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Mizzou Links, 4-23-12

By Bill Connelly
ORCHARD PARK, NY - OCTOBER 9: Jeremy Maclin #18 of the Philadelphia Eagles celebrates scoring a touchdown in the first half at Ralph Wilson Stadium on October 9, 2011 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Brody Wheeler/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NY - OCTOBER 9: Jeremy Maclin #18 of the Philadelphia Eagles celebrates scoring a touchdown in the first half at Ralph Wilson Stadium on October 9, 2011 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Brody Wheeler/Getty Images)
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Mizzou Football Links

Gotta love that Trent Hosick committed this early even though he knew Mizzou would keep right on recruiting quarterbacks.

  • 2013 Recruiting
    The Trib: Staley QB recruit Hosick won't shy from competition

    Hosick led Staley to the Class 5 state championship last fall but put up modest passing numbers in Bouchard's run-first and run-second offense. Hosick threw for just 1,422 yards and 10 touchdowns in 14 games, leading some to wonder if he was major college material at quarterback, especially for a spread team like Missouri that requires an accurate passer.

    There's no wondering about Hosick's running ability: He plowed through defenses for 2,054 rushing yards and 31 touchdowns last year. In Staley's epic four-overtime win over Boehm's Lee's Summit West team in the state semifinals, Hosick logged 40 carries, picking up 261 yards and four scores.

    But as college coach after college coach passed through Staley this offseason, many left convinced Hosick has the tools to be an effective college passer. One assistant told Bouchard he studied every pass Hosick made last season — he completed 94 of 149 throws, a 63.1 percentage, almost identical to James Franklin's percentage for Missouri last fall — and told the coach, "We have no doubt he'll be an exceptional quarterback."

    "If we played in a spread system and I was doing things the spread offenses do, he would have produced very, very significant numbers," Bouchard said. "We do what we do as a high school" offense "not necessarily to produce numbers for our quarterbacks but hopefully to win the game. Sometimes that calls for us to throw, and sometimes that calls for us to run."

  • Spring Wrap-Ups Continue
    PowerMizzou: What We Learned: Offensive Line
    PowerMizzou: What We Learned: Defensive End
    PowerMizzou: What We Learned: Defensive Tackle
    PowerMizzou: What We Learned: Linebacker
  • My Google Reader Picks Up Funny Things Sometimes
    Philly.com: Pretzel CEO has a TV twist

    Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and Sean Weatherspoon of the Atlanta Falcons partied with a group of seven drinking Ciroc Peach and Crown Royal cocktails as well as Moet Rose champagne Saturday night at the Pool After Dark at Harrah’s Atlantic City. The ballers took photos with fans and danced a bit.

Other Football Links

  • PLAYoff?
    SI.com (Stewart Mandel): BCS bowls have little say in college football playoff discussions
    Chicago Tribune: Conference commissioners in search of elusive playoff solution to replace BCS

Basketball Links

  • Not Sure What This Means For Sure, But It Could Be Interesting For Basketball
    Panther-Lair.com: NCAA redefines eligibility

Mizzou Softball Links

At this point, all I can think to say is what I already said on Saturday:

Mizzou Softball is 3-5 4-6 in one-run and extra-inning games this season. Team Stubble lost another heartbreaker last night yesterday, 2-1 in 10 innings to first-place Oklahoma. You don't expect a losing record in close games with Chelsea Thomas on the mound, but with freshmen accounting for 49 percent of Mizzou's at-bats in 2012, it makes some sense. We knew this would be a ridiculously young team; we just hoped the upside and pitching were enough to overcome it. Mizzou is still clearly very good this year, but they are a bit lacking as compared to last season. They will still have a chance at a nice postseason run (this is still probably a better team than the one that made the WCWS in 2009), but the odds of either winning the conference or hosting a Super Regional (barring upset) are quite slim at this point. Win the next two in Norman (next game: today at 2:00 p.m. CT), of course, and we'll talk.

