Italian Basketball Champion Laurence Bowers Continues Youth Basketball Tradition

Laurence Bowers has always been a renaissance man. A portrait artist and a singer — his college vocal group once opened for fellow Mizzou alumnus Kareem Rush who performed at Columbia’s Blue Note in 2011 — Bowers also plays piano, runs a youth basketball foundation and delivers motivational speeches at various engagements throughout the year. So perhaps it’s appropriate that his professional basketball career took him to the historic era’s cradle in Italy where he plays for Pallacanestro Trieste, the reigning champions of Lega Basket Serie A.

As one might expect of a gentleman with varied interests, Bowers has savored his time in Europe like an aromatic plate of cappellacci (pumpkin-stuffed pasta) in Bolognese sauce — his favorite Italian dish. “It’s great the paths you cross playing basketball and what the sport allows you to see,” says Bowers, whose Mizzou days spanned 2008–13. “Basketball fans in Italy are amazing and crazy and extremely passionate. They’ll even try to fight each other during games.”

Bowers has parleyed his international success into Camp Bowers, a youth basketball clinic hosted by Rock Bridge High School in Columbia. Bowers started the camp, now in its fourth year, as a way to “pay it forward” in honor of mentors who helped him as a youngster growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. Camp Bowers runs July 9–11. Campers receive an official basketball and T-shirt, in addition to top-notch instruction from Mizzou’s runner up in career blocked shots (behind Arthur Johnson). Other past and present Missouri Tigers will be in attendance.

“The thing I’m most proud of was that I was able to get my master’s degree [in education] in five years,” says Bowers, MU basketball’s only scholarship player to earn a graduate degree during his NCAA career. “I was a pretty good student, but I had a good woman behind me.”

Bowers means his wife Feven whom he met in 2009 at The Field House, the popular college hangout in Columbia. The couple married in 2015 and welcomed daughter Fiyori in January 2017. “Becoming a husband and a father is motivating,” says Bowers, who proposed to Feven in 2013 at half-court of Mizzou Arena. “You want to do well for yourself so you can live a decent, comfortable life. But when you add the responsibility of providing for your wife and your daughter, it’s like taking a 5-hour Energy drink. I’m always thinking, I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to push myself. I’ve got to go harder.”

Bowers has continued his work for local charities during his five-year international career (two seasons in Israel, three in Italy). Fans might remember the Carroll and Bowers Alumni Game, with proceeds going to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbia and Granny’s House. And black-and-gold faithful certainly remember Bowers’ graduating class — a star-studded group including Kim English and Marcus Denmon — that finished with 107 career wins, the most of any class in Mizzou history.

“I love Mizzou,” Bowers says. “It was the best five years of my life besides having my daughter. I wish I could still play for Mizzou and get paid the money I make now.”

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The National Championship Kick of Karissa Schweizer

With her Nike cleats beneath her, the 2016 Cross Country Champion has polished her finishing speed.

When Karissa Schweizer hit the final turn of the 6-kilometer course, she had already fought through nearly 30 mph winds to ensure herself a top five finish. Most of the spectators at the 2016 NCAA Cross Country National Championships had already shifted their attention to the battle up-front between Erin Finn of Michigan and Anna Rohrer of Notre Dame.

But Schweizer saw something in the last minute of the race that gave her the incentive to shift to a higher gear. Sharon Lokedi, a sophomore from the University of Kansas, was within striking distance, and Schweizer was quickly gaining ground. Just a week earlier, Schweizer had kicked Lokedi down in the finishing stretch at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet and knew that she was capable of doing it again — this time on cross country’s biggest stage.

Missouri and Kansas fans on the sidelines saw the ensuing battle and started cheering for their respective front runners, but the Jayhawk cries faded quickly as Schweizer overtook her rival. Soon enough, she found herself in third place, just several strides behind the two leaders. “I saw [Finn] make a move on [Rohrer], and [Rohrer] started coming back to me,” Schweizer says. “I knew at that point I didn’t want second, I wanted first.”

