Octobers are a month of conflict for me...it's one of the best sports months around, and it means conference home games in temperatures that are likely pretty damn lovely...and it means my allergies are in full freaking force. Ugh. Anyhoo...
First, the non-football links:
I'm sure The Beef will have more to say about this, but #12 Mizzou Soccer got back on track after losing back-to-back OT games by beating Colorado, 2-0 in conditions that were, shall we say, less than optimal.
Mizzou Volleyball was physically dominated by Texas in a sweep at Hearnes Saturday. Na Yang (19 kills, .333 %) hit pretty well, but she was the only one. In fact, take Yang out of the equation, and Mizzou hit .010 on the evening. Ouch. Texas significantly outblocked (14.5-7.0) and outdug (58-38) the Tigers in a match that played out quite similarly to the Nebraska match earlier this week--Mizzou had three game points in Game One, but Texas pulled through, then proceeded to dominate Games Two and Three. Next up in this rough 3-game home stand is a matchup with K-State, who swept Mizzou in Manhattan a while back and is 2 games up on Mizzou for 4th in the conference.
Basketball season must be getting closer...the coverage is slowly ramping up. The Trib had a couple of decent pieces this weekend--one on Brandon Rush and KU and one on Texas' DJ Augustin.
The 2009 commits are contagious...one of Blaine Dalton's best friends (so I hear), Christian Fellowhip's Garrison McLagan, will graduate early and be ready to roll by Spring 2009. Meanwhile, Tim Jamieson wasn't too impressed with the performance of the Mizzou defense at this weekend's Fall World Series.
I'll let The Beef catch you up on the other sports...
Dave Matter empties the notebook on the Tech game. Interesting stuff on Matt Eberflus' Tech gameplan.
Meanwhile, The Missourian discusses Gary Pinkel's efforts to keep expectations high in Columbia. Play like they have the first three games, and there's no doubting that Mizzou will win the North. Maintaining that level is the question mark. Graham Watson reaffirms this sentiment in her Monday Morning QB post, then discusses their chances for letdown against ISU.
Big Head at MizzouRah does a little gloating for correctly picking a blowout...props to him. He also has a nice pic of Chase Coffman and his patented "Thrust Nunchuk Upward".
Finally, PowerMizzou has a bit more about the current status of Blaine Gabbert's Nebraska commitment. In short, he's still an NU commit until there's a coaching shakeup...and there will probably be a coaching shakeup. There's been an elephant in the room regarding Gabbert's re-recruitment, and Jeff Ermann acknowledges it in this Inside Mizzou piece: will the massive backlash from Mizzou fans after Gabbert's Nebraska commitment affect things at all?