COLUMBIA The Show-Me Showdown on Saturday at the Mizzou Aquatic Center was not only the premiere of the 2010 Missouri swimming and diving team but also the debut for its new head coach Greg Rhodenbaugh.

“I was excited to see the team swim against others, not just other members on the team,” Rhodenbaugh said. “I am already pleased with the way the swimmers are thinking.”

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What caught Rhodenbaugh’s attention was that the team was ready to compete and to do well. Both the Missouri men’s and women’s teams won the Show-Me Showdown.

Rhodenbaugh was an assistant coach for the Arizona Wildcats for 11 years before moving to Missouri.

“When I moved from Arizona, I knew it was time. I grew up in the Midwest and was looking for a reason to come back,” Rhodenbaugh said. “Once I was here, I knew I was supposed to be here.”

Not only was Rhodenbaugh excited to see his teams performance, but he also was excited to be reunited with SLU coach Jim Halliburton.

Rhodenbaugh and Halliburton competed and won the U.S. National Championship Relay together in 1983 for the Cincinnati Marlins Club Team.

“It was great to see him again. I’m glad that he got the job, and I think he will do a wonderful job with the Missouri team,” said Halliburton.

Arizona had a championship culture unlike the Missouri swimming and diving team. In 2008 he helped coach the mens and womens national championship teams.

“Over time we had built a championship mentality where everyone expected a lot going into the program … We always had a shot to win and they trained and raced like that,” said Rhodenbaugh. “We had a lot of equipment that was vital to our success. It will take time to get that here. Maybe three to four years to develop a system. But we are figuring it out. It is challenging, but rewarding.”

Arizona has 24 power towers which help condition swimmers, while Mizzou only has three, said Rhodenbaugh.

“It’s hard because only six of our swimmers can use it at once,Glasgow Rangers shirt, where as Arizona’s whole team could use them at the same time,” said Rhodenbaugh, “We are just trying to figure out what other equipment to use to substitute and be able to use in this setting.”

Rhodenbaugh left Arizona for many reasons,Lazio shirt, including that he wanted to “build something.”

“Im looking forward to building up this team. It has a good foundation, but I want to get it to a level that it hasnt been at, which is exciting,” Rhodenbaugh said, “They just dont know what they can be, so we are trying to show them.”

Senior Melissa Jamerson appreciates Rhodenbaugh’s mentality.

“He has a lot of philosophies on how to train,Dortmund shirt,” she said. “Mainly he wants to make us better people, not just swimmers. Everything we do has a purpose; he doesn’t just make us swim back and forth. He pushes us and tells us we can be great and have potential, which makes us push past our boundaries.”

ST. LOUIS The St. Louis Cardinals’ second base experiment made it to Opening Day, even if Skip Schumaker won’t be in the lineup.

The left-handed hitting Schumaker batted .168 against lefties last year and isn’t starting on Monday against the Pirates’ Paul Maholm, against whom he’s 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Brendan Ryan, a right-handed hitter who’s 1-for-7 against Maholm, instead gets the call at both leadoff and second base.

Still, the conversion will ease an overcrowded outfield heading into a four-game series starting Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Even without Schumaker in the mix, there are four outfielders who’ll share playing time Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, Chris Duncan and Colby Rasmus. Schumaker, who batted .302 in his first full season,Retro Football Shirts, was force-fed the job during spring training and got more comfortable and less mechanical as time passed.

“We’ll just have to let the season happen and if he can handle the day-to-day job, that’s great for us,” general manager John Mozeliak said Sunday. “There’s no reason to think he can’t handle it.”

Rookie David Freese expected to be the top fill-in for injured Troy Glaus at third base also will start the season on the bench in manager Tony La Russa’s unusual opening-day lineup. Khalil Greene has 15 career at-bats at cleanup, but that’s where he’ll be in the opener coming off a .408 spring average that was among the NL leaders. Another rookie, Brian Barden, is set to start at third and bat eighth.

The lineup is conventional in one regard, with pitcher Adam Wainwright batting ninth. La Russa had the pitchers batting eighth in every game since the final 56 games of 2007, with the No. 9 hitter serving as a second leadoff man to get more runners on for Pujols.

