<table> </table> N&#8194;ews for an NBA-starved market:</p><p>Former Missouri point guard <strong>Larry Drew </strong>(1976-80) can&#8217;t say he&#8217;s surprised about the rise of his Atlanta Hawks, one of the league&#8217;s most exciting teams to watch and undefeated until losing 103-102 to the defending world champion Boston Celtics Wednesday night. Surprised may not be the word &#8212; maybe more so vindicated.</p><p>Drew started with Atlanta as head coach <strong>Mike Woodson&#8217;s </strong>top assistant five years ago through its &#8220;rebuilding project.&#8221; Translation: really lousy basketball. Here&#8217;s that brief recap, since the only Hawk around here that people care about is the one with &#8220;Jay&#8221; in front: Atlanta struggled on the road and played the type of defense that couldn&#8217;t win a Friday morning pickup game inside the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center &#8212; leading to a 114-214 record.</p><p>But since late last season, Drew has seen his young Hawks grow up.</p><p>&#8220;We have gotten off to a great start,&#8221; said Drew, who played high school basketball at Wyandotte. &#8220;It&#8217;s gratifying to see the type of support that we&#8217;re starting to get. When I came into the job five years ago, I knew I was coming into a rebuilding project. The question was would management stick with us long enough to build this thing. They&#8217;ve done that.&#8221;</p><p>The Hawks employ another former Tiger, <strong>Thomas Gardner</strong>. You might remember Gardner skipped his senior year to turn pro but went undrafted, so it was off to Hoije, Belgium. Gardner left the Euro leagues last year and joined the Bulls, but they waived him after a couple of days. Although the Hawks have yet to free Gardner from the bench this regular season, Drew likes his potential.</p><p>&#8220;From everybody that I talked to, they said he should&#8217;ve made (Chicago),&#8221; Drew said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a guy who can make shots and stretch the defense because he has range. That was something that really caught our eye.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Assistant in demand?</span></strong></p><p>Success brings job interviews, but when <em>The Star&#8217;s </em><strong>Mike DeArmond </strong>recently asked Missouri defensive coordinator <strong>Matt Eberflus </strong>whether he&#8217;s had any talks with Toledo about taking over that head coaching job, he said no. OK, but multiple sources insist that Eberflus is high on the list of candidates.</p><p>Eberflus came to MU from Toledo along with head coach <strong>Gary Pinkel</strong>. Eberflus also played at Toledo (1988-91), and his recruiting areas for MU still include Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Who&#8217;s talkin&#8217; trash?</span></strong></p><p>Last Saturday night when MU defeated Kansas State, Tigers senior tight end <strong>Chase Coffman </strong>was hoping he could engage in a little trash talk with younger brother <strong>Carson, </strong>backup quarterback for the Wildcats. But only Carson played, throwing a touchdown pass in a mop-up role and getting the last word.</p><p>&#8220;He did good, and I was proud of him,&#8221; Chase said. &#8220;He was talking a little trash that he got to play more than me on <em>my</em> senior night.&#8221;