University of Missouri first-year Head Men’s Basketball Coach Frank Haith added another piece of hardware to the Tiger trophy case today, as he was recognized as the Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year.  The award was presented to Haith this morning in New Orleans at an A.P. awards ceremony.

The award marks the second national coaching honor received this week by Haith, who was earlier named the recipient of the 2011-12 Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award, presented annually by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.  Haith was presented with the USBWA trophy Friday morning in New Orleans, which was followed by the AP trophy presentation hours later.

Despite having a roster which featured just seven scholarship players, Haith and his staff guided the Tigers to a 30-5 overall record, marking just the second 30-win season in MU history.  Mizzou, picked fourth in the Big 12 Conference pre-season coaches’ poll, won a school-record 14 Big 12 games, and finished second in the league standings with a 14-4 conference mark.  The Tigers won the school’s second Big 12 Tournament Championship with a 3-0 run in Kansas City, before seeing their season end in the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s hard to express how honored I am by this recognition,” said Haith.  “If you had told me a year ago that I would be in this position, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I think this is a great testament to how much a group of people can achieve when they come together and believe in each other and pull in the same direction.  Our staff and our kids did just an unbelievable job this season, and as I said before, it might be my name on the award, but it truly belongs to everyone at Mizzou,” he said.

Haith becomes the third Mizzou coach to win national honors, joining former coaches Norm Stewart and Mike Anderson in that group.  Stewart twice won national coach of the year honors (1982 [UPI] and 1994 [AP]), while Anderson won the same distinction by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2009.

— MU Sports Information —

University of Missouri junior quarterback James Franklin will undergo surgery to repair his injured right shoulder, and he will miss the remainder of spring camp, but is expected to be ready for the beginning of the 2012 season.

Franklin, who threw for 2,865 yards and 21 touchdowns and ran for 981 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2011 as a first-year starter, injured his shoulder last Tuesday in practice when he jumped on a fumble at the end of a play.  During the scramble, a defender landed on his outstretched arm, causing the shoulder injury, which was diagnosed as a sprained glenohumeral (GH) joint.

Initially, surgery was not included in the diagnosis, and it was hoped that Franklin would be able to return prior to the end of spring camp, which concludes April 14th with the annual Black & Gold Spring Game.  However, after further evaluation, it was decided that repairing the injury surgically would be in Franklin’s best interests long-term.

“We’re disappointed for James naturally,” said MU Head Coach Gary Pinkel.  “But this is absolutely the right thing to do, and we all know he’ll be in great hands, as we have the best doctors and trainers in the nation.  James has an outstanding work ethic, and he’ll be able to get past this setback just fine.  We expect him to be 100 percent and ready to go for the season.  Until then, our younger guys will benefit from more reps and more work with the number one offense, and we’ll look at that as a positive,” he said.

Franklin’s surgery will be performed this Friday and a timetable for his return to throwing will be determined following the procedure.

— MU Sports Information —

On the heels of a record-setting season which saw the University of Missouri men’s basketball team record one of the most successful years in school history, Mizzou Head Coach Frank Haith has been named the recipient of the 2011-12 Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

With a roster featuring just seven scholarship players, Haith and his staff guided the Tigers to a 30-5 overall record, marking just the second 30-win season in MU history.  Mizzou, picked fourth in the Big 12 Conference pre-season coaches’ poll, won a school-record 14 Big 12 games, and finished second in the league standings with a 14-4 conference mark.  The Tigers won the school’s second Big 12 Tournament Championship with a 3-0 run in Kansas City, before seeing their season end last Friday in the NCAA Tournament.

“I am so unbelievably honored and humbled by this,” said Haith.  “The award might be in my name, but I look at it as a team award, because this belongs just as much to our kids and our staff as it does to me.  The year we had was special because it was touched along the way by so many people that made it possible, and that also includes our administration and our fans.  We have a lot to look forward to in the future at Mizzou, but I will always look back at this senior class and be grateful to them for their leadership and their character, which was such a key to our success,” he said.

Haith becomes the third Mizzou coach to win national honors, joining former coaches Norm Stewart and Mike Anderson in that group.  Stewart twice won national coach of the year honors (1982 [UPI] and 1994 [AP]), while Anderson won the same distinction by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2009.

