College Confidential

Aggies hold off late Mizzou charge

There were a few shaky moments, but Texas A&M went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 36 seconds and held on for a 96-86 victory over No. 15 Missouri at Reed Arena.

Missouri, who trailed by as many as 26 points early in the second half, pulled to within six with 38.8 seconds left after a flurry of 3-pointers. But Josh Carter and Donald Sloan hit all six of their combined free throws after that point to help put the game away and extend the Aggies' winning streak to six games.

Sloan led five Aggies in double figures with 16 points, followed by Carter and BJ Holmes with 13 each and Bryan Davis and Nate Walkup with 12 apiece. DeMarre Carroll scored 16 of his team-high 18 points during Missouri's second-half run.

Texas A&M will be the sixth or seventh seed in the Big 12 Tournament, depending on how the rest of today's league games play out.

-- Lori Dann

Aggies winning big with strong bench play

Texas A&M is well on its way to a sixth consecutive win to close the regular season. The Aggies shot 61 percent (17-for-28) from the field, including 54.5 percent (6-for-11) from 3-point range on the way to a 51-29 halftime lead over No. 15 Missouri at Reed Arena.

More than half of their points came from the bench, where A&M holds an amazing 28-8 advantage thanks to a team-high 10 points from BJ Holmes, nine from Nate Walkup, five from David Loubeau and four from Dash Harris. The Aggies also have outscored Missouri 16-0 in points off turnovers, forcing nine.

DeMarre Carroll, who averages17 points for the Tigers, has only two at the half on 1-for-4 shooting.

-- Lori Dann

Maclin gives take on QB, upcoming bowl

The Alamo Bowl matchup with Northwestern will be the last time Missouri's Jeremy Maclin plays with senior quarterback Chase Daniel, but the Tigers sophomore wide receiver has some moments he'll never forget.
"There's so many of them man. Probably my first game I ever played,'' Maclin said prior to the ESPNU College Football Awards. "He threw my first touchdown pass to me. Kinda got my feet wet a little bit."
Maclin didn't know much about Northwestern, but said Missouri will face a tough challenge on Dec.29.
"I watched them a little the other day. They're 9-3 in a big conference, obviously they're doing something right,'' Maclin said. "I know two guys on that team, so it will be fun to play against those guys."

-Trae Thompson

Chase Daniel says Husker spit on him

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said he would try to contact Missouri coach Gary Pinkel to discuss Chase Daniel’s comments about the Cornhuskers being a dirty team.

The Tigers star quarterback said a Nebraska player spit on him before Saturday night’s game, which Missouri won 52-17. Daniel also told reporters after the game that Nebraska players threw footballs at the Tigers as they were warming up.

Pelini said he didn’t hear about Daniel’s comments until after he woke up Sunday morning. “Usually, you’d know about something like that,” Pelini said. “But I’m going to investigate it and find out because that’s unacceptable if something like that happened. And I would hope that the opposing coaching staff would let me know if something like that happened.”

Pelini said he he watched video of the game and saw nothing out of line. “I didn’t see dirty play out there,” he said.

-- The Associated Press

Lions, Tigers and Gators...oh my

Just scanning the scoreboard from this afternoon. Some random thoughts:

*It's been fun East Carolina. The Pirates (3-1) go back to being just another team and not a prime BCS spoiler after losing to North Carolina State 30-24 in overtime. But there is hope...

*And that team is Boise State. The Broncos are putting it to Oregon 37-13 early in the fourth. Broncos quarterback Kellen Moore has already thrown for 350 yards. ...

*Mike Jones and I called it on Monday - Colorado would beat West Virginia.

*OK Penn State, fun's over. The Nittany Lions slaughtered Temple as expected, 45-3. The real football starts next week. ...

*Chase Daniel's final numbers: 36-of-43, 439 yards, 2 TDs. ...

*I have a feeling the fans aren't too happy up at Neyland Stadium. Florida's handing it to the Volunteers and there's still nine minutes to go in the game. ...

-Trae Thompson

Daniel breaks Missouri record

Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel became the school's career passing leader today with an 80-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin.
Daniel (8,748 yards), a Southlake Carroll graduate, was just 51 yards behind his predecessor Brad Smith (8,799), but eclipsed him on the first play of Missouri's second drive with his throw to Maclin.
-Trae Thompson

Sorry Rangers

Aaron Crow was just selected with the ninth pick by the Washington Nationals. Let's see who's next.
-Trae

Another interesting mock draft

Just read through another mock draft, and two things caught my attention - 1.) It had the Rangers landing Missouri ace Aaron Crow, which would be a huge get. He's one of the best pitchers in the Big 12. Pretty wild to imagine him and Blake Beavan in a rotation together. 2.) It also has the Mariners, not Detroit, selecting TCU closer Andrew Cashner with the 20th pick. -Trae

Record night

Safe bet that Missouri senior right fielder Jacob Priday could win National Player of the Week honors.
Priday went 5-for-5 and hit a Big 12 record four home runs to help the Tigers (24-8, 6-4) beat Texas 31-12 tonight at Taylor Stadium in Columbia. The four homers are tied for third-most in NCAA history.
Priday also finished with six runs and nine RBIs. -Trae Thompson

Tigers in the top

Check out this week's Baseball America rankings, and you'll see the Missouri Tigers (13-2) holding steady at No.4. Baylor (13-3) fell from 10th to 14th, and Texas (12-5) rose a spot to 18th. Here's the list. -Trae