The University of Missouri and its multimedia rights holder, Mizzou Sports Properties, signed a five-year deal with Cumulus Media, Inc. to keep the Tigers on Cumulus radio affiliates in mid-Missouri.

Missouri football and basketball games,Retro Football Shirts, along with “Tiger Talk,” will continue on KFRU 1400 AM and KBXR 102.3 FM in Columbia through 2010.

Missouri athletics in Columbia have been on Cumulus stations since 1926, making it one of the longest affiliate relationships in the country.

ROCK BRIDGE TENNIS: The Bruins’ boys’ tennis match at Hannibal was rained out Tuesday.

Rock Bridge held the lead in every singles match, but they were called due to the weather conditions. The doubles matches were not played.

Rock Bridge coach Ben Loeb said it’s uncertain whether the dual meet will be completed.

HICKMAN GOLF: The Kewpies placed second in a triangular golf meet at Rockhurst on Tuesday.

Rockhurst shot a 293 to win the meet, and Hickman finished with 308. Blue Springs shot 328.

Kyle Kovar’s 75 led Hickman. Other Kewpies included D.J. Chung (76), Chris Johnson (78),Sevilla shirt, Josh Brady (79) and Drew Wier (80).

Patrick Roth from Rockhurst was the medalist with a score of 72. The schools played 18 holes with par at 71.

STEROIDS: The NBA and NHL were among six groups that turned over documents about their drug-testing policies to the congressional committee looking into steroids in sports.

The House Government Reform Committee had set Tuesday as a deadline for getting information about drug programs and test results. Major League Soccer, the ATP, USA Track & Field and the U.S. Soccer Federation responded in time, while USA Cycling asked for and was granted an extension because of a snowstorm near its headquarters.

The NFL was given until last Friday and turned in its documents then.

“Committee investigators are reviewing these documents,Bayern Munich shirt, and they are continuing to examine the documents received from the NFL on Friday,” committee chairman Tom Davis of Virginia and ranking Democrat Henry Waxman of California said in a statement. “We will withhold comment until our review of documents is complete.”

In letters sent to the various sports,Santos shirt, the committee asked for information such as the number of drug tests each year, the number of positive results and which substances are tested for.

Big plays, big calls and combinations of the two were the determining factors in Missouri’s win Saturday against Colorado.

The Tigers won 17-9, snapping a five-game losing streak against the Buffaloes, but for the second straight year controversial calls by the officials and penalties were integral to the outcome.

Before Saturday, Missouri was the second-least penalized team in the Big 12 Conference,Italy football shirt, with 14 penalties for 89 yards. The Tigers will drop in that category after committing seven penalties for 70 yards, all in the first half.

“We had some penalties, (problems with) the kicking game,Kaizer Chiefs shirt, and just things that you just don’t do,” coach Gary Pinkel said. “I’m disappointed when I see things like that. I want penalties and the kicking game, I want all those things to work with perfection.”

Colorado also struggled to avoid mistakes, with seven penalties for 45 yards. The Buffaloes had some difficult penalties on offense that created third and long situations and gave the Tigers second chances on defense.

One of Colorado’s biggest mistakes came on the first drive of the game, when Missouri failed to convert on third and goal, but Buffalo linebacker Jason Ackerman was called for holding in the end zone. The penalty put Missouri on Colorado’s 3-yard line and tailback Damien Nash ran the ball for a touchdown on the next play.

“We definitely hurt ourselves,” Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt said. “We had some big plays that got taken back, and there were some little things that we need to pay more attention to the details and correct those.”

Nash said mistakes and what he said were questionable calls affected both teams.

“There were a lot of penalties that probably shouldn’t have gone against us and there were some penalties that also hurt us,Retro Football Shirts,” Nash said. “We just have to avoid those things and as much as we avoid them the game is going to be played better.”