Haith will receive the Henry Iba Award at the USBWA’s College Basketball Awards Breakfast held in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four on Friday, March 30th at the New Orleans Marriott at 8 a.m.  The Henry Iba Award is named in honor of the legendary Oklahoma State coach who won 655 games and two national championships in 36 seasons in Stillwater.  The award is voted on by all members of the USBWA at the conclusion of the regular season.  The USBWA has presented a National Coach of the Year Award each year since the 1958-59 season.

— MU Sports Information —

Kyle O’Quinn’s booming voice echoed through the halls, the jovial center for Norfolk State riding the euphoria of a monumental upset of Missouri as the words spilled out of his mouth faster than he could think.

“We messed up some brackets! We messed up some brackets!” he bellowed, before turning a corner and seeing a pack of reporters.

“We even messed up my bracket,” he said sheepishly.

O’Quinn put together the finest game of his career at the biggest moment in the history of Norfolk State basketball. The senior finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds, helping the No. 15 seed Spartans to an 86-84 victory over the second-seeded Tigers on Friday.

All those brackets that had the Big 12 tournament champs advancing to face Florida in the West Regional — perhaps even all the way to the Final Four — can be torn up. It’s the MEAC champions who are moving on.

Pendarvis Williams and Chris McEachin each added 20 points for the Spartans (26-9), who have already made their first trip to the NCAA tournament a memorable one. They became the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 and the first since fellow conference member Hampton in 2001.

“You always go into the game with a sense of confidence,” O’Quinn said, “but I never thought it was an upset-alert until that buzzer went off.

“At the end of the game,” he said, “that’s when I thought it would happen.”

O’Quinn had a chance to take some drama out of the final possession, but the 70-percent foul shooter missed two free throws with 3.8 seconds left. Missouri coach Frank Haith called timeout to set up a final play, and Phil Pressey got a pretty good look at a 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded.

It clanked off the back iron as O’Quinn leaped for joy.

Pressey fell to the court in disbelief.

“We just shocked everybody,” Spartans swingman Brandon Wheeless said.

Michael Dixon led Missouri (30-5) with 22 points, and Pressey and fellow guard Marcus Denmon finished with 20 points each. Pressey also contributed eight assists, though senior guard Kim English was held to two points on 1-for-7 shooting.

“I’m very disappointed, as everyone in that locker room was,” Haith said. “I hurt for those seniors because they put so much into this. They had high expectations.”

The Tigers rolled into the NCAAs on the strength of a dominant run to the Big 12 tournament title, rarely getting tested in three games in Kansas City. That was enough to make Missouri a trendy Final Four pick, something the school had never before accomplished.

Norfolk State made sure it wouldn’t happen this year, either.

The plucky Spartans shot 54.2 percent from the field — 62.5 percent in the second half — and managed to knock down 10 of 19 3-point shots. They also turned the ball over just 11 times against the Tigers’ quick-handed guards, who had caused fits for most teams this season.

“We knew coming into this game if we let them hang around it was going to be a ballgame. They hung around the whole game,” Preseey said. “They made the plays at the right time.”

The Spartans opened the game on a 15-7 surge, turning most of the folks dressed in Florida blue and Virginia orange into surrogate fans. And when Missouri jumped ahead on the strength of three consecutive 3-pointers, Norfolk State didn’t seem to be rattled.

Fifth-year coach Anthony Evans simply called timeout and Norfolk State regrouped.

Things were going so well for the Spartans in the first half that O’Quinn, an 18-percent shooter from beyond the arc, swished one from the top of the key. The big guy added a conventional three-point play later in the half, slamming his hand onto the court after he was fouled and then stepping to the free throw line and giving Norfolk State a 38-36 lead.

Dixon’s basket with 23.4 seconds left meant a tie game at halftime.

Missouri spent nearly the entire 20-minute break in its locker room. The Spartans were back on the court before it was half over, putting up shots like it was a Sunday afternoon shootaround.

They must have liked the way things were going.

Marcos Tamares scored right out of halftime and the Spartans kept plugging away. Ricardo Ratliffe made a couple of baskets for Missouri and Williams hit another deep jumper for Norfolk State. Dixon hit a 3 from the corner and O’Quinn scored underneath.

The only time Missouri threatened to create some breathing room came when Pressey followed his own basket with a 3-pointer with 7:15 to go, giving the Tigers a 73-69 lead.

