In many ways, the formula is the same.
Both Missouri and the Gophers had a player who was expected to be a significant contributor transfer elsewhere, and both watched a powerful frontcourt player go down with a season-ending ACL tear. Both threw out a guard-heavy lineup in response, and received serious doubt about just how competitive they could be within their respective conferences.
To be fair, both have surprised. The Gophers have won games they weren't supposed to win and crawled back from an early 0-4 conference hole. But as they struggle to find consistency, get past bigger teams and excel in the Big Ten, No. 4 Missouri represents a structurally similar team that is making it work in a big way.
In coach Frank Haith's first year, the Tigers have taken their lot -- losing Laurence Bowers to a torn knee ligament in October and then watching another big man, 6-8 redshirt freshman Kadeem Green, transfer at the beginning of January -- and turned it into an excitingly effective brand of small ball. The Tigers play a very undersized four-guard lineup with an extremely thin frontcourt and only two other scholarship players waiting on the bench.
"We know who we are," Haith said of the Tigers, who have three starters 6-3 or shorter. "There's a saying, 'In order to get where you want to be, you've got to know where you're at.' And we know who we are -- and it's not going to change. But obviously, we're not going to focus on our weaknesses and dwell on them."
They haven't, and no one else has either. Missouri, which started the season 14-0, enters Saturday's game against rival Kansas having won six of its past seven games in the Big 12. The Tigers are entrenched near the top of the AP poll and in line to potentially get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
So what works with Missouri that hasn't with the Gophers? Despite all the similarities, there is one major difference: The Tigers' starters are all seniors and have all proven to be excellent, mature players -- capable of out-toughing bigger matchups, using their quickness on the perimeter and managing games to their strengths.
"You don't just have four guards out there, you have four guards that are all-conference level," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team lost at home to Mizzou 89-88 on Jan. 21; the rematch in Columbia is next week. "It's kind of like the Miami Heat with Dwyane Wade or any of those guys are just guards. But at the end of the day, they're such athletic freaks that they make up for it."