The most controversial penalty against Missouri came in the second quarter when the Tigers had first and 10 on their own 41-yard line. Quarterback Brad Smith threw a deep pass down the sideline to wide receiver Sean Coffey, who caught the ball and would have scored a touchdown, but was called for pass interference. After the game Pinkel and the Missouri players questioned the call.

“I had a real good look at that and I have to take that up with the officials,” Pinkel said.

Coffey redeemed himself in the third, though,Benfica shirt, turning a six-yard pass to the sideline from Smith into a 51-yard touchdown, beating his man and receiving a block from tight end Martin Rucker that freed him to run to the end zone.

“It’s just nice to see him come back and make that big play,” Pinkel said. “I thought that was huge.”

Missouri’s ability to overcome penalties and Colorado’s inability to do so was the difference between this year’s game and last year’s, when Colorado won 21-16. The Tigers crumbled in critical situations in that game and could not overcome plays like one on which a run by Smith that looked like a touchdown was ruled a fumble.

Pinkel said he talked in team meetings this week about the need to make big plays. Missouri’s response to that challenge was the difference in the game.

“I thought it was a pretty good gut check for our football team against a very good team,” Pinkel said.

LAWRENCE, Kan. Like father, like son? Deshaun Sands can only hope.

The University of Kansas freshman knows if he’s going to follow in his father’s footsteps, he’d better step lively and he’d better step fast. In the Jayhawks’ game against archrival Missouri back in 1991, ol’ dad,Glasgow Rangers shirt, Tony Sands, carried the ball an NCAA-record 58 times for 396 yards No. 2 in NCAA annals.

Now Deshaun Sands is ready to begin his own career as a Jayhawk running back, beginning Saturday night in the season opener against North Dakota State.

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Tony Sands was an undersized running back for the Jayhawks from 1988-91 and on Saturday he’ll be in the stands watching as his son begins his career. He earned the nickname “Tuxedo” by showing up for games in formal attire.

“Man, I just get goose bumps thinking about it,” Deshaun Sands said. “I’m going to be out in front of 50,000 fans, my first time, I’m just nervous.”

Deshaun Sands will likely split playing time with sixth-year senior Angus Quigley, who is back atop the depth chart after playing linebacker this season. Kansas’ leading rusher from 2009, sophomore Toben Opurum, switched to linebacker in mid-August and the Jayhawks lost junior running back Rell Lewis to a season-ending injury around the same time.

The openings in the depth chart gave Deshaun Sands a shot at a larger role in the offense.

The differences between Quigley and Deshaun Sands are obvious. At 6-foot-1-inch, 231 pounds, Quigley is a big, powerful back. Deshaun Sands is built more like his dad at 5-foot-7-inches, 190 pounds.

“They’re different backs, there’s no question about that as far as their style of running,” coach Turner Gill said. “I think we want to get a sense on the field for both of them in a football game.”

Deshaun Sands compares his style to his father’s quick and low to the ground.

“I play a lot like him,” Deshaun Sands said. “We don’t have the same attributes, but you can see on the film that he played a lot like me. He was able to get through the holes and find space to move.”

Gill said nothing about using Quigley and Deshaun Sands in specific situations. In practice, they’ve both gotten the same repetitions on the same plays.

Besides the contrast in style, Quigley and Deshaun Sands have had different mentalities through practice, senior offensive lineman Brad Thorson said. Quigley, a team captain in his sixth year, has been focused on developing the team as a whole while Deshaun Sands came into camp trying to prove he deserved a spot near the top of the depth chart.

“Angus carries himself as a sixth-year guy would, and Deshaun carries himself as a redshirt freshman,” Thorson said. “He wants to prove a lot to us.”

Just taking the field this weekend after sitting out last year with a redshirt is a dream come true for Deshaun Sands. But he won’t be satisfied with simply playing the occasional down. His goal through the whole offseason has been earning a central role in the offense.

“I think a lot of people expected him to be a situational back,Paris Saint Germain shirt,” Thorson said. “But that’s not what he wants to be. Deshaun wants to be an every-down type of guy.”