Chelsea Thomas allowed six runs in 24 innings of work and went 1-2. With Thomas, Mizzou is one big swing away from beating anybody in the country (as they basically proved on Saturday with Ashley Fleming's two-run shot), and a fourth straight WCWS series is still at least a somewhat realistic goal. But it is certainly worth remembering that a) half of Mizzou's offense is made up of freshmen, and b) Fleming and Kristen Nottelmann are the only seniors on the team. This program is loaded.

As for yesterday's game on ESPN ... congrats to Keilani Ricketts for figuring out how to keep Mizzou hitters off balance. Chelsea Thomas did the same eventually, after an iffy first two innings, but Ricketts continuously had Mizzou guessing wrong -- they got blown away by heaters when expecting breaking balls and, at other times, looked silly swinging at breaking balls about three seconds too early. Fleming in particular was off-balance all day. As I've said before, Mizzou has a good offense, which makes them vulnerable to great pitching. Ricketts is a great pitcher.

Mizzou Baseball Links

Mizzou entered the weekend series with Kansas State in at least some danger of falling to ninth place and missing the Big 12 tournament. They slapped those worries around pretty well, sweeping KSU and going three games up on the now-last place Wildcats. They're 6-9 in conference now, alone in sixth place -- they are two games behind fourth-place Oklahoma State, one game behind fifth-place Oklahoma and two games ahead of seventh-place Kansas. Since I'm mourning close losses with the softball team, it makes sense to do the same here: Mizzou is 3-7 in games decided by two runs or less in conference play. Just a 5-5 record would have them alone in fourth place and, at 23-15, looking pretty good for an NCAA Tournament bid. Alas.

Other Mizzou Links

Gotta feel for Dom Bradley, who took the year off from Mizzou to focus on making the U.S. Olympic wrestling team but fell in an upset in the quarterfinals.

  • Mizzou Gymnastics
    MUtigers.com: Updike Advances to Individual Event Finals
    MUtigers.com: Updike Wraps Up 2012 Season at Nationals
  • Mizzou Wrestling
    KC Star: Mizzou's Bradley falls short of spot on Olympic team

    In Dom Bradley’s mind, this was supposed to be a coronation, of sorts. The Blue Springs grad hadn’t underestimated his opponents — it’s hard to do that at the U.S. Olympic Trials — but he did expect to win the 264½ weight class, despite being the fourth seed. You don’t make the sacrifices Bradley had to get to this point — such as putting off his senior season at Missouri — without that kind of confidence.

    "I was looking forward to this for a long time," the 23-year-old said.

    Bradley’s day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena was memorable, but not for the reasons he had hoped. It instead was a learning experience, as he dropped his quarterfinal match in agonizing fashion and was eliminated in the backdraw in his next match. […]

    Smith can’t wait to add Bradley to the mix next fall. Missouri, which returns 10 NCAA qualifiers and several Big 12 champions, is looking for redemption after a disappointing showing at this year’s NCAA championships, where the Tigers failed to crown an All-American for the first time since 2001.

    "They’re hungry, because they didn’t finish it off the way the wanted to," Smith said. "That’s not a bad thing."

    It’s safe to say no one will be hungrier next season than Bradley, who has all the motivation in the world to make next year a special one, especially after Sunday.

    "I can’t explain how excited I am to be in the room next year with the team," Bradley said of Missouri. "My freshman and sophomore years, I was on teams with (NCAA champions) Ben Askren, Mark Ellis and Nick Marable, and now I get to be the older guy helping and giving advice. It’s going to be exciting."

    KC Star: U.S. Olympic trials notebook
  • Mizzou Tennis
    MUtigers.com: No. 19 Texas Tech Defeats Mizzou, 6-1
    MUtigers.com: No. 13 Baylor Downs Mizzou, 7-0
  • Mizzou Swimming & Diving
    The Missourian: Columbia swimmers raise money with 'Wacky Races'
  • Mizzou Golf
    Mizzou Network: Mizzou Golfers Teach Kids

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