Coach Quin Snyder is one of the younger coaches around. But he's been to the NCAA Tournament more often than most coaches old enough to be his grandfather.
Snyder, 34, participated four times as a player at Duke, nine times as an assistant coach there and one last season in his first year at Missouri.
"Been going since I was 18," Snyder said. "I'm pretty comfortable with the tournament. Being comfortable with the tournament and being comfortable with being a head coach in the tournament are two different things. ... Clearly, I have a lot left in front of me and a lot left to learn."
Snyder's NCAA learning experience continues tonight in Greensboro, N.C., as the ninth-seeded Tigers face No. 8 Georgia (16-14) in the first round of the East regional.
Lately, it's Snyder's younger players that have been showing what they've learned.
After forward Kareem Rush hurt his wrist Feb. 5 against Oklahoma State, Missouri's talented freshmen Wesley Stokes, Rickey Paulding, Arthur Johnson and Travon Bryant got more minutes and responded well. The team's 4-3 performance in the absence of Rush could be a major reason MU (19-12) received an at-large berth.
Stokes, a 5-foot-10 point guard, went from averaging 4.7 points a game to scoring 10.1 in the past 10 games.
Paulding, a 6-5 forward, went from 5.9 points per game and 2.2 rebounds to 8.9 points and 3.1 rebounds a game after Rush's injury.
"We got better, we really did," Snyder said. "You look at Rickey Paulding right now, that's not the same guy that was playing a month ago. The same thing with A.J. (Johnson) and Travon. Wesley really started to show when he was needed. All those kids have picked it up."
Add this to the mix: the return of Rush's offense to pre-injury form. He scored 47 points in two Big 12 tournament games. The result, Snyder said, is that the Tigers are "playing our best basketball."
"I think we're a pretty good team right now," Snyder said. "I don't know how good; that's one of the things we're hopefully going to find out."
Georgia's inclusion in the tournament is a testament to one of the country's most difficult schedules. Only four teams with 14 losses have ever received at-large bids, and just 10 other 16-game winners have been invited.
"Nah, I didn't think we would get in," senior guard Adrian Jones conceded. "I was thinking the worst."
Georgia, however, has a solid offensive core and a well-seasoned coach.
D.A. Layne shot just under 40 percent from three-point range (64-for-161), while forward Shon Coleman and center Anthony Evans shot 55.5 and 54.2 percent from the field, respectively, and averaged double figures in scoring.
This year, Jim Harrick became just the third coach to take four different schools to the NCAA tournament. Harrick, making his 15th appearance overall, won it all with UCLA in 1995 and guided Rhode Island to the Midwest Regional final in 1998.
"Coach makes our team a lot more confident," Jones said. "He's had some unbelievable victories in the tournament. We've got to listen and heed everything he says."
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