At least for Saturday, he’ll be sharing most of the on-field duties with Quigley. True freshmen Brandon Bourbon and James Sims may get playing time as well.

“We’re going to take it week-by-week,Retro Football Shirts, and we’re going to play the best guys,” Gill said. “Whoever gives us the best chance of being successful, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Whether that means a competition for the top spot or not, it hasn’t stopped Quigley from reaching out to Deshaun Sands.

“We’ve been having talks through the weekend. He’s been asking me if I’m ready,Birmingham shirt,” Deshaun Sands said. “I mean, 50,000 people. Who wouldn’t be ready for that?”

COLUMBIA In preseason practices, the offense and defense compete in scrimmages to wear the black jerseys. But more and more Tigers are wearing a less-coveted jersey as preseason camp progresses.

On Friday, seven players wore the red jerseys of an injured player, keeping them off the practice field and making injuries an unwanted distraction at Devine Pavilion 13 days before the Tigers’ Sept. 4 game against Illinois.

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The injuries have hit in the wide receiver position the hardest. Jerrell Jackson, the team’s top receiver coming into 2010, broke a bone in his wrist on Aug. 11. The injury required surgery to insert a screw into the scaphoid bone, and the Houston native will likely be out for the majority of Missouri’s nonconference schedule.

Two of Jackson’s backups in his slot wide receiver position,Retro Football Shirts, redshirt freshman Kerwin Sticker and true freshman Jimmie Hunt, also wore red jerseys on Friday.

Missouri started practices this summer with bevy of young, talented, but ultimately untested wide receivers. But injuries to three of the four slot wide receivers is forcing competition and giving freshman an opportunity to earn playing time.

Since the injury to Jackson, freshman wide receiver Bud Sasser has impressed at both the outside and slot wide receiver positions, and redshirt freshman receiver L’Damian Washington has supplanted Rolandis Woodland as the Tigers’ primary big-play receiver.

“There’s a lot of competition. What they’re trying to do, they’re trying to work through this and fight through this whole thing,Lazio shirt,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said.

Now,Valencia shirt, Pinkel would certainly prefer to not have the injuries to talented players, but he sees the upside to the predicament.

“Can you raise yourself above where (you’re) one of the top-three (you’re) one of the top-six, to get yourself in at two-deep (on the depth chart),” Pinkel said. “That competition is really good. We have two freshmen (Sasser and Washington) who are doing really well, and we’ll see how that comes out.”

Another position of depth for the Tigers has been hit hard by injuries as well. The Tigers started the preseason with five ready-to-start linebackers, but a season-ending knee injury to outside linebacker Donovan Bonner and a pesky hamstring injury to middle linebacker Will Ebner has stretched the linebacking core thin.

While the Tigers’ wide receivers have more opportunities to play, the linebackers are struggling to fill the voids left by Bonner and Ebner.

“We need Ebner back,” Pinkel said. “He’s an emotional leader. He’s a guy who makes hits, creates plays. All the things that he creates out therethat cranks up enthusiasm.”

But football is a violent game, and injuries are as much a part of a season as touchdowns and turnovers. Pinkel refuses to compare the injuries in 2010 to any other season he’s been in charge at Missouri.

“Honestly, one thing I have never, ever done is get caught up in injuries,” Pinkel said. “I just don’t do it.

“Nobody cares. Bottom line, they’re not going to asterisk a game or season.”

“‘Well, if Blaine wouldn’t have gotten hurt last year, we could have won two more games,’” Pinkel said sarcastically. “Bottom line, you got to play through it. No excuses.”

Dave Christensen is staying at Missouri, for now.

The Tigers’ offensive coordinator withdrew his name from contention for the Central Michigan head football coach position on Wednesday.

“I am grateful to Central Michigan for the consideration they have given me,Dortmund shirt, but I am committed to the University of Missouri and our kids,” Christensen said in a release.

Christensen mentioned an “exciting future” for the football team and his family enjoying Columbia as reasons he decided to withdraw his name.

