Flyin’ Ryan Rosburg puts exclamation point on victory with chin-up dunk
Just under the 7-minute mark, Missouri senior Ryan Rosburg hustled down the floor as a fast break developed.
Freshman Terrence Phillips spotted Rosburg trailing the play and bounced the ball back to him.
Rosburg, a 6-foot-10 forward, collected the pass, elevated with two hands and mashed home a monster slam on Savannah State forward Brandon Jordan’s head.
Finishing the jam, Rosburg did a chin-up on the rim as he waited for the traffic below him to clear and allow for a safe landing.
“I’m really happy I didn’t get a technical …,” he said. “I thought, and I’m not for sure, that there was a guy underneath me. I knew that was a new rule. Also, it looked cool, and hopefully there’s good pictures.”
It’s the second straight game Rosburg has been credited with a dunk.
Not only did the soaring slam fire up the crowd of 6,037, but it also served as a nice exclamation point for Missouri, which finished nonconference play at 7-6 and has strung together five solid halves of basketball dating back to the last 20 minutes of the Braggin’ Rights Game on Dec. 23 against Illinois in St. Louis.
No practice again
Missouri coach Kim Anderson struck a deal with his players Tuesday at halftime of a 78-25 win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff — keep them under 30 points and we won’t practice the next day.
It worked so well, Anderson tried it again with the Tigers up 41-25 at halftime Saturday against Savannah State.
Keep them under 50 and earn a day off Sunday.
Missouri went on for an 81-50 win, but that was good enough, Anderson decreed, after negotiating with junior Wes Clark on the bench.
“The last timeout, we had a negotiation on whether it would be 49 or 50 … but I gave them 50, so they don’t have practice (Sunday),” Anderson said.
With nonconference play finished, such lofty defensive goals are bound to be harder to attain against SEC competition.
“I don’t know how much longer the ‘no practice if you hold them under certain point’ thing’s going to work,” Anderson said, “but it worked again tonight.”
By the numbers
8: Career-high number of rebounds for sophomore guard Namon Wright, who has at least five boards in eight of the Tigers’ 13 games this season.
40-30: Missouri’s rebounding margin, the sixth time in eight games the Tigers have won the battle on the glass and first time under coach Anderson the program has been plus-10 on the glass in three straight games.
70.8: Missouri’s first-half shooting percentage, the highest for any half during Kim Anderson’s tenure.
Tod Palmer: 816-234-4389, @todpalmer
This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 10:23 PM with the headline "Flyin’ Ryan Rosburg puts exclamation point on victory with chin-up dunk."