Tamares was there to provide a 3-pointer of his own.

The game was tied 81-all when O’Quinn plucked an airball out of midair and put it back with 34.9 seconds left, getting fouled in the process. The three-point play made it 84-81.

O’Quinn added the first of two free throws moments later, but Pressey hit a deep 3-pointer from the wing with just a shade over 10 seconds left, giving Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon — seated two rows behind the Tigers’ bench — some reason to hope.

Rodney McCauley restored an 86-84 lead with the first of two free throws, and after a loose ball wound up in Norfolk State’s hands, O’Quinn missed both of his foul shots.

That set the stage for Missouri’s dramatic final possession.

A possession that nobody at tiny Norfolk State will ever forget.

“Coming into the game, I believed it. I believed it from the jump. Honest to God’s truth,” McCauley said. “We’ve got good shooters. We dig deep. We’re not ready to go home yet. We’ve got five seniors. We’re ready to keep playing.”

— Associated Press —

It seemed as if everybody was rooting against Missouri, the school that nearly brought the Big 12 to ruin, and you can be sure coach Frank Haith and the rest of the Tigers heard them.

They made sure to leave a lasting impression on their way to the SEC.

Kim English capped a phenomenal conference tournament with 19 points, Phil Pressey added 15 points and eight assists and the fifth-ranked Tigers beat Baylor (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 12 AP) 90-75 on Saturday night to win their second championship in the past four years.

“Obviously, it’s special. To win championships is just special,” Haith said. “We didn’t win the regular-season championship, but we won a conference tournament championship.”

English wound up 29 of 40 from the field in a virtuoso performance in Kansas City and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Michael Dixon added 17 points for the Tigers (30-4), while Ricardo Ratliffe and Marcus Denmon finished with 15 each.

“Kim’s play was unbelievable all weekend,” Denmon said. “He really carried us.”

Missouri’s decision to leave for the Southeastern Conference after this season drew outrage from fans of opposing teams, and all the fans from nine other schools that flocked to the Sprint Center seemed to be rooting hard against the school from just down Interstate 70.

Thousands of fans clad in black and gold in turn booed interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas when he gave away the trophy, and chants of “SEC! SEC!” arose in the closing minutes.

“There were roughly 18,000 people here — it was packed. I would suggest 17,000 of those people were in black and gold,” Missouri athletic director Mike Alden said. “So to suggest that Kansas City, Mo., is a Mizzou town, I can assure you, it absolutely was proof positive today.”

Perry Jones III led Baylor (27-7) with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Brady Heslip scored 14 and Deuce Bello came off the bench to add 13 for the Bears, who were again turned away one win short of their first conference tournament title since 1950.

The Bears also lost to Missouri in the 2009 Big 12 title game.

“The biggest thing we haven’t talked about is their experience, five seniors,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “They’ve been through situations like this.”

The two teams waged two memorable games during the regular season, Missouri coming out on top both times. The first was an 89-88 victory in Waco in January, when the Tigers made 10 free throws in the closing minute to hold off a furious rally. The second was a 15-point victory in Columbia, a game that was nip-and-tuck until the Tigers went on a second-half charge.

This one wound up being a bit more like the second meeting.

The teams traded blows throughout the first half — Denmon or English would knock down a 3-pointer, Jones or Quincy Miller would find a way to work inside for a matching bucket. The lead never reached double figures even though Missouri threatened it a couple times.

It wasn’t until the final minutes before the half, when Denmon knocked down a jumper and Pressey made two foul shots, that Missouri had some breathing room.

That was part of a 16-5 thrust that spanned the break and gave the Tigers a 57-42 lead, their biggest of the game, and forced Baylor coach Scott Drew to use all but one of his timeouts.

Quincy Acy, playing in his school-record 135th game, finally got on the board with a pair of free throws as Baylor began cutting into the lead.

Two more foul shots by A.J. Walton nipped it back to single digits, and later in the half, an alley-oop jam by Jones off a half-court feed from Pierre Jackson got Baylor within 64-56.

“We just had to get stops,” Acy said. “That’s pretty much the whole game. We had to get stops and we had to convert easies. That’s it.”

Instead, Missouri seemed to keep finding answers.

Dixon hit a jumper after Perry’s rim-rattling dunk, and English knocked down a 3-pointer moments later to restore a double-digit cushion, the swagger-filled junior guard sticking out his tongue and giving a “so-what?” shoulder shrug as he headed back to play defense.

