Mizzou Links: National Signing Day and the challenge of hoops positivity

What's On

Some happy, dominant wrestling highlights, that's what.

1 day from Signing Day

There's kind of a calm-before-storm thing going on today ... not a lot to talk about, at least in the world of Mizzou recruiting.

MUTIGERS.COM: Mizzou Football Recruiting Reception Set For Wednesday at 5:30
Fox Sports MW: Missouri Tigers put best foot forward to bring East St. Louis' Terry Beckner Jr. to #DLineZou
NOLA.com: Rummel defensive lineman Tyrell Jacobs finds home with Missouri

Kansas State and Missouri were the two schools to earn official visits from Jacobs and his parents. In Manhattan, Jacobs met with legendary Wildcats head coach Bill Snyder, who promised Jacobs a chance to have a second family nearby. Naturally, a player who has placed as much emphasis on making his college decision on family was intrigued.

But Kansas State couldn't stack up what the Tigers had: a recent history of turning players into NFL stars.

Jacobs couldn't overlook recent defensive linemen that starred at Mizzou then wound up being selected in the first round of the NFL draft. Aldon Smith and Kony Ealy were among the players that when mentioned, immediately opened up Jacobs' eyes.

PowerMizzou: Road to Signing Day: RB/WR
PowerMizzou: Road to Signing Day: OL/DL

I would imagine that positivity is difficult, yes

The Trib (Courtside View): Anderson talks about challenge of staying positive while still pushing Tigers

On the process of establishing standards and culture on and off the court …

"I think the hardest thing for me has been the fact that when you don’t have success, guys sometimes look at you and say, ‘Well, this isn’t working.’ Our guys have been pretty good for the most part. Again, we have a lot of young guys who have never had probably had these demands made on their time as far as we’re trying to work out with our guys not only practice and strength but also some individual skill stuff to help them improve plus they have their academic work to take care of, so we are putting a lot of demands on their time, and I said this, and you’ve been in all of my press conferences, we’re probably like a couple other teams in our league, we need something good to happen." [...]

"I think the game Saturday was probably one of the first games — there were maybe one or two earlier; I go back to Purdue — I didn’t think we played with energy that game or maybe the fight that we needed to. This game, we missed a bunch of shots early. I think our confidence level got shaken a little bit, and we didn’t handle their zone real well, although again we had some shots and we just didn’t knock them down. It’s hard. It’s hard, but as a coach you just try to keep being as positive as you can understanding you’ve got to correct them. There’s got to be some criticism, and there’s got to be some accountability."

D'oh

MUTIGERS.COM: LSU Overcomes Mizzou in Monday Night Thriller
The Missourian: LSU overcomes late rally to defeat Missouri women's basketball

Woohoo!

MUTIGERS.COM: Track & Field Women Hit Record National Ranking

For the first time since the USTFCCCA (U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association) began releasing weekly track & field rankings in 2008, the Mizzou women have landed in the top 15 of their top 25 national list.  This is the second time this season that the women have made history with the rankings, after they made the top 25 preseason list for the first time in early-January.  The women made the biggest jump for the rankings this week, moving up 15 spots from No. 28 to land at No. 13, as released on Monday.  This came on the heels of an exciting meet weekend for the Tigers, as they returned from the Armory Track Invitational in New York City with five school record performances, six All-Time Top Ten performances, and 15 personal records (PRs).

Leading the way with school record performances was sophomore LaQuisha Jackson, who reset the 60m dash record once again, first in the preliminary round in 7.33.  She dropped that time down later that day, winning the semi-final round in 7.31.  This is the third meet that Jackson has landed a new record mark in the event, after she kicked her Tiger career off with a history-making finish of 7.44 at the Border Battle on January 10.  She returned home the following weekend, defending her home track by knocking that time down a couple more notches, clocking through at 7.43 during the preliminary heats and 7.42 in the final.