Mizzou: now #27 in the latest Sears Learfield Cup Standings after strong showings by the wrestling, indoor track, and swimming/diving programs. Basketball should bump them into the top 25, which is just astoundingly good for this athletic program (best finish ever: #37). We have our most high-achieving and high-character group of coaches and teams ever right now.
There are still a lot of happy, excited articles/columns to read about Mike Anderson's extension--Gabe Dearmond's latest Powered Up column and Jeff Gordon's latest column for the P-D, for instance--but The Missourian is trying pretty hard to generate some controversy with this "MU employees question raise" article by pointing out that all of this happened while the university is under a hiring freeze and struggling with budgetary issues.
As a university employee, I know all about the freeze, and I understand people's issues with it, but...a) again, the athletic department is not the university. From a money standpoint, they are separate entities. And beyond that, b) Mike Anderson's presence and a good team on the court will generate quite a bit more money than would have if they had once again had to start over with the basketball program. If you can spend a little more to make a lot more, that makes a whole lot of sense.
And beyond that, the success of the football program and the massive surge in applications and enrollment have given us pretty definitive proof of what a successful athletic program can do for the perspective and spirit of the university. Again, they're spending a little more (relatively speaking) to make a lot more, and as a university employee I'm okay with that.
Anyway, one more pretty neat Anderson-related blurb from Steve Walentik: for one night, Mike Anderson will once again be Nolan Richardson's assistant. Pretty cool.
Dying for news on Jarrid Famous? Well, you're kind of out of luck. ZAGSBLOG has the latest: he enjoyed South Florida (who wouldn't?) and will make his decision after visiting Xavier next weekend. Nothing in that is bad news for Mizzou, but nothing is definitively good either. At least the recruitment will be over relatively soon.
To football, where Dave Matter takes a closer look at the MU tailbacks, both in article and blog form. From the blog entry:
BTS: How difficult was last season for you? You didn’t move much from the bottom of the depth chart.
[Gilbert] Moye: Oh man, I was at an all-time low. It was terrible for me. It just took me so long to get used to the defensive mentality. It’s way different from offense. I got so frustrated and really got down on myself. But I’m back now. I’m ready to make that big step. … And I didn’t go to the bowl game. I was in a lot of trouble, just a lot of bad things that happened last semester. I just want to leave that in the past and move forward. New position, new everything.
I'm not going to lie--Moye was at the top of my "likely spring transfers" list because of his disciplinary (and depth chart) problems and the fact that he was a pretty highly-touted recruit struggling in a major way. Glad that things have at least briefly turned around for him.
To baseball, where Mizzou stomped SLU at Busch last night, 19-6, to move back to 14-14 for the season. Along with the 25 runs, the game included 28 hits, 13 walks and 7 errors. Mizzou hit and scored at will, but on a worrisome note, Kyle Gibson once again got smoked, giving up three runs in his lone inning on the hill. After being untouchable for most of the season, Gibson has now given up 10 earned runs in his last 3 innings. We'll see what happens this weekend against OU. There's pretty much no way Mizzou can get hot enough to make the NCAA tourney if Gibson struggles for any lengthy amount of time. The Missourian has more.
Finally, to softball, where Mizzou had a rather disappointing split at Kansas last night. After crushing the female birds, 8-0, in Game One, Mizzou slipped up and lost, 4-1, in Game Two. It's hard to complain too much about a 31-5 record, but the loss did bump MU one behind OSU and Texas in the loss column in the Big 12. The Missourian has more.