COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri’s 21-game homecourt winning streak is history.
Not surprising, says Tiger coach Norm Stewart, who figures the flap following last Sunday’s win over Oklahoma State has seriously hurt his standing with Big Eight basketball officials.
“That’s why our homecourt advantage has gone to hell. There’s no way they are going to call it (MU’s way) with all that stuff coming in,” said Stewart, after the Tigers’ 82-77 loss to Kansas on Saturday at Hearnes Center.
“That stuff” includes postgame statements by OSU coach Leonard Hamilton, accusing Stewart of being too chummy with ref Jim Bain. Hamilton, following State’s 92-70 loss, told the world it was easy to see why the Tigers oft-times rule in Columbia.
Taking a cue from Hamilton, Stewart on Saturday elected to groan about the work of Bill Summers, Ron Spitler and Ed Hightower.
“One of the ways to curtail him,” said Stewart, referring to Danny Manning, who scored a game-high 27, “is if they’d call a foul. You line ’em (players) up in front of the guy, they lob it in and he pushes off. If they’d call a foul, that would curtail it. I’m not complaining, that’s just one way to stop him.”
Stewart had another beef involving the refs and Manning. He said KU-s 6-10 All-American stepped out of bounds after accepting an inbounds pass with :14 left and KU up by five.
“When Danny dribbled out of bounds, it was a five-point game,” said Stewart. “We’re still down by five, but we’d like to have a chance.
“The way the play started today, there was a lot of grabbing and no calls early. That happens in basketball, but usually the home team does it.
“They brought their aggressiveness with ’em today. They pretty much dominated,” he continued, praising Kansas.
Stewart had FEW complaints about his team’s play.
“We made a tremendous comeback, almost,” said Stewart, whose troops were outscored 20-0 and lagged 26-8 early. “After we were down by 18, we made mass substitutions and played with reckless abandon. We used different combinations,” he noted, referring to stretches of playing 7-1 Gary Leonard along with the 6-9 Nathan Buntin and 6-10 Doug Smith.
“We came back and got in the game, but when we had a chance to tie or take control, we hurt ourselves. WE didn’t get as good of shots as we’d have liked.”
MU standout Derrick Chievous put up an ill-advices, off-balance jumper with 8:21 left and MU down, 58-56.
Kansas proceeded to score five straight points to temporarily strangle MU’s vocal fans.
Chievous finished with a quiet 20 points. The 6-7 senior hit four of 10 floor shots and 11 of 13 free throws.
Just as KU’s win was the first by a visitor in 22 starts.
“I really didn’t know how many we had won in a row, just that we hadn’t lost here this year,” said freshman center Doug Smith, who scored 10 on five-of-12 shooting. “It hurts to lose at home.”
One might term it frustrating?
“That word is not in my vocabulary,” concluded Chievous.
“Derrick is so sick before the ballgame,” said Stewart, noting Chievous was hit with the same virus that’s attacked several Tigers in the past couple weeks. “He’s a heck of a ballplayer. He doesn’t need any excuses.”
Chievous wasn’t offering any.
“It’s the end of the season, no time to get sick,” said Chievous. “It’s no time for pain. It’s time for gain.”
MU, 6-6 in the conference and 17-8 overall, hasn’t been gaining on anybody.
“To be truthful, I don’t think we’ve been playing like the normal Missouri team,” said Chievous.
Notes
-Stewart apologized for uttering obscenities on last Sunday’s postgame radio show. “If anybody was offended by my remarks, we want to apologize,” said Stewart. “Apparently some didn’t understand. We want to make sure now.”…
-Stewart on Manning: “They’ve had the big guy for four years. He’s tremendous.”…
-Chievous on Manning: “All of America thinks he’s the greatest and I follow up on that.”…
-Lynn Hardy, out with back problems since early in the season, returned Saturday. He did not score in four minutes. “You take somebody like Lynn, who wants to play so bad, it would almost bring you to tears,” Stewart said…
