ESPN's Scoop Jackson comes through with a pretty interesting Stefhon Hannah piece. I knew where he was from, but I didn't know how much he meant to some of the kids there...
By the time I reach the neighborhood YMCA, across the street from where Hannah was our neighborhood Derrick Rose before Derrick Rose, the dependence had already begun to fade. Scoop, what's going to happen to Stefhon? Have you talked to him? He messed up, didn't he? Is he still going to make it to the League?
Sometimes your heart doesn't have the heart to tell kids who you care about -- and who are relying on you to give them accurate information about their heroes -- things they don't need to hear. But false hope is worse where we live then any lie that can be told.
"I don't know what's going to happen with Stefhon," is what I tell them. "I have talked to him. Yes, he did mess up. Yes, he still has a chance to make it to the League, but it's not looking good. ... Still, I have faith in him. So should you. We can't ever give up on us."
Really, a pretty sad piece all around. It's easy for us (me) to write him off with the way he ditched town and never looked back (and the way that it really does sound like he was completely in the middle of the scuffle, not an innocent bystander), but there were a lot of kids from his hometown, really hoping he'd succeed.
The Missourian previews tomorrow's KSU-MU game and talks about what Mizzou needs to do to slow down Michael Beasley. Yeah, good luck with that. This will actually be KSU's first attempt at revenge this season, so it'll be interesting to see how Beasley and Walker respond...but not THAT interesting, as I'm pretty sure they'll respond well.
Forgot to link to this yesterday: Big Head points and laughs at Nebraska after Mizzou's OT win...
Woohoo! We're a 3-seed (via Big MO)!
Good luck to MU Swimmers Lori Halvorson and Colleen Gordon, who will be swimming to qualify for the US Olympic Trials this weekend at this weekend's Missouri Grand Prix.
With Big 12 Football Championship tickets now on sale, Dave Matter takes a quick look at the Path to Arrowhead...what obstacles are standing in the way of the most likely championship candidates.
He also links to an interesting Wizard of Odds post about 1-A teams scheduling 1-AA teams instead of each other. The Big 12 doesn't come off looking too good. While I would have LOVED a Texas Tech-LSU game to kick off the season, I have one legitimate (but still lame) excuse for why that game didn't happen: nothing in the current structure of college football encourages teams to play games like this. The Gameday crew repeatedly patted Texas and Ohio State on the back for playing each other in '05 and '06, and I'm sure that felt great, but nobody was really mocking Ohio State for scheduling Akron, Youngstown State, and Kent State in '07 either. And if they were, it sure didn't keep them from making it to the BCS Title Game. Praise is good, but it doesn't matter if you lose. If you lose, you might as well have lost to Appalachian State in the eyes of the committees of the big bowls.
Before Tech and LSU started negotiating, there was a 5-second rumor about Mizzou and LSU playing. That would have been exciting as hell, but it would have also been totally stupid.
Here's the official release for this weekend's Louisville Slugger Desert Classic. #22 Mizzou kicks off against #6 UCLA early this afternoon...there are TWENTY-ONE teams in the field...
Finally, Lovie Smith's son, Miles, has accepted an offer to become a preferred walk-on to the football team...pretty cool...