Wainwright (11-3, 3.20) gets his second try at a first opening day start last year’s start was postponed by rain against Pirates left-hander Paul Maholm (9-9, 3.71).

“We’re far from perfect,” Mozeliak said. “But I still think we’re a pretty good club.”

The Pirates are another story. They enter the season trying to end a string of 16 consecutive losing seasons, tied for the longest such slump in major league history, and with a roster that’s not appreciably different from the 2008 team that finished last in the NL Central at 67-95 last year.

Pittsburgh was 17-15 this spring, a bigger deal because of the struggles.

“You’ve got to start somewhere,Lazio shirt,” manager John Russell said. “In the situation we’re in, a younger team and a team that has a lot of questions from the outside, it is better to win in spring training than lose.

“I wouldn’t say huge momentum, but it’s a nice feeling knowing that we’ve played well.”

Whether they’ll get to play Monday is perhaps the biggest question,Sevilla shirt, with a forecast calling for temperatures in the 30s with snow flurries and high winds. There’s already a contingency plan, a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday in case the opener is postponed.

La Russa wants to avoid that at all costs because the compressed early-season schedule brought on by the World Baseball Classic leaves the Cardinals without a day off until April 20. Typically, the day after opening day is an off-day, but not this year, meaning the Cardinals could need a fill-in starter as early as Saturday.

The weather was much nicer, in the 60s, for Sunday’s workout.

“All I know is it could be zero and we need to play,” La Russa said. “I think we’ll play.”

Pirates manager John Russell, whose team is opening on the road for the fourth straight season, is aboard with that sentiment.

“I remember as a player on opening day, no matter where you’re at you get butterflies,” Russell said. “It’s the one day you do not want to get rained out. We spent the good part of 6-7 weeks to get here and it’s time to go.”

A key to a better start for the Pirates, 10-16 at the end of April in 2008,Wales football shirt, is more contribution early from Adam La Roche. The streaky slugger opened 2008 with two hits followed by an 0-for-25 slump and batted .174 the opening month with one homer and five RBIs.

He finished with 25 homers, 85 RBIs and a .270 average.

“I feel like all I can do is put the work in and give 100 percent on the field,” La Roche said. “I don’t know why it takes a while to get loose.”

COLUMBIA The Missouri womens basketball team isnt taking too kindly to being picked to finish last in the Big 12 Conference for the third consecutive season.

“Its an insult,” Missouri coach Cindy Stein said at the Tigers’ media day Monday at Mizzou Arena. “And were taking it as an insult. I dont know if thats going to put an extra chip,Glasgow Rangers shirt, we already have a chip on our shoulders from last year.”

Last season, the Tigers finished 13-17, winning only four of their 16 conference games. Missouri has other plans for this year.

“I feel great about the team,Valencia shirt,” senior Jessra Johnson said. “I think were going to have a good, exciting season. I cant wait to start it.”

Missouri does have a lot to be excited about. With four starters returning and a roster that includes four seniors, experience is on the Tigers side.

“That helps tremendously because we have a lot of leadership,” junior Shakara Jones said. “Those four starters have played and thats what we have to do. We have to teach these freshman and teach everybody else that we have to play throughout the game in order to get a win.”

This luxury makes Steins job much easier.

“Theyre helping each other out there,” Stein said. Theyre coaching each other a lot. You have coaches on the floor and that helps in every situation.”

But the Tigers lost a lot when Alyssa Hollins graduated. Hollins led Missouri in scoring last season with 13.1 points per game. She also left Missouri as the programs all-time leader in 3-pointers made with 226.

“You cant replace Alyssa Hollins,” Johnson said. “Shes a great player. You just gotta find someone, whoever they may be.”

Stein said she is unsure of who will step up to replace Hollins, but is excited about several players that would be more than capable of excelling in a starting position.

The Tigers will rely heavily on the only two returning double-digit scorers from last season in Johnson (13 points per game) and Jones (10.3). Johnson, a 6-foot-1 forward from Fayette, led the team in double-doubles, rebounds per game, and blocks last season. Jones,Lyon shirt, a forward from St. Charles, led the team in field goal percentage and contributed more than four rebounds a game.

