“Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.” Bill Russell
Like many old school Missouri Tiger basketball fans, I probably have an unorthodox evaluation of success. Sure I want to win, but it’s vital to be mentally stronger and physically tougher than your opponent, and you should sacrifice personal glory for team goals. Sounds like Stormin’ Norman, right? Well, this weekend Mizzou honored a team, and a player, that I believe have best embodied that approach.
When I watched Sophie Cunningham hug coach Robin Pingeton today at the conclusion of Sophie’s final home game, I teared up like I was her dad. Sophie is a tremendously-gifted player, probably one of the three greatest in Missouri women’s history (along with Joni Davis and Renee Kelly). Nobody has matched Sophie, however, in hard work, grit, leadership, and an indomitable will to win. Yes, Sophie has dealt her share of sharp elbows, but she accepts the reciprocation, and her teammates feed off her energy and aggressive play. Sophie and Coach Pingeton have transformed the program and put Missouri on the national map. Sophie grew up in Columbia, she loves her team and her school, she’s a great role model on and off the floor, and we’ve been fortunate to watch her for four years.
Yesterday the 1993-94 men’s team was honored at halftime of Missouri’s win over South Carolina. Those Tigers, who lost by 52 at Arkansas and almost lost at home to CMSU, regrouped and went undefeated in Big Eight play, earned Mizzou’s only number one NCCA tourney seed, and made the Elite Eight. Norm Stewart, 1994’s AP Coach of the Year, melded a superior team from a group that had no consensus All-Americas, no NBA first-round picks, and remarkably little individual recognition. But oh, what a team they were. You had some of the baddest dudes ever to wear the black and gold (Jevon Crudup, Lamont Frazier, and a freshman named Jason Sutherland), guys who played above their skill level (Booker, Reggie Smith, Kelly Thames, Derek Grimm), super scorer Mark Atkins, and Paul O’Liney, who I’m confident would have led Missouri to the Final Four the following year but for, well, you know what happened (don’t make me say Tyus Edney). In that special group, Lamont Frazier truly was a Missouri guy, and a Norm guy, from head to toe of his rock-like body. My favorite memory of Lamont is his education-by-extended-arm-bar to K-State’s Askia Jones when Jones once dared to nonchalantly slide behind Frazier down low in the paint. If you entered the lane, and Lamont or Jevon was there, you knew you would receive contact that today would have the officials at the monitor. It was much more than the rough stuff, however, that made the team memorable; there was the triple-OT win over Illinois in St. Louis when Booker simply refused to lose, twice beating kU when the Hawks were ranked in the top 5, and the heart-stopping final conference win against Nebraska when Eric Piatkowski’s potential game-winning shot literally dropped inside the rim and miraculously came out.
The good news is we shouldn’t have to live solely with our memories. Cuonzo Martin and Robin Pingeton both recruit and coach basketball the Missouri way: disciplined, hard-nosed, and one for all and all for one. I’m confident there are more Sophie’s and more ‘94-like teams to come, and that’s what makes Missouri basketball special, at least for this aging Antler.
I'll Be Brief 