The Tigers continued to pour it on. Pressey hit a 3-pointer from about 6 feet beyond the arc, and English followed with another from the exact same spot. This time, he exhorted a partisan crowd packed inside the Sprint Center to rise to its feet with a chant of “M-I-Z, Z-O-U!”

Baylor went on one more spirited run, closing within 77-72 after a 10-2 spurt, but the salty Tigers took care of things from the foul line. They made 10 straight at one point in the closing minutes, putting a tidy bow on one final Big 12 championship.

“The Big 12 has been a phenomenal league and it will continue to be a phenomenal league,” Alden said. “You want to have opportunities, but we never would have had a chance like this if it wasn’t for the Big 12. So for us, going forward, it’s something that we are just appreciative of the opportunity to be associated with a great league.”

— Associated Press —

They know they’ll never win a Big 12 regular-season championship. A one-point overtime loss at Kansas last month settled that.

So as the No. 5 Missouri Tigers head out the door to the Southeastern Conference, they’re chasing the Big 12 tournament title as a way of waving a not-so-fond farewell to Big 12 brethren resentful of the way they helped turn the conference upside down.

Thursday night, Oklahoma State paid the price.

Kim English scored 21 of his 27 points in the first 20 minutes and set in motion the Tigers’ 88-70 thrashing in the Big 12 quarterfinals.

“We want this as bad as we wanted the Big 12,” said English, who’s been engaging Kansas coach Bill Self and Kansas fans in verbal back-and-fourth jousting this week. “That’s why our loss (at Kansas) hurt so bad. It was the Big 12 championship game. We just want to win a championship. It’s not a chip on our shoulder.”

English led a 26-5 first-half run, Marcus Denmon added 24 points and Phil Pressey had 12 assists, one short of a school record for the Tigers (28-4).

Many fans are hoping for a showdown with archrival and No. 3 Kansas in the title game Saturday.

“We are in Kansas City, Missouri,” said Denmon, a KC native. “This is home for me. Missouri fans come out well, too.”

The Tigers outrebounded the Cowboys (15-18) 40-20.

“We were slow motion,” Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said. “They were fast motion.”

The game-seizing run in the first half, Ford said, started with Missouri’s defense.

“Their defense was just stifling. They played with such great energy. We were tired. I could see it. They’re a veteran, experienced, physically tough basketball team. They might not be the tallest team, but they are a physical team. We’re just the opposite. We’re young. And they were playing to their strengths. Their defense led to offense.”

English had 21 of his points in the rapid-fire first half that ended with Missouri on top 49-24. Denmon, a two-time All-Big 12 guard, had 17 points in the second half.

Keiton Page had 22 points for Oklahoma State, and Brian Williams had 21.

“We fought adversity against one of the best teams in America that was playing great,” Ford said. “When they’re playing to their strength, there are not many teams better in this country.”

It was 6-all when English drilled a long 3-pointer and set the rout in motion as the Tiger overwhelmed one of the four teams that beat them in the regular season. English had 10 points in a 15-0 spree to stake the Tigers to a 21-6 lead.

With 3:08 left in the half, English had 21 points and had personally outscored the Cowboys, who trailed 41-17 after English grabbed Matt Pressey’s pass and dropped it through the net for his ninth field goal. Phil Pressey at that point had eight assists and five steals in just 6 minutes.

Denmon, a two-time All-Big 12 guard, scored 13 straight points for the Tigers in the second half, getting a three-point play and then knocking in 3-point shots on each of the next two possessions to make it 70-41.

After Cezar Guerrero scored for the outclassed Cowboys, Denmon soared high to flush down a teammate’s miss and then, after an Oklahoma State miss, made it 74-43 with his ninth basket.

But then Page, the Cowboys’ career 3-point leader, hit two 3s and ignited a 17-3 counter punch by the Cowboys. Another 3-pointer from Page was followed by baskets from Marek Soucek and Guerrero, slicing it to 77-60 and prompting Missouri to call a timeout with 6:11 to go.

Thousands of fans, even some dressed in Kansas blue and Missouri gold, gave Page a standing ovation when he was removed from the game with 48 seconds to go.