RaeShara Brown, who led the conference in steals and the team in assists last season, and Bekah Mills will also see plenty of court time. The Tigers have a deep bench, returning more than 90 percent of last years squad, Johnson said.

“We gotta lot of returners, so we go through practice a lot easier because were only teaching two people,” Johnson said. “Its a lot of fun whenever youve been playing with each other for so long.”

Incoming freshmen Sydney Crafton of Jefferson City and Trenee Thornton of Kansas City are the Tigers’ only new players.

Stein, Johnson and Jones all agree that this year seems different.

“This years squad has a lot of energy,” Jones said. “Everybodys moving. Were cohesive.”

There seems to be a renewed passion for the team as well.

“I though last years was a really solid work ethic but these guys are putting in even more extra time right now, and thats what you ask for as a coach,” Stein said.

Even with the struggles of the past few seasons, morale and expectations remain high for the Tigers.

“We set the bar where we want to win every game,” Jones said.

Johnson reiterated this lofty goal.

“Come out and win,” Johnson said. “Only thing you can do when youre picked last.”

Stein was even more upbeat.

“We want to finish in the top four (in the Big 12),” Stein said. We want a Big 12 championship.”

Then her message got even more powerful.

“You guys bring your friends because it is going to be an exciting season,AS Roma shirt,” Stein said. “Were going to be the sports story of the year.”

COLUMBIA — “Don’t act like you’re not impressed.”

That was the slogan on the back of a shirt a Harrisburg High School fan was wearing during the boys’ basketball team’s Class 2 semifinal against Clever at Mizzou Arena on Friday night.

The team and the game lived up to that billing as the Bulldogs won 73-67 in a high-paced game that featured 26 lead changes.

Harrisburg coach Steve Combs said the teams were practically mirror images of each other. Both teams featured smaller players and relied on an up-tempo game.

“It was just two teams matched evenly,” Combs said in a press conference after the game.

One notable difference between the two teams is that the Blue Jays only have eight players on their roster and usually only play six while Harrisburg had a deeper bench and used an eight-man rotation.

“I thought we could wear them out,” Harrisburg senior guard Josh Taylor said. However, that wasn’t the case.

“It didn’t look like they would ever get tired,” Taylor said.

Combs wasn’t worried about his players getting tired saying his team plays that tempo everyday in practice.

Taylor led the Bulldogs with 21 points and 12 rebounds. However,Villareal shirt, that wasn’t the first thing he looked at when he saw the box score.

“Dang, I didn’t do good,” Taylor said when he saw the man he was guarding,Inter Milan shirt, Clever senior guard Josh Pope, scored 19 points. Taylor’s 12 rebounds were a big part of the 36-21 rebounding edge for the Bulldogs.

“Coach stresses ‘Rebound, rebound, rebound,’” Taylor said.

Harrisburg won the state title in 2006 and finished third last year. This is only the second trip to the finals in school history.

“I never thought we had a chance to be better than Fisher’s team,Birmingham shirt,” senior guard Taylor Perrigo said. Kyle Fisher was a guard on the 2006 championship team and is currently a sophomore on William Jewell’s basketball team.

Clever led by one point after each of the first three quarters, but a late 8-0 run by the Bulldogs put them in position where all they had to do was make free throws to clinch the game. The Bulldogs were up to the task as they made seven out of nine in the last 1:05 of the game.

Clever sophomore guard Jeremy Dresslaer had 11 points in the first quarter, but was held relatively in check after that. He finished with a team-high 21 points and fouled out with 1:05 left.

“We thought Taylor (Perrigo) was as athletic as him,Porto shirt,” Combs said of the matchup against Dresslaer.

Blue Jays senior forward Bryce Huddleston also had 21 points. Harrisburg junior forward Cory Via had 18 and Perrigo added 15.

Harrisburg will play South Iron of Annapolis for the state championship at 6:10 p.m. Saturday at Mizzou Arena. Clever will play for third against West Platte of Weston at 9:30 p.m.