Missouri Tiger history. It was a true underdog story, one of redemption and revival of a program that went 16-16 in the previous season, was picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 by the coaches, and had not been to the NCAA Tournament in five years.

The accumulation to that Sweet Sixteen game versus Memphis is an attribute to exactly why sports are such a vital part of our culture, both in America and around the world. Before that magical season, it was one of the worst possible times to be a sports fan in Kansas City who just so happened to also root for the Tigers. While Kansas City sports fans who rooted for the Kansas Jayhawks had their basketball team, fresh off of an epic National Championship victory (also against the Memphis Tigers), and while Missouri Tiger fans in St. Louis had their Cardinals baseball team to fall back on, the dreaded combination of Chiefs/ Royals/ Tigers fan had next to nothing at the time.

In 2008, the Chiefs were on their way to a 14-loss season, one of the worst in franchise history. The Royals, while actually making an improvement by having only 87 losses instead of 100 or more, still were in the lower half of a mediocre AL Central, again. Missouri football, while fresh off of one of the greatest seasons in their long history, turned out to be a little too highly ranked in the pre-season as they lost games to Oklahoma State at home, Texas in a drubbing, and Kansas on a soul-crushing touchdown in the final moments of the game. Meanwhile, in the midst of a surprisingly tight win over Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl, the men’s basketball team was already on their way to posting a fairly decent record in the non-conference season.

Despite the obvious improvements over the previous season’s 16-16 squad, few people gave the Tigers too much thought. While I noted the Tiger’s respectable record in the back of the Kansas City Star’s sports section, the first time I actually watched the team play was against Illinois. In Missouri’s first game as a member of the national polls, they were effectively demolished by the Fighting Illini. I calmly went back to just reading about the Tigers in the paper, certain that they would eventually crash and burn when they got into the meat grinder of Big 12 play.

At their best, the Tigers sped up unsuspecting opponents, inducing turnovers that led to easy buckets and generally wearing them down as Mike Anderson kept Mizzou’s legs fresh thanks to a deep bench. In sport starting to see more and more players jump to the NBA early, Missouri was led by three seniors that had only known the worst of times in Missouri basketball. Leo Lyons and DeMarre Carroll made for an interesting frontcourt that made up for its lack in height and size with tenacity and toughness. Matt Lawrence gave the Tigers a great spot-up shooter, always a threat to hit anywhere from three to five or more shots from behind the three-point line in a game. Combining their experiences (mostly bad) and leadership with three tough juniors (all-conference defender J.T. Tiller, clutch scorer Zaire Taylor, and scrappy big man Keith Ramsey), and a large group of talented underclassmen that all totally bought into Mike Anderson’s system, made for a team that could compete with any team they faced.

That said, how could anyone possibly think that this team would become as huge as it did? Despite consistently beating the opponents they were supposed to beat in the noncom portion of the season, Missouri still seemed to find ways to lose to their toughest opponents. Against Xavier, it was their poor free throw shooting. Against Illinois, it was their poor everything, being outmatched in every facet of the game by the Illini. Then, despite renewed optimism among the Tiger faithful, the team went out to Lincoln and lost their Big 12 opener against always-mediocre Nebraska. Then, starting one of their toughest stretches of play, the Tigers were beaten to a pulp by a K-State team that had started the conference season 1-4. Despite belief that this team could definitely make it to the NCAA Tournament, questions still remained about how good this Tiger team could actually be. Most of those questions were answered in the last ten games of the regular season, and by that time there were very few people that doubted Mizzou’s legitimacy as a contender in the Big Dance.

The Tigers finished the regular season in style, going 8-2 in their final ten games. During that time, signs of my transition towards becoming a true fan were becoming evident. As Leo Lyons scored a career high 30 points and the Tigers easily took out once-ranked Baylor, I listened intently to the final moments of the game on the radio, while my mother drove me home from Boy Scouts. The next time I saw the Tigers, they were down in an early hole against #17 Texas (in Austin). Convinced that the boys in black and gold would surely lose, I turned in for the night. As my dad took me to Jazz Band practice at six o’clock in the morning, he commented on how the Tigers had won yet another game. My ears couldn’t properly understand it. A team I mutually rooted for had beaten a ranked opponent? On the road? After so many years of watching horrible football, baseball, and basketball teams, it didn’t seem possible, or right.

This strange development over the fact that the Tigers might actually be looking at a really good team led up to a showdown in Columbia against the hated Kansas Jayhawks. For the first time since 2003, both teams were ranked. The atmosphere at Mizzou Arena was about as good as it had ever been. The crowd was pumped, and so were the Tigers. They were ready to get a win over their most hated rivals. And, as should have been expected, the Tigers found themselves down by 14 points at the half. Frustrated, tired, and knowing that I would have to wake up at five AM for Jazz Band, I turned off the television and went to bed. I woke up the next morning, checked the computer, and saw the headline.

Taylor hits 10-footer with 1.3 seconds left as Missouri hands KU first Big 12 loss

“Son of a bitch.”

