COLUMBIA | Keith Ramsey contends that down South &mdash; he comes from Murfreesboro, Tenn. &mdash; every grandparent gives every grandchild a nickname.</p><p>A grandfather christened Ramsey &ldquo;June Bug.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;My mom started calling me Buggy. My dad just called me Bug. It stuck.&rdquo;</p><p>Which is kind of funny when you consider what Keith Ramsey brought to Missouri last season. Not much scoring (3.6 a game). Not that much rebounding for a 6-foot-9 guy (2.7 a game).</p><p>But plenty of swat. Buggy treated basketballs like, well, bugs to be brushed aside. Smashed if he had his way.</p><p>Ramsey, in a mere 13.7 minutes a game playing behind DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons, led Missouri with 31 blocked shots.</p><p>&ldquo;I was an energy guy,&rdquo; Ramsey said. &ldquo;The hard part is playing your hardest, then coming out and losing your groove a little bit, then going back in and trying to pick it up again. But that was my job.&rdquo;</p><p>In no game did Ramsey do his job better than in a Jan. 3 contest at Georgia. The Bulldogs led 46-45 with 10:47 to play when Georgia&rsquo;s Zac Swansey broke loose for what looked to be an uncontested layup.</p><p>Suddenly, there was Ramsey. Skying, swatting the basketball aside. </p><p>One minute later, Ramsey swatted aside another shot by Georgia&rsquo;s Dustin Ware. And when, with 9:02 to play, Ramsey came up with a steal, all that was left was for Missouri to run out the clock. The Tigers won 83-76.</p><p>His devotion to defense, his ability to block shots, was what brought Ramsey to Missouri by way of Okaloosa-Walton Junior College.</p><p>Missouri coach Mike Anderson had always wanted Ramsey, his kind of player, back in the days when Anderson was the head coach at Alabama-Birmingham.</p><p>&ldquo;His versatility was very evident when he was young, in high school,&rdquo; Anderson said. </p><p>Injury &mdash; a torn meniscus in Ramsey&rsquo;s right knee &mdash; and the ACT intervened.</p><p>Some schools dropped off recruiting Ramsey after he couldn&rsquo;t improve his ACT score and went the junior college route. UAB and assistant coach T.J. Cleveland didn&rsquo;t.</p><p>A year and a half later, Ramsey got a telephone call from Cleveland.</p><p>&ldquo;He said they had moved,&rdquo; Ramsey said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know they were going to Missouri.&rdquo;</p><p>Most of last season, Ramsey played behind Carroll and Lyons. He wound up starting five Big 12 Conference games.</p><p>That resume, shockingly, makes Ramsey the most experienced of a big-man rotation at Mizzou this year that includes Justin Safford, Laurence Bowers and Steve Moore.</p><p>None of those players boast last season scoring or rebounding averages better than Ramsey, which suggests trouble may be in store for a team without Carroll and Lyons.</p><p>Ramsey, on Tuesday, simply swatted that assumption aside like a pestering bug.</p><p>&ldquo;This system right here,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you play harder on defense, you&rsquo;re going to score.&rdquo;