Sam Houston State Bearkats upset Missouri in the first round of the NIT tournament. We will be playing Drexel on ESPN2 tomorrow (Thursday, 11/17) at 7:00pm. If we win there, we will be playing #1 Duke in Madison Square Garden! Hopefully there are some former Bearkats out there who will check in on the Kats tomorrow night. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/ncaa/11/15/bc.bkc.nit.samhoustonst.ap/index.html 'We're poor, dirt poor' Sam Houston State stuns Missouri in Preseason NIT Posted: Tuesday November 15, 2005 12:40AM; Updated: Tuesday November COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Ryan Bright picked the perfect time to have a career night. The Sam Houston State sophomore made a pair of crucial 3-pointers late in the second half and finished with 28 points Monday night as the Bearkats beat Missouri 80-77 in the opening round of the Preseason NIT. It's the third straight season the Tigers have lost to a lower-tier Division I school. In 2003 it was Belmont. Last season it was Davidson. "The only redeeming thing about it is it's the first game," Missouri coach Quin Snyder said. "I'm stunned with our effort and togetherness." Sam Houston State will face either Drexel or Princeton in the second round of the tournament. Bright's biggest basket was a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left that put the Bearkats up 76-71. He also hit a 3-pointer with 1:52 left that gave the Bearkats the lead for good. Bright was 4-for-5 from behind the arc in the second half and 6-for-7 on the game. He also had seven rebounds and four assists. "I've never shot like that in my life before," Bright said. "Like Kelvin [Williams] said in the locker room, 'I thought the ball had angel wings on it."' Thomas Gardner hit a pair of 3-pointers for Missouri and Jimmy McKinney added another with under a minute left. The Tigers had a chance to tie the game after Sam Houston State's Jejuan Plair missed two free throws with 7.2 seconds left, but Jason Horton's 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short. "Our team hung together when things got tough," Bearkat coach Bob Marlin said. After trailing for more than 16 minutes, the Tigers took the lead with 13:32 left in the game and were ahead 55-50 with 8:37 left. But then Bright came through with another pair of 3-pointers. "We played like a team's that's rich and we're poor, dirt poor," Snyder said. John Gardiner had 11 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Bearkats, who outrebounded Missouri 39-34. "We sucked. That's the only way you can take it," Missouri's Kevin Young said. "We played terrible. I played terrible." Gardner finished with 23, and Marshall Brown added 20 for the Tigers. "It's not time to panic, but it can't happen again," Snyder said. The Bearkats led by as many as 10 in the first half behind Bright, last year's Southland Conference Freshman of the Year. "We hit with the first punch in the first half," Marlin said. Gardner kept Missouri close, scoring eight straight points during a seven-minute span in the first half. Marcus Watkins cut the lead to 32-27 at the half after getting his own rebound and making a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. It's the second straight year Sam Houston State has opened its season at Mizzou Arena. Last year, the Bearkats lost to Houston in the opening round of the Guardians Classic. It's Missouri's third appearance in the Preseason NIT, and Sam Houston State's first. The Tigers lost in the first round of the 1998-1999 tournment and in the championship game in 1988-1989.
Thanks for the info. For some reason I couldn't find out when our next game was and I was freaking out thinking it was tonight. Eat 'em uuuuuuup, Kats.
Seton Hall was beaten by the Dukies by 50 or so (it was 54 when I last looked). No offense to my fellow Southland buddies, but that game with Duke could be brutal. Of course, it'd be awesome just to play them! Go Bearkats!
Yeah I don't think any person in their right mind would go into a possible SHSU vs Duke game thinking we would come out on top. I would just hope for a good game played by Sam Houston and not a total blowout. What else can you expect when a Div II school plays the #1 team in the country.
Not that anyone cares, but... Sam Houston beat another Division I team last night. Sure it was just Southern Miss, but this win, along with the win over Mizzou bodes well for our chances of winning the Southland and getting a spot in March Madness. We're now 6-1 on the year including 2-1 against Division I opponents. Coog fans, look out. We'll see you on Saturday. BTW, here is a pic of our 2nd best player Ryan White. And here is a picture of Alfred E. Neuman.