Christensen interviewed with Dave Heeke,Paris Saint Germain shirt, Central Michigan’s athletic director, and another school representative on Dec. 17 in Kansas City. He said a day after the interview that he had a good visit, but he wasn’t told how he did or who the other candidates were.

“I wish Central Michigan nothing but the best, but the search process was taking long enough to where I feel it is now time to move forward,” Christensen said.

Christensen is in his sixth year as offensive coordinator at Missouri. Though the Tigers lost to Oregon State 39-38 in the Sun Bowl on Friday, Christensen had one of his better games as the team’s play caller. The Tigers set a Sun Bowl record with 561 yards of total offense and the team used multiple trick plays including tight end Chase Coffman’s touchdown-pass to wide receiver Tommy Saunders and directly snapping the ball to receiver Jared Perry and tight end Martin Rucker.

Missouri returns eight starters on offense next season including Chase Daniel,Retro Football Shirts, Tony Temple, Will Franklin and Coffman. The only starters the Tigers lose are receiver Brad Ekwerekwu and offensive lineman Mike Cook and Joel Clinger.

Brian Kelly, Central Michigan’s coach during the regular season, became Cincinnati’s head coach on Dec. 4. The Chippewas beat Middle Tennessee State 31-14 in the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 26. Jeff Quinn,Kaizer Chiefs shirt, Kelly’s associate head coach, was the interim coach for the bowl game.

Brenna Schlader grew up playing soccer, softball and basketball. She knew nothing about volleyball, though, until her freshman year at West Junior High.

“My mom was like, ‘Hey, that looks like a fun sport,’” Schlader said. “So I went out for it, and I really liked it. It was kind of different because I had never been in a public school before, so I was like, ‘Whoa, there are tall girls, too.’”

Schlader, a 6-foot-3 senior at Hickman, was tired of playing soccer and had played softball only for fun. She continued to play basketball, but Schlader’s competitive side also enjoyed her new sport.

“West helped me a lot,” Schlader said. “To know that you need a bump, set and hit to get the ball over. I was like, ‘Bump, what’s a bump.’ Then I caught on to it, and by the end of the year I was pumped about it.”

Hickman coach Greg Gunn said Schlader is a hard worker and is dedicated to improving.

The Kewpies (32-1) play Marquette (29-4-2) in a sectional game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Rolla,Bordeaux shirt, with the winner advancing to the quarterfinal match at 6.

Playing club ball in the summer has been key to Schlader’s improvement. Schlader joined the Vipers, a local club team, after her freshman year.

This past year, Schlader and teammates Paige Ely, Sharin Muskrat, Danielle Newton, Alex Ristow and Naomi Tesfamikael were members of the Vipers and won a gold medal at the Show-Me State Games.

“(Club ball) has made the whole difference,” Gunn said. “They’ve played together for a whole year,Retro Football Shirts, and they have a great coach. She worked with them on individual stuff as well as team goals.”

In addition to playing club ball last summer, Schlader attended a volleyball camp at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. The Southeast coaches had never heard of Schlader before the camp began.

“Their camp was June 4,” Schlader said. “So they had never really heard of me. Vipers is a small club team, so we never go to big tournaments like nationals, and none of the bigger schools had heard of me.”

Although Schlader began the camp as an unknown, she impressed the coaches and left with a scholarship offer. She later committed to SEMO and will sign her letter of intent when the national signing period begins in November.

Schlader chose SEMO over Austin Peay in Cookeville, Tenn., and small colleges in Louisiana, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

“I really liked their school and I had heard a lot of good things about it,” Schlader said. “I liked that it was in the OVC (Ohio Valley Conference). My brother plays in that,Valencia shirt, so I can go down and see him play. Austin Peay was recruiting me very highly. They were really disappointed when I told them I was going to SEMO.”

Schlader said Austin Peay recruited her without seeing her play a game based on reports from her brother, Zac, a sophomore center on the Governor’s basketball team.

