Before the Big 12 men's basketball tournament started last week, I voiced a hope that my beloved Missouri Tigers would win it. Most folks thought that was fine, if a little delusional. After all, they'd probably have to beat Oklahoma and then Kansas to snatch the trophy.

Then I gave my why: Because Missouri has almost no chance at winning the national title, and it would be nice for the team to win a trophy after the good season they had this year.

That rationale did not sit well with certain folks. All but one of these certain folks happens to be a guy--make of that what you will. Nonetheless, these folks threatened me with removal of my fandom for not believing in my team enough to expect a national title.

This is a macho sort of fandom, largely occupied by folks who think it's perfectly alright (or, at least, not totally wrong) to heckle opposing teams, curse out the refs for "bad" calls, etc. These people seem to believe that their team is always the best, and that the only thing between their team and a championship is some malign force (bad officiating, a curse of some sort or another, etc.).

Now, I like these folks. They're my friends. But they're also crazy. I remember early last fall, when it looked like the Mizzou football team just might make a run for the title. By the middle of October, that goal was dashed. Indeed, the 2008 team was not nearly as good as the 2007 team, despite returning most of the starters from the earlier team. Was I bummed? Sure. But I wasn't about to blame bad officiating or anything else for the fact that Texas scored five touchdowns before my team put points on the board. Sometimes, your team just isn't good enough to win a title. Most of the time, in fact.

Missouri has a good basketball team this year. It's been a long time coming. Even the 2001-2002 edition, which remains the only 12th-seeded team to make a regional final, wasn't as good as this one. I think it's safe to say that the 1993-1994 team, which went 14-0 in the Big 8 in the last year of that conference's existence, was the last Missouri team as good as this one. There's an outside chance that this year's team could make the Final Four. But it would have to go through Memphis and UConn--unless those teams lose early. Of course, Oklahoma and Kansas both bombed out in the Big 12 tourney, so anything's possible.

On espn.com, you get to pick five brackets. I will pick Mizzou to win it all in one of them. Max will pick another, and I'll reserve a third bracket for my "serious" picks. The other two? I have no idea. I have until Wednesday night to put that all together.

And while I will be hoping and rooting for Missouri to win it all, I simply refuse to be deflated when they lose--even if it's in the first round to Cornell. They've got a trophy, their first since that Big 8 regular season championship in 1994. Missouri last won the conference tournament the year before. Barb and I were in Kemper Arena that year (we'd picked up cheap tickets from disappointed Iowa State fans who sold after their team lost), and we were pretty happy about that win as well, since Mizzou was on probation and couldn't go to the NCAAs. Back in 1993, that was their one shot at a trophy, and they got it.

To tell the truth, I'm most pleased when Missouri's teams win more than they lose and coaches don't have to make weekly runs to the Boone County Jail. A decent graduation rate is a nice bonus.

The top player on this year's team, Demarre Carroll, is the first player to be named first team All-Big 12 and first team All-Academic Big 12. In fact, he's already in grad school. He did have a couple of unfair advantages--his uncle coaches the team and he transferred to Missouri from Vanderbilt. If you think you can skip class and it won't get back to family, think again. And while Missouri's an okay school, I'm guessing Carroll found the work in Columbia a bit easier than that in Nashville.

Whatever. I'm happy the guys won their trophy. I hope they do well on Friday in Boise. But I'm more than happy with the season. It's nice to be excited about basketball once again. Anything to take the mind of the rest of the crap in going on these days.

Jon Worley had "D" section season tickets at the Hearnes Center each of the five years he attended Missouri.