Definitely a big recruiting weekend for Mizzou Basketball. PowerMizzou briefly caught up with Tyler Stone last night (here's his Rivals profile), and while we wait for them to corroborate the John Underwood commitment, here's his Rivals profile, and here's an ESPN profile from the beginning of the season. Nine blocks a game in high school. Nice.
A couple people on other boards have suggested that getting commits from two big men suggests that Mizzou knows that Keith Dewitt probably isn't going to be eligible in the fall. I disagree. If Stone is capable of playing SF (and I have no idea if he is--haven't seen a single highlight yet), then Mizzou's basically inked a four-man class consisting of a point guard, a SF-PF combo, and two big men. Looking at the personnel returning for next year, that's exactly what the class should have looked like. They lose only Matt Lawrence in the backcourt, so they needed mostly bigs.
And speaking of the point guard of the class, The Trib checks in with Mike Dixon.
We posted a few blurbs from different articles over the weekend regarding Mizzou draftees (and non-draftees) in their first rookie camp. Here's another one: the KC Star profiles Colin Brown.
A senior in high school with little time before graduation, Brown got in the car and headed to Columbia. He walked into a room, and important, busy football men took one look and knew. Brown walked out of that room with an invitation.
“They told me I was 6-7 and it’s worth a try in the fall,” Brown said. “We’d see what happens.”
So the kid enrolled at Mizzou. He figured it would be a short-lived experiment. “I had it built up in my mind I’d go down and day one I’d be blatantly the worst football player they’d ever had there,” he said.
Instead, everyone discovered some things in the long shot: Footwork and size, athleticism and the ability to be very, very good. Brown put on 100 pounds that first year. He saw some playing time his second year, including as a reserve left guard. He started all 13 games in 2007. He was downright great last year.
As we wait for The Beef's Monday Musings to elaborate on the upcoming Big 12 Softball Tournament, here's a quick Missourian article on yesterday's game to tide you over.
Finally, the Missourian takes a quick look at the Big 12's hottest baseball team as well.