With a newfound burst of energy, the 4-minute 39-second miler unleashed a devastating kick to try and break the race open. Her Nike racing spikes dug deep into the frozen ground as her cadence ramped up to a blistering pace. As the runners ahead of her started breaking down from fatigue, Schweizer was only getting faster with every stride. With 20 meters to go, Finn, the pre-race favorite, grimaced and conceded. Schweizer crossed the finish line with a personal best time of 19 minutes and 41 seconds, but she had little time to reflect before spectators began running toward the shoot, eager to witness the reaction from the Missouri Tiger who had just shocked the running world.

Going into the NCAA meet, only two of five FloTrack.org analysts had Schweizer finishing in the top five in their predictions, and she remained relatively unknown despite the fact that she had finished third in the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships the previous fall.

With her NCAA title in hand, Schweizer finished her junior cross country season with five victories in six meets. Her only loss came at the Indiana State Pre-National Invitational in October. There, she placed fourth overall, while three-time All-American Finn won the race handily.

None of that matters anymore. Schweizer has made it clear that she will not be an afterthought ever again. As an NCAA champion, her name will forever be inscribed alongside some of the greatest runners in collegiate history, many of whom have gone on to become Olympians.

“It’s hard to put into words what a big deal it is to win the NCAA XC meet,” Missouri head coach Marc Burns says. “If you’re going to win one NCAA title out of all of them, that’s the one you want to win, with everybody in the same race.”

With more than a full year of eligibility left, Schweizer isn’t finished with the college scene, but her success in 2016 alone is enough to ensure that professional contract offers are in her future. She’s put some thought into the idea of training for the Olympics as a pro, but she is not one to look too far ahead. In addition to defending her cross-country title, her eyes are now set on securing an NCAA gold medal in the 5,000-meter distance this coming spring.

All in the Family 

Schweizer, 20, has a ‘here and now’ attitude — it’s the mark of a mature runner, and it has been a defining characteristic throughout her career. Those closest to her will tell you of her impressive pedigree. Her grandfather, Frank, and father, Mike, were both All-American runners for Mankato State University (now Minnesota State-Mankato), and it was there that Mike met her mother, Kathy, who was also a successful runner for the Mavericks. Her brother, Ryan, is a scholarship runner at the University of Notre Dame, and her sister, Kelsey, is a sophomore on the Dowling Catholic High School track team in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Frank Schweizer coached at Dowling — where West Des Moines abuts Schweizer’s hometown of Urbandale, Iowa — for 42 years, retiring just before his daughter joined Dowling’s team as an incoming freshman. James Kirby took over head coaching duties, setting her up for a promising collegiate career.

“I knew that Karissa, coming from a running family, would be somebody ahead of the game,” Kirby says. “Right away, as a freshman, it was obvious that she was one of the better runners in the state, at least in the top 10 percent.”

Schweizer’s decorated high school career included 12 IAHSAA All-State honors, an appearance at the Nike Cross National Championships in 2013 and three team championships in cross country. Although she only won a single individual state title during that time, Schweizer didn’t dwell on it, and instead began preparing for her shot at NCAA stardom.

Schweizer chose Missouri over Iowa State, Kansas and Illinois State in the spring of 2014. “I liked knowing it was a program that was good and respected, but on the rise,” Schweizer says. “I looked at Iowa State and they were already going to nationals all the time, but I wanted to be part of a team where it’s special to make it. I just wanted to be a part of something.”

Her decision paid off, a bit more quickly than expected, when she qualified for the NCAA Championships as a true freshman that fall. In her only previous NCAA cross country race she placed 155th, but gained the necessary experience that would pay off during her shining moment two years later.

It was Schweizer’s desire to help cultivate a program with a winning mindset that has finally come to fruition. Fueled by her individual title, the Tiger women finished 16th as a team this past fall. Her teammate, Jamie Kempfer, also secured All-American honors with a 27th place finish — it was the first time that two Missouri runners have accomplished that feat since 1984. Historically, Schweizer is the first Missouri female and second Tiger to become a national champion since Keith Bacon in 1955.

Trust the process

Schweizer had an above-average freshman year, but she came in with some flaws, and there was a time when her dream of an NCAA title seemed out of reach. That now famous ‘kick,’ or finishing speed, wasn’t always so polished. At points during her freshman indoor season, Burns placed Schweizer in the mile run just to help gain that speed she would need later in her career. And more often than not, Burns says, Schweizer would run out of gas in the last hundred or so meters. Her running form broke down quickly, often too late to maintain a position without getting passed. So Schweizer and the rest of the team placed an even greater focus on practicing their finishing speed several days a week. On Thursdays, the team has a speed-agility circuit with several activities designed to increase the runners’ flexibility and muscular endurance — both crucial to developing a quick finish.

