Tiger Extra Basketball

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Friday, March 12, 2010, 1:20 p.m.

Never good time to say goodbye

KANSAS CITY — Cindy Stein crossed the small locker room deep inside Municipal Auditorium and hugged each of her 14 players Thursday. It was time to say goodbye. 1 comment

Friday, March 12, 2010, 1:20 p.m.

Cindy Stein handled end with class

KANSAS CITY — After the last narrow loss in a season full of them, Cindy Stein finished her final postgame press conference at 4 p.m. 2 comments

Friday, March 12, 2010, 1:20 p.m.

No ignoring MU’s shooting woes

KANSAS CITY — It had been easy enough to downplay the struggles of the Missouri basketball team over the past two weeks. Sure, the Tigers had lost two of their final three regular-season games, but both defeats came against top-10 opponents in Kansas State and Kansas. 4 comments

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Thursday, March 11, 2010, 2 p.m.

The art of rally-killing

KANSAS CITY — A partisan Sprint Center crowd made several efforts to spur Missouri during its 75-60 loss to Nebraska in Wednesday's opening round of the Big 12 Tournament.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 8:47 p.m.

Loss has Tigers cloaked in doom and gloom

KANSAS CITY — Outside a locker room where Missouri basketball players were describing their 75-60 loss to Nebraska with morose quotes expressing varying degrees of the four stages of grief, Coach Mike Anderson alone seemed ready to move on to stage five: acceptance. “All sickness is not death,” he said. 22 comments

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 4:16 p.m.

Tigers bounced from Big 12 Tournament

KANSAS CITY — The shock was evident on the blank faces of Missouri basketball players who sat in almost total silence in the locker room Wednesday at the Sprint Center. 45 comments

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 11:40 a.m.

Haven’t we been here before?

KANSAS CITY — The thought only occurred to Rick Barnes Tuesday as he faced reporters in the bowels of the Sprint Center shortly before his Texas basketball team took the court for its final workout before the Big 12 Tournament.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 11:40 a.m.

Tigers looking for another KC surprise

KANSAS CITY — Missouri women’s basketball Coach Cindy Stein remembers her underdog team’s last visit to Kansas City for embodying the reason she loves sports.

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Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 2 p.m.

Missouri struggles without Safford

It’s not in Mike Anderson’s nature to make excuses. That’s why the coach won’t lower expectations for the Missouri basketball team heading into the Big 12 Tournament, which begins tomorrow at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. 6 comments

Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 2 p.m.

OSU’s Anderson is the pick as conference’s best player

There’s no question Kansas is the Big 12’s best team after rolling up a 15-1 record and winning the conference title by a whopping four games. But the Jayhawks’ biggest strength was the multitude of weapons they could turn to each night to win games. Other players had to do more with less help to put their teams in position to make the NCAA Tournament.

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Monday, March 8, 2010, 2 p.m.

Tigers send Stein out a winner in home finale

A small but full-throated Mizzou Arena crowd rose to its feet as the Cindy Stein era of Missouri women’s basketball yielded a final, emotional home celebration. 2 comments

Monday, March 8, 2010, 1 p.m.

English on All-Big 12 third team

Big 12 Conference coaches recognized guards Kim English, Zaire Taylor and J.T. Tiller for their roles in helping the Missouri basketball team to a fifth-place finish in the league standings.

Sunday, March 7, 2010, 8 a.m.

Emotions aside, KU just better

Sometimes an underdog basketball team can gather strength from a sell-out crowd and ride the emotional wave to a glorious victory that causes fans to spill forth onto the court and sideline reporters to scream inaudible questions into the ears of star players and the residents of an entire state to remember where they were at that moment.

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Sunday, March 7, 2010, 8 a.m.

Look to end on high note

Cindy Stein is comfortably in her “basketball cocoon” as she prepares for a mid-afternoon practice Friday at Mizzou Arena.

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Sunday, March 7, 2010, 8 a.m.

Not much fun in watching

The Missouri basketball team’s 77-56 loss to second-ranked Kansas might have hit Justin Safford harder than anyone. That’s because the 6-foot-8 junior forward, sidelined by the knee injury he suffered 10 days earlier against Colorado, was stuck watching it from the Tigers’ bench. 4 comments

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