Before Schlader chose SEMO, several schools,Werder Bremen shirt, including Illinois, SEMO, Weber State and Wyoming recruited her for basketball.

Schlader said Wyoming was recruiting her the hardest and that she visited its campus while traveling with the Hustlers, a basketball club team.

Even with the attention she drew in basketball, she enjoys volleyball and has no plans to play both at SEMO.

“I don’t want to play two sports,” Schlader said. “I’ve thought about it all summer. But it seems kind of stressful and my heart is into volleyball. I really enjoy basketball, but I don’t think I could do both for four years.”

The coaches at SEMO told Schlader she can improve her blocking and arm swing. In addition to those areas, Schlader said she would like to improve her passing so she can play a full rotation in college.

Gunn said Schlader has improved in all areas of her game in the past year, but there is room for growth.

“I don’t think she has really grown into her body,” Gunn said. “She is going to get more strength and coordination as she works out more.”

Schlader knows there will be an adjustment to make to prepare for college volleyball and said her future SEMO teammates have told her the preseason practices are the hardest part.

Even facing that adjustment, Schlader said that she thinks she has an advantage heading into next season by playing against tough competition every day at Kewpies’ practices.

“When I go to a Division I school, it won’t be as hard to work my way up there,” Schlader said. “Because I’m already there. I’ve already worked myself up. It will be different because they won’t know what I can do.”

NORMAN, Okla. Interim Big 12 Commissioner Chuck Neinas said Saturday the conference has no plans to expand further before next season, though that doesn’t mean a move back to 12 teams couldn’t happen eventually.

Leaders of the conference’s schools have been divided over whether the league is best with 10 schools, where it settled after losing Nebraska and Colorado before this season, or finding a way to expand back to 12.

With Texas A&M and possibly Missouri headed to the Southeastern Conference, the Big 12 has added West Virginia and Texas Christian University this year in an attempt to stabilize.

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“We’ve got to get our house in order. We’re pretty good with 10 or, if Missouri stays, 11,” Neinas said Saturday after helping with the unveiling of a statue of former Sooners coach Barry Switzer across the street from Oklahoma’s Owen Field.

“We’ll be very strong and solidified, and then once you get that,Napoli shirt, you do your homework first and everything else takes care of itself.”

Neinas said the Big 12 expansion committee hasn’t met since deciding last week to add West Virginia instead of Big East rival Louisville.

“The expansion committee will continue to look at the landscape of college athletics and at some point will make a determination what they feel is the best size for the conference,” Neinas said.

Neinas refused to comment extensively on the status of Missouri, which the Big 12 left off its list of 10 teams expected to compete in the conference next season when it added West Virginia. The SEC also inadvertently posted on its website last week that Missouri had been admitted to the league, then had to step back from that premature announcement.

“We would anticipate that might happen, but … it’s a work in progress,” Neinas said when asked about the Tigers being left off the list of Big 12 teams for next season.

When asked about a time frame for Missouri’s decision to stay or go, Neinas said: “Selfishly, I hope sooner rather than later.”

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the game between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, declined comment on Missouri.

“That’s for another day,Juventus shirt,” he said.

Neinas also said the Big 12 is considering whether it could create a network in collaboration of the schools other than Texas and Oklahoma. Texas already has its own Longhorn Network, and Oklahoma is planning one of its own.

“That would be basically a network that could serve the members that don’t have their own institutional-branded networks. We would have a nice inventory to put together, and we’re exploring that,” Neinas said.

Neinas said the league is not contractually allowed to call its channel the Big 12 Network but it could find another name for it. It’s also unclear what, if any, content related to Texas and Oklahoma could appear on the channel.

“We’re not that far along,Benfica shirt,” Neinas said. “We’re just getting started to see if we can. We’ve got to work on a format, a business plan, all of that first.”

Neinas also said Texas Tech was considered a logical fit to replace Texas A&M as the annual Thanksgiving opponent for Texas but “that has not been finalized.”

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.”