Burns and his staff also have utilized video recordings of each runner in practice. They break down the video in a one-on-one meeting with each athlete, discussing improvements of which the runner should be acutely aware during workouts. The goal is to make small alterations over time that will eventually become second nature. Schweizer is a prime example of how this coaching style can breed success at the highest level.

“She’s famous for her kick now,” Burns says. “That’s a pretty cool story and really good for people to hear because she wasn’t always known for that.”

Kirby, who couldn’t attend the NCAA Championships in person, watched online as his former athlete won the title. She has matured tremendously as a runner, Kirby says, always showing that potential to become a devastating closer in long races.

“She is always so courageous. Finishing, she gives you everything she has,” he says. “That kick at nationals, you don’t coach that, that comes from somewhere else.”

Her emergence in November also marks a resurgence for an MU program that hadn’t made an NCAA cross country meet since 2003. Schweizer’s success has brought Missouri back into the conversation as an elite program for distance runners, and it’s her laid-back attitude that makes her so influential in running circles.

“You get somebody like Karissa who goes down there and buys into what [Burns] is doing, her being able to achieve all that she has just speaks volumes to the program,” Kirby says. “You’re happy for her because she’s a good person and appreciates the people who are following her and she doesn’t forget them.”

As the winds blew and the front runners staggered up the final straightaway, Burns had no direct view of Schweizer as she finished. He was in the coaches’ box, about 350 meters away, and only had a brief moment to shout words of encouragement before she was out of sight. But as Schweizer passed him, he knew that something special was about to happen.

“As a coach you can see the look in a runner’s eyes when you know they’re dialed in,” Burns says. “You could tell that she was going for it at that point. That was the first moment that I thought, ‘she’s gonna win this thing!’”

The news finally arrived with a call from Burns’ wife, Alana, who was watching the broadcast from home with their children. Burns recalls “an incredible feeling of emotion” as he proceeded to sprint through the crowd toward the finish line.

Meanwhile, Schweizer was being bombarded by family, friends and reporters. She had finally unlocked the potential for which she had been searching for three years, when she set out to run on the MKT trail for the first time as a Tiger.

With a title to defend next fall, and a promising post-collegiate career ahead of her, Schweizer is just beginning to see the big picture. “I always told myself that I only wanted to do it if I could be successful,” Schweizer says. “After this cross season I know it’s what I want to do. I want to see what I can do in the future.”

Photos: Travis Smith | ContentAllStars.com

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Longtime Broadcaster Mike Kelly Inducted into Missouri Sports Hall of Fame

For his listeners, Mike Kelly has become more than a harmonic representation of Mizzou sports. He is The Voice of a fan base.

It’s a Tuesday evening. Or maybe a Saturday afternoon. You’re dialed in, and one voice, like clockwork, is there waiting over the radio airways to greet you.

Mike Kelly is one of those rare Missouri members of an entire state’s athletic community who belongs to us just as deeply as anyone who has ever dressed for a game. For 26 years, he has met you on the road, dialed in to KTRS, KMOX or stations across I-70. And for nearly 1,000 Missouri basketball and football games, he has been there — a companion through wins, losses, the good and the bad.

At any given moment, Kelly manages to narrate and expound every formation, every adjustment, every move — left, right — every interaction and emotion as if to place his listeners in the thick of the game. He makes sense of it all over the airways, but he does so with a play-by-play consistency that engages. Because although the content is important, the presentation and expression of the voice plays a crucial role in influencing the way in which an audience perceives the game. As Kelly puts it, at the end of the day, someone has to think you sound good.

And sound good he has. There is no built-in pace that lends itself to radio with  football and, at times, basketball. But the best broadcasters tell the game’s story with such rhythm that you find yourself gripping the steering wheel, eyes wide open, bobbing to the narrative of a player’s movement as if it were set to music. The eloquence and style, the softness and excitement, and the ebbs and flows of a voice are to a sports broadcaster as a paint brush is to an artist.