After missing two games that looked over early on in the first half, games that ultimately ended with Zaire Taylor baskets that gave Missouri the win, I started to realize that maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t paying enough thought to a team that could something more than any of the sports teams I had casually watched over the last 16 years.

So I finally started paying attention. I watched two full games on television for the first time since the Christian Moody game back in 2006. I watched the Tigers get their revenge on the two losses (Nebraska and Kansas State) that had instilled so much doubt in the team early on. I followed the Kansas City Star’s coverage on the Big 12 race that Missouri was definitely in, and also found their own NCAA Tournament bracketology section. Not only was Mizzou safely in the field of 68, but they were listed as a 4-seed in the Big Dance as well. I simply could not wrap my brain around how good this team was turning out to be.

After a disappointing

loss

drubbing at Allen Field House that should have been expected, I got myself prepared for the Tigers’ match with the #5 Oklahoma Sooners. Even though I was not actually at Mizzou Arena in Columbia for that game, it felt as though the house I watched it in had become part of the actual game. As my family and I watched DeMarre Carroll steal the ball from OU’s Juan Pattillo in the second half, grab and offensive rebound, and sink the put-back for the and-one, my dad jumped out of his chair and yelled in excitement, doing a cheesy celebratory fist pump. The Tigers capped off their undefeated season at home, and my journey towards fanhood was really picking up speed by then.

During Spring Break, right at the beginning of post-season basketball, I was on my way to Washington D.C. I missed the majority of Missouri’s first ever Big 12 Tournament Championship, but that didn’t stop my growth as a fan. I talked with the other Tiger fans on the plane about this season that came out of nowhere. I got into arguments with the Jayhawk fans that were certain that Missouri was overrated and would flame out in the first round of the Big Dance. When it was announced that the Tigers had beaten Baylor in the Championship game, I did a little cheer and high-fived the Mizzou fans sitting close to me on the charter bus. All my life I had only thought of sports as some silly little game that got our minds off of the troubles of the real world. But as I shared this little moment of celebration with the other fans on the bus, I wondered if there could be something more to it.

There was.

The day after Missouri’s win against Memphis, I was part of the crew that served food for the local church’s Fish Fridays during Lent. As I served the fish and garlic bread to the mostly elderly customers, I had many quick conversations with those who were also wearing Mizzou gear the day after arguably one of the best wins in the history of Missouri Tiger basketball. We talked about Denmon’s amazing shot, J.T. Tiller’s unlikely 23 points, and Tyreke Evans of Memphis, who went off for 33 points of his own, as if we had known each other for years. The connections I made with these otherwise random people over a single sporting event only made the aura of the place even merrier. These people were all connecting over this unlikely revival of a program that was in shambles just last season. For the first time in a while, a great deal of Tiger fans had something to cheer about, talk about, and enjoy with the rest of the Mizzou faithful.

After the Tigers lost to UConn in the Elite Eight, in a game that seemed over from the start despite some big comebacks by the Tigers, I took a good look at the world around me and how it was affected by this single game. The Kansas City Star’s article on Mizzou’s brilliant season and bitter end was surprisingly tough to read as it painted a picture of the team sitting at their press conference table, most of them teary-eyed, all of them too hurt to really care about answering questions, all of them bound by something that not many people can explain or understand. Despite breaking the school’s record for most wins in a season, a Big 12 Tournament Championship, victories over the likes of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Memphis, and an 18-0 record at Mizzou Arena, the Tigers still managed to end the season as the team with 24 NCAA Tournament appearances but no Final Fours, something that Kansas fans can still hold over their black and gold enemies. Still, even though the season ended on such a sour note, I had reached that point of no return that affects so many people in this sports-obsessed world.

So that’s that. May the records show that one basketball team completely changed how I look at the teams I root for and the entire world of sports in general. In the present day, I now spend a great deal of my free time watching sports, reading about sports, and even writing about them. I’ve now seen around 90 percent of all games played by the Chiefs and Tigers, and watch much more Royals baseball than I ever did in the past. I now spend way too much time learning more and more about sports history, stats, players, et cetera, and this all goes double for basketball. In short, I’ve become just another sports-obsessed guy in a sports-obsessed nation. This strange journey has taken me to some remarkable places like the superb Missouri blog, Rock M Nation, and other great sites on SB Nation. As a writer, I’ve found a strange little niche on the staff at BT Powerhouse, which covers Big Ten basketball. Now this journey has led me to FanSided, were I hope to turn Zoulogy into yet another gem in a growing treasure chest full of gems that represent the great sports blogs that can be found all over the internet. I still have plenty to learn in this ever-growing and adapting field, but I look forward to the opportunity. As I prepare for my own career at the University of Missouri, the future of Tiger athletics looks pretty bright from where I’m standing, and I look forward to putting my spin on the big wins, tough losses, and strange times that I surely will experience at Columbia.

I’m Matt Suppes, I became a true sports fan on March 26, 2009, and I would like to welcome you to Zoulogy.

M-I-Z! Z-O-U!