Missouri senior Janae Strickland failed to reach the women’s shot put finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento,Football shirts, Calif., finishing 15th in Thursday’s preliminaries.

In her final meet as a Tiger,Retro Football Shirts, Strickland’s threw 50 feet, one-half inch in her third and final throw.

Kristin Heaton of Nike had the best throw of the preliminaries at 58-10. The top 12 marks earned spots in the finals.

Ray Hughes,Lazio shirt, a 1998 Missouri graduate,Sevilla shirt, also did not qualify for the Olympic team, finishing ninth in the 3000-meter steeplechase finals in 8:28.64. Daniel Lincoln of Nike won in 8:15:02.

COLUMBIA Getting Kim English to leave the gym is like getting a 5-year-old to leave the play place at a fast-food restaurant.

Good luck.

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You better have a convincing bribe to yank that child out of the wonderland of ball pits and weaving tunnels. And if you dont want English to throw a fit, you ought to have a darn good reason for asking him to step off the basketball court, his personal paradise.

A sophomore guard on the Missouri mens basketball team, English developed into one of the Tigers most intriguing personalities last season after word got out that English sometimes slept in the locker room at Mizzou Arena in order to get in more practice shots.

Until recently, English also made the arena his home on game days well before the rest of his teammates arrived. He stayed at the arena during the hours between the teams morning shootaround and the game.

“I used to be on the court two hours early before the game,Lazio shirt, 45 minutes before were supposed to be here,” English said. “Then I would go do like 100 shots with one of the managers, a lot of repetition, a lot of the stuff I thought I would be doing during the game. But, I could feel my legs getting tired when the game would first start. It would work sometimes, and it wouldnt (others). I wasnt consistent.”

Englishs shooting had been particularly poor since the start of Big 12 Conference play. Struggling through a lengthening slump, English shot 2-for-9 against Nebraska while airballing one shot and clanking another off the side of the backboard, earning himself a seat on the bench for almost the entire second half.

He then shot 3-for-13 in Missouris blowout loss at Kansas.

So, English changed his routine. He abandoned the pregame custom he has used since the Black and Gold game his freshman year.

Instead of holing himself up inside Mizzou Arena for hours and hours before the Tigers game against Oklahoma State on Jan. 30, English made a late-night trip to the arena the night before the game with assistant coach T.J. Cleveland. After making about 100-150 shots, English called it a night and headed to the team hotel.

“He comes in before curfew and gets a couple of shots up, doesnt wear himself out. Just gets a few shots up and sees the ball go in before he goes to bed, gets to dream about it going in,” Cleveland said, smiling.

For his new night-before routine, English and Cleveland get to the arena at about 9:30 p.m. and stay until 10:45 p.m. Cleveland said he got the idea from Jannero Pargo,Retro Football Shirts, an NBA player with the Chicago Bulls who teamed with Cleveland at Arkansas.

“Its just one of those things as a former player and now as a coach, you kind of see a guy who just needs to change things up, especially a shooter,” Cleveland said. “Anything to get him going.”

It worked. English made four 3-pointers and scored 20 after trying Pargos routine before the Oklahoma State game. He scored 15 the next game and had 21 points on Saturday against Colorado.

“Hes a guy whos so eager to play all the time and amped up before games, I just told him to kind of relax a little bit,” Cleveland said. “..Coach (Mike) Anderson always kind of tells Kimmie to take some time off because hes a workaholic.”

Now,Napoli shirt, English leaves the arena after shootarounds on game day mornings to clear his mind. Kind of.

“I just go home and watch some basketball,Inter Milan shirt,” he said. “Just get my mind off of our game and get back up here like hour-and-a-half before the game starts and then take my time getting out there.

“Other than pregame shooting, I dont touch the ball until about an hour before the game. I just get a lot of easy shots up.”

Although English said hell stand by it, Cleveland knows that with shooters like English, a routine is as good as the results it produces.

“As long as it keeps working for him,” Cleveland said. “Whatever makes him comfortable.”