After 283 consecutive Mizzou football broadcasts, Kelly will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday alongside 14 other individuals, including the St. Louis Cardinals’ Vince Coleman and Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Bill Kenney.

“When you get that phone call, honestly my first reaction was ‘why?’” Kelly says. “When you’re a broadcaster, it’s a little harder to understand the value that you bring. And when you look at the nature of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, there’s so many great athletes who have had an impact on the legacy of sport in the state of Missouri. I was humbled — still am; honored, and actually a little emotional when I heard.”

The Voice of the Missouri Tigers has spoken mostly to those in their cars and in their homes, like a soundtrack for fans who have felt the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But unlike coaches, players or athletic directors, Kelly’s voice has been a constant.

In his early days, the fundamental lessons of broadcasting were learned by listening — to Jack Buck in St. Louis; to then-Chicago Bears analyst Wayne Larrivee in Champaign, Illinois; to Kevin Harlan in Missouri. His voice was shaped, applying techniques and influences that he still hears in his broadcasts today.

Joe Buck was Kelly’s first color analyst when he took the role as the play-by-play voice of Missouri basketball in ’91. Tom Dore left for a 17-year career in Chicago as the voice of the Bulls during the bulk of the Michael Jordan championship era, and it was those moves on the chess board, as Kelly describes it, and the confidence of Roger Gardner and Joe Castiglione at the time that led him to the seat. Three years later, he would take over the lead football spot when Bill Wilkerson left for the Arizona Cardinals.

“I could have never foreseen this,” he says. Kelly’s first audio affiliation with Missouri came back in 1989 when he was asked by CBS and KMOX legend Robert Hyland to drive to Columbia and host Tiger Talk alongside Bob Stull. “It’s something that you’re hopeful for — you get in a career, and you hope to be able to do it as long as possible. Again, I go back to the subjectivity and the nature of what we do — at the end of the day, someone needs to think you sound pretty good.”

The players don’t hear the Dupo, Illinois, kid on the court. Nor do the coaches. His work is for us, the listeners, as it has been for nearly 30 years. Accuracy and objectivity still king.

“Jack Buck said to me years ago, before I first started, he said ‘Understand this: you’re going to call some good games, you’re going to call some bad games. You’re going to call some very good teams, but you’ll also call some teams that are going to struggle. Call the play. Just call the play.’ I think it’s incumbent upon me to just call the play,” Kelly says. “I try to have an equal amount of excitement for whatever happens, but as a fan — and when you become the voice of a team — you also understand that you’re talking to a group of fans that cannot be at the game that day. So you try to accurately communicate as well as you can the good, the bad and the ugly, but also be tactful about it.”

The fan in Mike Kelly wants to see Mizzou pull off every win. But the broadcaster in Mike Kelly keeps Buck’s words close, understanding his obligation to accuracy and objectivity. That might explain why he hasn’t tried to rank, in any form, the most memorable games that he’s been a part of. From his point of view — “If I’ve done the game justice, others will decide in terms of where it may rank.”

His list does, of course, include the Armageddon game at Arrowhead. As well as the 1995 NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA, the eventual national champions, on a late run to the basket. Even the 2009 loss to Kansas on a 4th-quarter, 30-yard touchdown pass from Todd Reesing to Kerry Meier.

“I’ve always believed that college sports is about kids making plays,” Kelly says. “And at the end of the day, whether it be Tyus Edney or Todd Reesing or Kerry Meier from Kansas or Danario Alexander or Chase Daniel, kids made plays. That’s really the special nature in which this profession provides you the opportunity to watch these young student athletes do remarkable things.”

On Sunday, he’ll be inducted next to other athletes and legends who did remarkable things — Stan Musial, Norm Stewart, Phog Allen, Payne Stewart, the list goes on. Remarkable things happen in sports, as Kelly suggests, but those remarkable plays are etched into memories with the help of remarkable calls.

Listen to Kelly call Zaire Taylor’s 2009 game-winning jumper against Kansas. It will do nothing short of give you chills, remembering the life that existed in the arena that year. Missouri was 20-4 heading into that game, and Kansas was undefeated in conference play. It’s tied at 60, and well, you know the story.

