The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 31-7, 12-4 Big 12

2009-10's toughest games: at Vanderbilt, Illinois, at Kansas, Texas

Primary attraction: 40 Minutes of Hell gets its ultimate, talentless test. Watching the 2009-10 Missouri Wildcats is going to be fun.

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. Who wants to watch theory in motion? Earlier this year, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting but ultimately flawed piece about the efficacy of the full-court press in college hoops. Gladwell's piece was really about how it benefits underdogs -- both in hoops and in war -- to flout convention and surprise opponents with frantic attacks. Gladwell's piece failed because he prescribed the press as a cure-all, ignoring what might happen to an underdog facing an athletic team that loves to run. But the theory is attractive, and perhaps its greatest modern-day advocate coaches the Missouri Tigers. His name is Mike Anderson, and he is fun to watch.

Anderson's style -- termed "40 Minutes of Hell" -- is derived from Nolan Richardson's successful Arkansas teams. It requires that Anderson's players press for, you guessed it, 40 minutes. They never let up; at least one player guards the inbounds pass after every made basket, no matter what. On the offensive end, Anderson's players aren't required to work the shot clock down to a nub. They're encouraged to fire away, and so they do.

Last year, this strategy worked wonders: Anderson's Tigers won 31 games, including the Big 12 conference tournament and a Sweet 16 upset over Memphis, putting Anderson in the Elite Eight in just his fourth year. But in 2008-09, Anderson won with talent. Can he do it this year with something less? Can he -- gasp -- prove Malcolm Gladwell right?

2. Talent. Pshh. Who needs it? After their deep tournament run, the Tigers lost three key senior starters: star forward DeMarre Carroll, guard Matt Lawrence, and forward Leo Lyons. That wipes out Anderson's entire starting frontcourt, and losing Carroll -- whose constant defensive pressure and versatility from the high post on offense made the Tigers go -- will be especially difficult. J.T. Tiller is likely Missouri's closest thing to a star player, but after that Missouri will be relying on newcomers in the froncourt. Can they make it work? More interesting, does it matter? Or does "40 Minutes of Hell" work no matter who suits up?

3. And finally, be glad you do not play for Mike Anderson. Even watching the Tigers play can be exhausting. They stop for nothing. And the only way a team can play this style for 35 games a season without losing life and limb halfway through the Big 12 slate is, of course, conditioning. So the Tigers do lots and lots of sprints. I can't imagine Missouri's practices, nor do I want to, but I do know that Missouri didn't have a Midnight Madness this year. They just had "practice." And pretty much all of the photos of that practice look like this one. Like I said, fun to watch, but watching's as close as I'd like to get to whatever makes Division 1 athletes hunch over like that.

Quin Snyder has different motivational methods:

Obviously, you're aware I'm quite interested in Mike Anderson. But before Anderson came the disastrous era of Quin Snyder, perfectly punctuated by the single worst pregame speech of all-time:

Quin Snyder just sang Eye Of The Tiger! In a locker room full of 20-year-old males! And now it's on the Internet! Awesome, right?

Related: The Hunt