<table> </table> BOISE, Idaho | Everyone has a theory about how a college basketball team wins in March. Some say that you need great guard play. Some insist that you need senior leadership. Some say that it comes down to teams that rebound the basketball or teams that play great defense or teams that get hot at the right time or teams that have several scoring options. And so on.</p><p>The truth is, there isn&#8217;t one secret way to win in March, or any other time. Take Missouri&#8217;s convincing 78-59 victory over Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. What was the key to the game? Who knows? Even after it was over, no two people seemed to agree how the Tigers did it.</p><p>&#8220;I thought our pressure defense was the difference in the game,&#8221; Missouri coach Mike Anderson said. &#8220;I really, really did.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I thought we handled (the pressure defense) pretty well,&#8221; Cornell forward Ryan Wittman said. &#8220;Like Coach said, we only had nine turnovers.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It seemed like we took their legs from them in the second half,&#8221; said Leo Lyons, Missouri&#8217;s star of the day.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard to get tired in an NCAA game &#8212; these timeouts are 3 minutes long &#8230; I didn&#8217;t sense fatigue at all,&#8221; Cornell coach Steve Donahue said.</p><p>&#8220;I think that our speed got them out of their comfort zone,&#8221; Missouri guard J.T. Tiller said.</p><p>&#8220;A game like this, where we felt like we could have won if we played better, it&#8217;s definitely disappointing,&#8221; Cornell forward Alex Tyler said.</p><p>There you go. And remember: This was <em>after</em> the game. It just shows you that basketball is too involved a game to be reduced to one thing, one story line, one distinct way to win. And that&#8217;s what might make this Missouri team dangerous in this tournament. Because the Tigers don&#8217;t win any one way. They don&#8217;t have one strategy. They don&#8217;t need one thing to go right.</p><p>Give you an example: Whenever basketball people talk about Missouri, what do they usually talk about? Sure: That full-court pressure defense. Forty minutes of hell. That was all anyone talked about Thursday as all the pregame analysis was going on. Donahue talked about how he had his offense practice against seven defenders to prepare for the Missouri challenge.</p><p>Well, all the evidence suggests that Missouri&#8217;s defense had almost no effect on Friday&#8217;s game. Cornell&#8217;s players seemed to be relaxed against it. Cornell turned the ball over only nine times, the fewest turnovers Missouri has forced all season. Cornell had a lot of open shots.</p><p>Still, Anderson insisted it was that defense that made the difference, going so far as to make this rather odd statement: &#8220;They only had three turnovers at halftime, so that played right into our hands because they&#8217;re more concerned about taking care of the ball than they are, maybe, trying to score.&#8221;</p><p>This theory that not forcing turnovers is a good thing is definitely novel, but maybe the Tigers really won because their offense was so efficient, especially in the second half, when they shot 57 percent. Maybe the Tigers won because Leo Lyons was unstoppable &#8212; he scored 23 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and at times seemed to be playing basketball against his little brother. He would just throw the ball against the glass, grab the rebound, put it up against the glass again, grab another rebound, until finally he grew tired of the little game and he just scored.</p><p>Maybe they won because DeMarre Carroll is one of the most versatile players in college basketball and he had his usual statistical gumbo (13 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals, one three-pointer, one blocked shot). Maybe the Tigers won because their guards are just so solid and unselfish; The Tigers turned the ball over only four times, a Missouri NCAA Tournament record. And they had 19 assists on 28 baskets, a fabulous ratio.