Thinking About Last Year's Team ... And Will It Help This Year's Team

[Tugg Speedman]

Some stats about last year ...

* Last year's team SoS ranked #9 (Saragain), the highest in MU history.

* MU played a school record 16 top 25 teams in the same season (again per Saragain) and finished 6 and 10 in these games.  In all of D1 ball last year, only Uconn played more (23) thanks to their runs in the BE and NCAA.  For comparison, between 1985 and 1993 (9 years) MU only played a combined total of 15 ranked teams!  Our schedule has come a long way in the last 25 years.

* It was the first time in 71 years that MU beat the national champion during the regular season (not counting 1977) ... In 1940 MU beat Bucky who went on to win the NCAA championship.  

* It was also the first time we ever played Duke and UNC in the same season.

Question, does any of this matter for this year's team?  I would like to think that we should not be intimated by any team and have the confidence to beat anyone.

Do you agree?

[NersEllenson]

Nice nuggets of information.

Think your facts provide a good degree of perspective as to the maddening nature of last season.  Playing that many Top 25 teams is going to result in some tough losses, etc.

One thing that I've enjoyed about Buzz's teams, is that though they may have some tough losses, the team is rarely blown out, rarely ever out of striking distance, etc.  As I recall last season there were only a few games where MU didn't have a chance for a win:  UNC, Seton Hall, and possibly Cincy/St. John's games.