The school that sent the Missouri Tigers packing for the SEC next year is hoping to send them packing from the Big 12 Tournament tonight.
While no one at Mizzou will publicly say that the Texas Longhorn's Longhorn Network and the monetary discrepancy the Longhorns receive compared to other Big 12 schools was the reason Mizzou looked to leave its 100-year history with some derivative of the conference, it is widely known that is the reason for the Tigers' departure.
And tonight one of the schools will get the last laugh.
Either Mizzou, behind a senior laden team led by Marcus Denmon and Kim English, will sweep the money-generating sport season series with UT, or Texas will be able to derail the Tigers' hope of a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament and possible seeding in the St. Louis region.
For Texas to prevail J'Covan Brown needs to be, well, J'Covan Brown. As the 6-1 junior goes, so go the Longhorns. Only once in the past 5 games has Brown not led the Longhorns in scoring, and that was an overtime win at Texas Tech when Brown scored 14 on 4-13 shooting and Julien Lewis outscored him by a point. But if Brown can go off like he did in the first matchup against the Tigers, watch out. In that game in Columbia, Brown ended with 34 points on 6-7 from behind the arc.
This game will not be for the sheepish at heart or the traditional pound-inside types. No, with Brown, Lewis, Sheldon McClellan, Denmon, English and Mike Dixon on the floor, you have six guys who hoisted up at least 100 three-point attempts this season.
At the end of the day, though, Texas is just too one-sided to win. Even if Brown scores another 34, the rest of the team hasn't shown enough to help carry the rest of the burden. If one of Mizzou's four guys averaging double-digit scoring shows the effects of playing back-to-back games, they have others to fill that void. Texas simply doesn't have an answer if Brown's shots start finding iron.
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