“Missouri playing for the final shot here in regulation … Lions left wing. Flip it outside Tiller. Right wing Taylor. Head and shoulder fake.” The words flowed like an orchestra leading to its grandest of finales. “Taylor. 15-footer for the win off the rim. GOOD.”

Lucky for Kelly’s listeners — the Missouri faithful — there should be plenty more tomorrow’s, next season’s and grand finales left in his broadcasting career. Maybe a few more Zaire Taylor’s as well.

Photos: Courtesy of Mike Kelly

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Terrence Phillips:

‘I’m not letting basketball use me’

Terrence Phillips was laying in bed in Italy after an international men’s basketball game when he got an email that would change the course of his life at home — he just didn’t know it yet. That was in August, when Phillips had been chosen as Mizzou’s representative to the Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Leadership Committee. In September, his peers would vote him Chairman of the committee.

“I’m not a quiet person; I can talk all day,” Phillips says. “At the first committee meeting, I kept talking about ideas and things we’d like to change, not knowing I’d be picked to be head chairman. It was an honor, not just for myself, but to represent Mizzou.”

The sophomore from Orange County, California, has been a standout player since joining the team last year, making his mark with a recorded 107 assists and as one of only two players on the team to start all 31 games. But, as shown by his nomination, he’s also been a strong leader off the court. Phillips still can’t believe how far the sport has taken him, especially since he almost decided to pursue football instead.

“If you ask my family and friends, I’m forever stupid for giving up football,” he says.

Phillips’ dad, uncle and two older cousins played football but always said he was the one with a “real chance” at playing varsity, and ultimately college. Although he loved the game, Phillips was presented with the chance to play basketball at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, a “road-to-the-NBA” school with a list of notable alumni that includes Rajon Rondo, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. Phillips’ brother, Brandon Jennings, who currently plays for the New York Knicks, also graduated from Oak Hill. If you ask Phillips, he’ll admit it factored into his initial hesitance.

“Growing up, I was always ‘Brandon’s little brother,’ so I really wanted to keep it separate and try to do my own thing,” he says. “But in the end I chose basketball. I can’t really say why. I’ve always had a passion for it, and I’ve worked hard to get where I am.”

Much of that work happened at Oak Hill, a small boarding school with only 150 students in grades 8-12. Phillips said the remote campus is “in the middle of nowhere,” with no cell reception, so he had no choice but to focus on improving his game.

“The only thing to do was play basketball and go to school,” he says. “I just kept working and didn’t look back.”

During his time at Oak Hill, Phillips became known for his speed and smart decisions on the floor, leading him to shed the title of “Brandon’s younger brother” quick. He always looked ahead to play ball in college, and, when it came time to make a decision about where that might be, considered Mizzou and Loyola Marymount University, which is right on the beach in Los Angeles.

“I told both schools I wouldn’t commit right away,” Phillips says. “I visited LMU, and it was right by my family and friends, and they had chicken and waffles right down the street.”

But even the lure of good food just a few sandy steps away couldn’t keep him from Mizzou, which he says felt like home.

“I visited over Christmas break and no one was there.” he says. “But within five minutes of stepping on campus, I knew.”

Although the Tigers were coming off their worst two-season stretch since 1966-1968, Phillips came out of the international games this summer with a feeling that the team was brand new, and perhaps even good. But even he, with his high energy and love for talking, knows he needs to step back—he learns the most by listening to other people’s opinions as he leads the team.

“As a leader, you’re not always going to be correct,” Phillips says. “Being able to listen and adapt and take what you learn into action is important to bringing the team together.”

He’ll also be listening in his role as as chairman, where Phillips will work to improve players’ lives both on and off the court. As part of his role, he’ll meet with Commissioner Greg Sankey, as well as other officials and head coaches to discuss issues including transfer regulations and summer league rules.

“One thing I’ve brought up so far is that we should let the off season be more of an off season,” he says. “This year we were only really off a week and a half, and that’s a big concern with resting your body before the season.”

But when he’s not resting, Phillips is planning for the future, and hoping that his career in basketball might lead him to the NBA.

“That’s a lot of work and I’m all for that,” he says. “But wherever this game takes me, I’m not letting basketball use me. I’m using the game of basketball to get to where I’m supposed to be.”

Photos: Travis and Jenn Smith | ContentAllStars.com

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