Lots of good stuff about the game and how Missouri plays the "40 minutes of hell" style that Coach Anderson learned while he was an assistant at Arkansas back in the day. But what really drew my attention were the way Coach B has handled Alec Burks' injury and the attitude he took regarding the loss to Kansas on Wednesday night:
On Burks:
Doctors cleared the Big 12`s top freshman scorer (16.3 ppg) to play against KU, but Bzdelik held him out because his sprained left knee was only "90 percent" healthy.
"I understand where he`s coming from. He`s looking out for my future, and I respect that," Burks said. "He`s a great coach, and I respect everything he does. I just listen to him and believe everything he does will help me out."
On the loss:
"They all hurt," Bzdelik said before Friday`s practice. "But that would have been special, obviously. We can`t be hungover emotionally because we have an excellent Missouri team coming in here."
"It`s only about winning," Bzdelik said when asked if the Buffs turned the corner by taking KU to the wire. "There`s only categories for wins and losses. There is not a 'C` for confidence."
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I can tell you that as a parent (even though my son's about 17 years away from being an All-American in both football and basketball for the Buffs)... I read that and it was very clear to me that I would love to have my son playing for Coach B and being mentored by him for 4 years. And if I was an NBA prospect (or the parent of one), I'd feel 100% confident that Coach B would not take any risks with injuries that could jeopardize my future. It's obvious that the man genuinely cares about his players on top of being focused on winning every time you take the floor. That's all too rare these days.