By the end of the lopsided first half, Tigers fans were just leaning back and laughing. Andrew Jones, a tight end attending school on a football scholarship, drew a roar when he sank a free throw to make it 45-18. The 6-foot-5 senior had scored only four points all year after answering coach Frank Haith’s call for a big body to bang around and lend depth to a thin front line. Jones added another free throw with 40 seconds left.

Michael Dixon had 13 points for Missouri, which shot 66.7 percent in the first half and 59 percent for the game.

“Our intensity level was very high,” Haith said. “These guys fought hard.”

— Associated Press —

Missouri seemed to be caught up in the emotions of senior night Wednesday, its porous defense allowing a flurry of 3-pointers by Iowa State that had the Tigers (No. 8 ESPN/USA Today, No. 7 AP) trailing for most of the game.

But when Missouri’s Steve Moore dived to corral a rebound midway through the second half, it provided a spark the Tigers would capitalize on en route to a 78-72 victory that clinched the No. 2 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament.

Moore’s pass found Michael Dixon who then made a half-court pass to Kim English for an easy layup with 12:12 remaining that gave Missouri a 53-52 lead, its first since 8:50 left in the first half.

“I don’t know if we were winning the effort game, and that play right there was a sign of us getting back to who we are,” Missouri coach Frank Haith said. “And that was a hell of a play.”

“You just want to get a little window where you can get a little cushion,” English said.

Dixon scored 21 points to lead five Missouri players in double figures.

Dixon’s driving layup with 3:36 left gave Missouri (26-4, 13-4) a 66-64 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Marcus Denmon followed with a 3-pointer and Phil Pressey had a steal and layup with 1:23 remaining to cap a 7-0 run for the Tigers.

It was Missouri’s 13th Big 12 win, the most in school history as it prepares to leave for the Southeastern Conference next season. Finishing in second place would be the Tigers’ best regular-season performance since coach Norm Stewart’s final season, 1998-99.

But Haith won’t allow his team to look past the next game, insisting on maintaining the same “process” that’s produced consistent success this season, his first at Missouri. But the team clearly looked relieved after the game, with many seniors grabbing the stadium’s microphone to thank their families while English and Denmon walked into the postgame news conference with blow-up cutouts of their heads.

Missouri entered the game on its first two-game losing streak of the season, including an emotional 87-86 overtime loss at No. 3 Kansas on Saturday.

“We want to give these guys a win every time we step out on the floor,” Dixon said, “not just on senior night.”

English quickly added that Dixon and Pressey are the only non-seniors playing this season for Missouri.

Scott Christopherson scored eight points in the final minute, including a 3-pointer with 25.5 seconds remaining to close the deficit to 76-72. Dixon added two free throws with 15 seconds left.

Royce White led Iowa State (21-9, 11-6) with 20 points and nine assists.

Cyclones coach Fred Hoiberg thought his team played more aggressively in the first half but lost its rhythm once the Tigers put bigger defenders on White.

“There’s some things we could have done better,” White said. “Personally, I turned the ball over way too much. I just have to be strong and realize that we’re not going to get as many calls on the road. We did the best we could and we look forward to seeing them again.”

Iowa State continued its hot shooting from behind the arc, draining 12 3-pointers after entering the game leading the Big 12 by averaging 8.9 per game. The Cyclones hit six in the first half and led 40-36 at halftime after trailing 7-0 to start the game.

After Missouri’s early lead, Bubu Palo’s layup with 8:50 remaining in the first half gave the Cyclones a 22-21 lead they kept until Dixon made a half-court pass to English for an easy layup with 12:12 left in the game.

Christopherson had 15 points for the Cyclones, who lost for the ninth consecutive time to Missouri. The team shot only 39 percent from the field, but kept pace with the Tigers by taking 15 more shots from the field.

Iowa State held a 39-28 advantage on the boards, its seventh consecutive game outrebounding an opponent.

Ricardo Ratliffe added 16 points for Missouri and Pressey had four assists, giving him 183 for the season and breaking the tie with Anthony Peeler for most in a season for Missouri.

The Tigers honored their eight-man senior class before the game, complete with fireworks that caused a delay early in the first half when residue needed to be mopped off the court. The class has won 103 games, most of any in school history.

“It’s the end of a chapter,” Haith said. “These guys have had some special moments over four years and I’m just proud that I’ve been able to come along for the ride this last year.”

— Associated Press —