THE UNIVERSITY HALY KANSAN
BASKETBALL PREVIEW
7C
BIG 12 PREVIEWS CONTINUED
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Senior forward Leo Lyons returns to lead Missouri after he averaged 13.1 points per game last season for the 16-16 Tigers.
MISSOURI (16-16, 6-10 BIG 12)
Key losses — guard Stefhon Hannah, guard Marshall Brown, guard Keon Lawrence
Key newcomers — forward Kim English, center Steve Moore, guard.
Marcus Denmon
breakdown — So far the Mike Anderson era has been a struggle. In two seasons at Missouri, Mike Anderson's teams are 34-28 — and without an NCAA tournament appearance. Entering this season, the Tigers will move forward without guardsts Hennah, Marshall Brown and Keon Lawrence, who transferred to Setton Hall. Senior forward Leo Lyons returns to lead the offense after averaging 13.1 points per game last season. He'll be joined in the frontcourt by senior forward DeMarre Carroll — Andersson's nephew — who averaged 13.0 points per game in 2007-2008. Senior guard Matt Lawrence will lead the backcourt. The Big 12 coaches tabbed Missouri to finish seventh, just outside the top half of the conference. Missouri fans would most likely like to see more progress than that.
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
tdwyer@kansan.com
(25-11, 8-8 BIG 12)
Keylosses — center DeAndre Jordan
key losses — center AiNatore Jordan forward-center Joseph Jones Key newcomers — guard Dash Harris, forward David Loubeau
forward-center Joseph Jones
*key newcomers* – guard Dash Harris,
forward David Loubeau
*Breakdown* – Coach MarTurgeon,
a Kansas alum, will be hard-pressed to
find the same success he did last year
after losing his two leading rebounders
and two of the three big men who
started every game last year. The Aggies
would love to have DeAndre Jordan,
who was taken 35th in the NBA draft,
but the seven-footer left for the
league and hasn't looked back. Also
gone, to graduation, is Joseph Jones,
who led the team in scoring during
the 2008 campaign while starting every
game the Aggies played. Despite
the losses, coaches picked A&M to
finish fifth in the conference.
6-foot-9 power forward Bryan Davis will look to carry the inside game on his broad shoulders with help from Chinemelu Eloum, a 6-foot-10 sophomore out of Houston, and true freshman David Loubeau, who comes to Texas A&M as Rivals' No. 63 recruit in the country. Expect Loubeau, who picked the Aggies over UCLA, Pittsburgh and Florida among other top schools, to contribute immediately.
The strength of ABM lies with its guards. After leading the Aggies in scoring last year with just more than 12 points per game, 6-foot-7 Josh Carter comes back for his senior campaign and looks to repeat the feat. Also back are junior Donald Sloan and senior Dominique Kirk, who joined Carter in starting all 36 of the Aggies' games last year.
The good news for A&M fans is that all three of them can score, averaging more than eight points per game. The bad news is that not one of them is a pure point guard, Kirk and Sloan split time last year and both finished with more than 120 assists.
The task for Turgeon is figuring out whether one of them will claim the position for his own, or if it will be incoming freshman Dashan "Dash" Harris, Harris, Rivals' No. 93 recruit in the country, will likely see time from the country, will likely see time from the
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Bryan Davis will try to carry Texas A&M on his shoulders in 2008-2009.