Rock M Roundtable!

Rock M Roundtable!

By Bill Connelly@SBN_BillC Apr 11, 2012, 4:55pm CDT

I think ... THINK ... Dave is back with us today ...

1. The forecast for Saturday's Black & Gold game is looking awfully iffy ... quick: name something better than watching a football scrimmage in rain. You just can't do it, but go ahead and try.

2. Mizzou Basketball is still well in the market for both Alex Oriakhi and Devonta Pollard. If you could choose for Missouri to land just one, which would you choose: the experienced guy who seems like the perfect role player for what Mizzou lacked last year, or the five-star freshman who might not be around long but could have some serious upside?

3. Hey, look! I'm making Atch answer another softball question! Mizzou took two of three at No. 3 Texas last weekend and heads to face No. 6 Oklahoma in Norman. They are a game behind OU and a game ahead of Texas. After struggling against Texas A&M, they have scored 35 runs in their last six conference games. Does Missouri win the Big 12 this year?

4. So Bobby Petrino is gone in Fayetteville. Of the list of potential candidates, which scare you the most (with Missouri potentially becoming a future Arkansas rival), and which would impress you the least?

Doug: 1 - You forget I live in a desert now, so doing ANYTHING in the rain would be really awesome.

2 - I think Missouri has a solid, if unspectacular recruiting class lined up at the moment. Either player would be a good addition , but the question is does MU have enough pieces in place to not have Oriakhi for the season?

3 - I don't know. If they do, does it validate the "We Are Mizzou" rap video?

4 - Mark Mangino is still out there without a job.

The Beef: 1. Watching a bowl practice in the snow

2. I would take Pollard because he has the option for being around more than 1 year

3. Mizzou plays Texas Tech this weekend at home, OU is not until next weekend

4. None of those names absolutely blow me away. We’ve struggled a bit with the teams of Art Briles, so I will say him. I cannot place Taver Johnson, so I will say him on the other side

Bill C.: Well there was SUPPOSED to be a "next weekend" after "Oklahoma" there ... read what I mean, not what I write.

The Beef: They have to get past a UNI squad that has won 15 straight, then a TTech team that hits better than we do with almost twice as many HR’s...then a Western Illinois team that is....um....from the left side of Illinois and THEN we can worry about Oklahoma.

/stubble’d

ZouDave:

1 – Not caring what the weather will be like because I’ll be watching the scrimmage from a suite, baby! YEEAH! My dad’s closest friend from childhood was an offensive guard for Mizzou in the 60s and has invited us to join him at the Letterman’s Banquet this year prior to the game and then we’ll be watching the game from the big suite afterwards. COUNT IT!

2 – Wow…that’s a great question. I think since we already have our guard/forward play kind of covered for next season I’d rather have Oriakhi, but on the other hand I’d also rather take Pollard because there’s a chance he ISN’T one and done and he could help us for more than one season. I’ll go with Pollard, but it’s close.

3 – Yep, they sure do.

4 – Just at a glance, since I don’t really know a lot about most of those coaches, I’d be most scared of Gary Patterson and least scared of Garrick McGee.

The Beef: We will come up and find you...we will be on the floor below you

ZouDave: The Captain will be thrilled. I will be just, you know, whatever.

Michael Atchison: 1. Watching a basketball game indoors.

2. I probably take the experienced role player over the one-and-done freshman, because it’s the rare one-and-done freshman that puts a team over the top, and sometimes they disrupt the chemistry. This team has a lot of good pieces already. What it needs is an anchor in the middle.

3. A softball player called me at home last night to thank me for my Tiger Scholarship Fund contribution. That’s a good omen. They win the league.

4. Dana Holgorson scares me the most, because I suspect he might be a genius, and Garrick McGee scares me the least because I don’t know who he is. OK, Dave Wannstedt scares me the least.

D-Sing: 1. You're right; I can't name one thing better than watching a football scrimmage in the rain. I can name LOTS of things that are better than watching a scrimmage in the rain. I'll let Mr. Iverson explain:

"We're not here talking about a game. We're talking about practice."

2. Give me the big man, with experience, for a year.

3. If men's basketball could do it, why not softball? Sure.

4. I would probably be least impressed with some of the retreads listed (Really, Bruce Feldman? Butch Davis? Tommy Tuberville? And I can't stop laughing at whoever suggested Wanny...that just defies words.)

I think Holgorsen would be frightening and fascinating to watch year in and year out from the offensive side, or seeing Patterson run the 4-2-5 from the other side would be equally troublesome and clinical as well.

If I were Jeff Long, I'd hire Mario Cristobal and give him a shot...doing what he's done at FIU has been nothing short of miraculous.

(Half an hour later…)

ZouDave: I came back to roundtables for this?

The Beef: We seem to be missing half the group at this point...I would tell you to wait and that it will get better...but we know I am totally making that up

SleepyFloyd7: 1. This is a false question. If you prepare yourself with enough grilled meats, there is nothing better.

2. I think I go with the Freshman. It shows that Mizzou is a realistic possibility for elite HS players.

3. The margins for winning the league are more narrow after a rough conference start. Those 2 wins vs. Texas were HUGE. I'll say they win the league, but those games in Norman loom large.

4. I think Arkansas will go guns-blazing at former OC and new HC at UAB Garrick McGee. He's a known quantity, and would be a solid-if-not-spectacular hire. I'm not sure if that would scare me as much as a Gary Patterson hire, but I'm plenty nervous anyway about moving to the SEC.

RPT: 1. I'd be more alarmed if the Spring Game weather didn't suck.

2. I think I'm reaching the point where I'd always take the ridiculously talented potential one-and-done guy. One of those is sometimes all you need for relevancy in college basketball.

3. As long as the defense doesn't fall apart like it did early in the year, they'll be fine.

4. NO BRILES, PLEASE.

The Beef: Should we ask Atch what someone his age gets to do for his birthday? Did he get to stay up a little later and enjoy his dinner at the Cracker Barrel at 4:30pm instead of the standard 3:45pm?

Doug: You can't get to Cracker Barrel too early, you'd be fighting the late-lunch crowd and the $4.95 steak dinner doesn't start until 4:30.

ZouDave: "This steak still has marks where the jockey was hitting it."