Mizzou Links, 7-17-09

For those who don't get the NBA channel (or whatever it's called), here are the box scores from last night's DeMarre- and Leo-related summer league games

• Grizzlies vs Clippers (DeMarre: 16 pts (7-for-9 shooting), 3 Reb, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 5 PF)
• Cavs vs Mavs (Leo: 1:38 of game time, 1 reb, 1 PF)

There could be a million reasons why Leo barely played, but none of them are particularly great.  Meanwhile, DeMarre continues to do his thing, but clearly he needs to watch the fouls.  This is summer league, though--pretty sure Greg Oden had 8 fouls in one game last year.

Speaking of former Mizzou hoopsters...Jimmy McKinney made an interesting switch yesterday--from hoops to...baseball?

The syncopated sounds of basketball used to be the soundtrack of his athletic life. He was a high-school All-America basketball player at Vashon, a former Mizzou basketball star, and a well-paid professional player in Germany for the last three years. Yet all along he knew deep down that something was missing. So now at the rather advanced athletic age of 25, McKinney wants to change the music.

On Thursday, McKinney the basketball player took an unconventional career move. He walked into Busch Stadium and got a tryout with the Cardinals' organization. Under the watchful eyes of manager Tony La Russa and several members of his coaching staff, McKinney took batting practice, shagged balls in the outfield and galloped around in the outfield grass.

Here's a gallery if that's your thing.

(And speaking of former Mizzou students making interesting career choices, from St. Louis, Missouri...weighing in at 183 pounds...Evan Bourne!!!)

Need to catch up on recent recruiting goings on?  It's the PowerMizzou mailbag!

ZonaTiger asks: How would you rate Pinkel and Co on a 1-5 (1-Poor 5-Great) scale as far as recruiting goes in the following categories? Please give a description of your reason behind each rating:

... Landing In State Talent

As far as in-state talent, I'll continue to beat the drum I've beaten for two years. Who cares? You need good players. It doesn't matter if they're from St. Louis, San Diego or St. Kitts. You just need players. And the thing is, if Missouri doesn't get the best in-state talent now, it's not on Missouri. The program is in better shape than it's ever been. They're winning, they're on TV all the time and they're putting near full houses in the stands. If a Missouri native doesn't want to play at Missouri right now, that's certainly his choice, but it probably means he just won't ever want to play at Missouri, at least in my opinion.

More from PowerMizzou: Potosi's Brandon Bourbon wants to check out Stanford and BYU, and Gabe takes a look at the Special Teams units in the North.

Rivals.com is jumping on the Party Starter bandwagon.  From their "Big men to watch off the bench" article:

Laurence Bowers, Soph., Missouri: Bowers struggled with a knee injury for much of his freshman season and averaged just 6.9 minutes per game, but he still offered flashes of his athleticism and potential. He scored 16 points each against Colorado and Kansas State despite not playing more than 19 minutes in either of those games. He also delivered the SportsCenter "Play of the Day" with an alley-oop dunk in a victory over Coppin State. His athleticism was evident in that he led Missouri in blocks and rebounds per minute. The Tigers will need much more from Bowers next season as they look to replace departed frontcourt standouts DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons.

Trripleplay has the latest from both the Cape Cod League and Augie Garrido-based court news.

Ron Zook: extended for one more year.  Meanwhile, Arrelious Benn: needing some help.

Just becase: Rocky Top Talk's Animated GIF Library is now in one easy-to-use location!  I dare you not to giggle for 20 minutes after clicking this link.

And finally...I really wish somebody I know would buy this...and while you're at Mizzourah, you can take part in "Mizzou to the Big Ten, Part XLIII."

Oh yeah, and...