Everybody agrees that the weekend's NFL Draft was an outstanding showcase for the talent this program can produce. First, Dave Matter talked about it...
When the Raiders selected Sulak with the 199th overall choice, he became the weekend’s sixth and final draft pick from Missouri, easily MU’s largest class since the draft was shortened to seven rounds in 1993. Perhaps more notable, it was the largest collection of picks from a Big 12 Conference team. Only four schools nationwide produced more draft picks: Southern California with 11 and Ohio State, Oregon State and South Carolina with seven each.
Missouri’s six selections matched the classes from 1967 and 1971. MU has produced seven draft picks twice, in 1943, when there were far fewer schools putting players in a much smaller league, and in 1981, when the draft lasted 12 rounds.
...and then Gabe Dearmond did as well.
The last 48 hours sent a signal: Missouri has arrived again as a major college football program. More than any other event, the NFL Draft can send that signal.
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Missouri was all over the draft. I watched most of it. For the first 98 picks, at least one Missouri player was listed in Mel Kiper's "Best Ten Avaialable." You may or may not agree with Kiper, but he's the Bible when it comes to the draft. Even after Coffman went off the board at pick number 98, the Tigers had two more players picked and analysts were constantly talking about Daniel's chances to make the NFL. No, it wasn't the USC linebacker commercial, but Pinkel's program got 15 hours of free advertising over the weekend. That's hard to ignore.
We move now to the NBA Draft on the horizon. The Trib's Steve Walentik takes a look at the underclassmen whose names are in the draft hat, and more importantly for the Leo Lyons's and Demarre Carroll's of the world, the names that are not.
From former Tigers to future Tigers: more Mizzou recruiting news from PowerMizzou. First, prep SF Martino Brock is visiting this weekend. He does not have an offer yet, but if he were to get one, Mizzou would be the team to beat. Next, juco PF Cliff Dixon was also scheduled to visit, but surprisingly committed to Western Kentucky last weekend and canceled his flight to Columbia. Just goes to show that a lot of kids don't decide on a school based on very recent success, I guess.
Finally, a harmless (and poorly-worded) Twitter post (I refuse to say "tweet") from Chase Daniel Sunday evening ("Hearing redskins possibly! Who knows! Free agent might be better!!") created an all-out Twitter controversy (Twitterversy?) when some dude named Chad Dukes pounced on it and tried to get himself a spot on Around the Horn out of the deal. Once Daniel corrected himself ("I said free agent might be better was meant as a compliment to the skins...I had a FA deal with them in place before draft ended"), it should have been over, but Mr. Dukes wasn't ready to end his moment in the Twitter spotlight...
And speaking of Twitter, the world just got turned upside down...