THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: Where do you project the Missouri basketball team to finish in the Big 12 standings this year, and will it be enough for them to make the NCAA tournament?

BERNIE MIKLASZ
The Big 12 is tough to read. With Kansas rebuilding, there’s a lot of parity. Oklahoma and Texas figure to be the class of the conference, with Baylor as a sleeper. Mizzou is in a big group of teams hoping to emerge to claim fourth place, or perhaps No. 3. It really depends on MU’s consistency, and frankly, I haven’t seen much steadiness from a Mike Anderson team. Mizzou will do better but still finish sixth and fall off the bubble as a contender for the NCAA Tournament.

VAHE GREGORIAN
MU is much-improved and should be able to take advantage of a conference in flux to be able to move up from 10th a year ago to the upper-half this season. After going 13-2 in non-conference play, making the NCAA Tournament could come down to the difference between, say, going 9-7 and 10-6 in the Big 12. To do that, MU will need a fast start since it faces a rugged final stretch that includes Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and two games with Kansas among their final 10. Gut feeling is MU goes 9-7 to fall just outside an NCAA bid.

TOM TIMMERMANN
There are enough good teams in the Big 12 that I don’t see Mizzou beating. They look to me like the seventh best team in the Big 12, the top team in the second division, but that should be good enough in the Big 12 to get an NCAA berth. Oh the beauties of playing in a power conference.

STU DURANDO
The Tigers have good nonconference wins over USC and California, and the Big 12 schedule could work in their favor. They don’t have to play at Oklahoma or Baylor but can bolster their case by beating both at home. However, the Big 12 doesn’t rate highly in the conference RPI, and I see Mizzou being one of several teams trying to grab a spot in the closing weeks.

JEFF GORDON
Joe Lunardi, the ESPN bracketologist, punches the NCAA Tournament numbers every week. Right now he has the Tigers as the sixth-best Big 12 team. Right now he has them getting into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed. But will this conference get six bids with the Big East hogging so many spots? I wonder. Mizzou may have to be one of the five best conference teams to make it. And right now, the Tigers aren’t quite there yet.

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MIDDAY NEWS AND THOUGHTS

AIN’T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD: The 2008 NFL All-Pro team was announced today. Surprisingly, no St. Louis Rams were included on the first team. OK, I’m being facetious. Afterall, how many All-Pros would one expect from a 2-14 team? Well, actually there was one that I thought would make it, and that was punter Donnie Jones, who averaged an NFL-best 50 yards per punt this season. Jones became only the second punter in NFL history to average at least 50 yards per punt. Jones, was however, named to the “second team” in All-Pro voting, with Oakland’s Shane Lechler being the first-teamer. Last month Jones also was snubbed by not making the Pro-Bowl team. No matter how you slice it, I say Jones got jobbed.

MACLIN GOING PRO: It’s a sad day for Mizzou fans but a good day for Jeremy Maclin as the super-talented WR has announced he’s headed to the NFL draft after only two seasons of college football. Maclin was a sensational college talent and many project him to be a first-round selection in April’s draft. An instant ticket to stardom? Not necessarily. In fact, the NFL is littered with busts chosen at WR in the first round.

To make my case I decided to survey five consecutive NFL drafts. Generally, they say a WR doesn’t hit his full stride in the NFL until he’s playing in his third season so I withheld judgment on those who haven’t reached that criteria and excluded the 2007 and 2008 drafts. So I went back to 2002 through 2006 … meaning every WR listed here has been in the NFL at least three years. Due to injuries, poor play, etc., they may not have actually “played” three full years, but hey, if you draft a guy in the first round you expect him to play.

So, below you’ll see the year of the draft followed by the number of years the player has been in the NFL. Under that you’ll see where the player was selected in the first round/his number of career receptions/career receiving yards/TDs. I’ll let you do the math on how much that averages out to each season of their careers if you desire to do so, but these numbers will pretty much speak for themselves. Here we go:

2002 Draft (7 years in league)

No. 13 — Donte Stallworth, 296 receptions, 4,383 yards, 32 TDs
No. 19 — Ashley Lelie, 217, 3,749, 15
No. 20 — Javon Walker, 267, 4,011, 31

2003 Draft (6 years in league)

No. 2 — Charles Rogers, 36 receptions, 440 yards, 4 TDs
No. 3 — Andre Johnson, 486, 6,379, 33
No. 17 — Bryant Johnson, 255, 3,221, 12

2004 Draft (5 years in league)

No. 3 — Larry Fitzgerald, 426 receptions, 5,975 yards, 46 TDs
No. 7 — Roy Williams, 281, 4,082, 30
No. 9 — Reggie Williams, 189, 2,322, 18
No. 13 — Lee Evans, 296, 4,744, 32
No. 15 — Michael Clayton, 205, 2,706, 9
No. 29 — Michael Jenkins, 185, 2,372, 17
No. 31 — Rashaun Woods, 7, 160, 1

2005 Draft (4 years in league)

No. 3 — Braylon Edwards, 228 receptions, 3,558 yards, 28 TDs
No. 7 — Troy Williamson, 84, 1,097, 4
No. 10 — Mike Williams, 44, 539, 2
No. 22 — Mark Clayton, 200, 2,636, 10
No. 27 — Roddy White, 230, 3,536, 16

2006 Draft (3 years in league)

No. 25 — Santonio Holmes, 156 receptions, 2,587 yards, 15 TDs

Of course all of us can look at different players and have differing opinions on their values, but the numbers don’t lie. What I see here is that out of 19 first-round WR draft picks in these five drafts, there are just two justifiable stars — Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. I’d put a second tier of WRs behind them that would include Roy Williams, Lee Evans and maybe Braylon Edwards. Roddy White had a breakout year this season (83, 1,202, 6), but his body of work over four seasons is unimpressive. Oh, and how about Charles Rogers at No. 2 in 2003 and Mike Williams at No. 10 in 2005? OUCH! And both chosen by Detroit. Double-OUCH!

Bottom line, there’s a lot more misses than hits when it comes to drafting WRs in the first round of the NFL draft. Which side of the line do you think Maclin will fall on?

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SOMETHING TO PONDER

GEEZ, NOT THIS AGAIN: Apparently Brett Favre has decided he’s going to take a month or so before deciding whether or not he’s going to return for another season. He needs “some time away from football” to think about things. Isn’t that great news? For the next month we’ll be constantly bombarded on ESPN and elsewhere with Brett sightings and reports … will he or won’t he? The guy has set so many records, won a Super Bowl, been the MVP, established an incredible legacy … why can’t we just get him to climb into his Wranglers and ride off into the sunset? I think the whole on-again, off-again saga every offseason the past few years does little more than tarnish his legacy in many people’s eyes. It certainly does in mine. So I’m just gonna say it: It’s time to go, Brett.

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TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q: What shortstop holds the major league records for games played, assists and double plays?

A: Ozzie Smith.