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Mizzou Links: Post-game interviews and all sorts of weekend wins

Baseball, Softball, Women's hoops win, Men lose and post-game interviews. Fear not, Bill C returns today from his exciting analytical adventure.

DE Charles Harris will be first in line to replace Shane Ray and Markus Golden
DE Charles Harris will be first in line to replace Shane Ray and Markus Golden
Ed Zurga/Getty Images

Catch up on Mizzou Football recruiting: RockMNation.com presents The Zou News

Mizzou Tigers pennant What's On

MU women extend winning streak to four, lock up No. 7 seed in SEC tourney - Columbia Daily Tribune

In Sunday’s rematch, the Tigers continued to play their best basketball of the season, leading from wire-to-wire in a 57-41 victory on senior day at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers (17-12, 7-9) will take a four-game winning streak into next week’s SEC Tournament in Little Rock, Ark., where MU will be seeded seventh and receive a first-round bye. Missouri has won five of its past six games.

Mizzou Tigers pennant Football

Definitely check out Morrison's position primers below, in the linebackers article it would seem he and Bill are of the same mind when it comes to finding a way to get Eric "Zeus" Beisel on the field and he shares my opinions about the defensive line having a lot of unproven depth.

Position Primer: Defensive Line - Columbia Daily Tribune | David Morrison

The other end spot is kind of a toss-up. Loud would seem to have the upper hand, because he ended last season as Golden's main backup at the spot. But he was also in the dog house for a large portion of the middle of the season and Hatley took over on the depth for a good five games. A lot of how this spot shakes out could depend on what the Tigers want to do with Hatley. He's not terribly quick, but adds some heft when he sets an edge in run defense. If Missouri wants to keep him out there for that, he could challenge for a starting spot. If the Tigers want to slide him inside -- as they did for portions of last year -- they could use help there as well. Loud's the more prototypical, next-level rush end as far as size and skill set go. He just hasn't quite found a way to put it together yet.

Position Primer: Linebackers - Columbia Daily Tribune | David Morrison

One: a rush end outside backer. That's where you could see a guy like Beisel, with his defensive line strength coming in handy. It would also be a way for Odom to get a physical specimen like Beisel some steady reps without having to ask him to do much beyond crash the backfield and set an edge. You could see a guy like Nate Howard or Jones fill this role as well. Talk when Jones first got on campus had him as an outside linebacker that could very easily add some weight and move on down to end. Why not split the difference? Agbasimere's got the physical tools to fill this role as well, but he could probably use a redshirt year to learn the sport better before he gets thrown into the fire.

PowerMizzou: Spring Preview: WR ($$$)

Athlon Sports: College Football's Pre-Spring Top 25 for 2015

20. Missouri

Returning Starters: Offense – 6, Defense – 6

The Tigers had a rocky start to their SEC experience, but since a 5-7 mark in 2012, coach Gary Pinkel’s team is 23-5 and has claimed back-to-back East Division titles. Pinkel and his staff will have plenty of personnel issues to address this spring, as both sides of the ball have key players to replace. On offense, quarterback Maty Mauk is looking to take the next step in his development, but the top three receivers – Bud Sasser, Jimmie Hunt and Darius White – are gone. New defensive coordinator Barry Odom was one of the top assistant hires in the SEC this offseason. Odom has few concerns in the back seven, but the line must replace ends Markus Golden and Shane Ray.

MU earns NCAA research grant to study black male athlete experience - Columbia Daily Tribune

Mizzou Tigers pennant Basketball

Jaeger will have his game of numbers piece up later today, so look for it.

Georgia hands Missouri 14th straight road loss in a rout - Columbia Daily Tribune

Georgia manhandles Mizzou : Dave Matter

Shooting woes were hardly Missouri’s only problem. Georgia bullied the visitors inside, outscored the Tigers 34-16 in the paint and outrebounded MU 47-30. The Bulldogs nearly collected as many offensive rebounds (19) as Missouri pulled down on the defensive end (21).

I thought this breakdown of Mizzou's scoring droughts this season was worth noting.

Mizzou Tigers pennantAthlete Post Game Interviews

More than a few people made a "thing" out of the players refusing to do interviews after another bad loss on the road to Georgia. There were claims that Kim Anderson had lost control of the team because at this point in the season, anything that happens can be used as confirmation for whatever bias one holds. For some, these 18-22 year old kids' scholarships required them to face the media like Marshawn Lynch. Post game quotes are nice headlines at best and filler at worst so I understand how they're important for reporters, but at this point the players are going to recycle the same quotes you could and no one would notice.

I reached out to the people I know and got a simple explanation that satisfied me, the players either had family to meet, or declined the requestI was there when Mizzou was shutout 34-0 by Georgia in football and saw the veterans and leaders on the team come out to do post-game interviews. They only had to do that 3 times all last season, the Mizzou basketball players have had 7 times as many disappointing results. On this team, with already so few veterans or leaders, if the 1-2 requested players refuse, suddenly that is a sign of discord? I don't buy it.

Matter later also tweeted a link to the story below, so I included it today.

Why do media need to talk to athletes? - Sports - The Boston Globe

Now, I will acknowledge that far too many of the postgame encounters are banal and pointless. Really good, juicy, informative quotes are always in short supply. But when writers are facing hideous nighttime deadlines, those boring, obvious, and repetitive quotes are needed in order to fill space and make that deadline. I call them the journalistic equivalent of Hamburger Helper. There are times a writer cannot live without them.

Mizzou Tigers pennant Trending News

Saw this story over the weekend which makes it seem that there is way more fire underneath the smoke than many were willing to admit with regards to North Carolina's academic scandal.

Former UNC official: Pressure led to improper graduate admission of athletes | UNC scandal | NewsObserver.com

Cheryl Thomas, former admissions director of the UNC-Chapel Hill graduate school, said she was asked repeatedly to admit athletes who hadn’t applied on time, hadn’t taken the GRE or didn’t have sufficient grades. The athletes had eligibility remaining but had finished undergraduate degrees.

Mizzou Tigers pennant Non-Revenue Review

Arkansas Gymbacks Defeat Mizzou: As It Should Be (But It Should Be Easier) - Arkansas Fight

MUTIGERS.COM Mizzou Softball Downs Maryland, 5-1

Mizzou strung together patient at bats and used aggressive baserunning to down Maryland. The Tigers scattered eight hits and drew nine walks in the victory. Junior Sami Fagan (Dunnellon, Fla.) led the way, going 2-for-2 at the plate with two hits, two walks and three stolen bases.

MUTIGERS.COM Mizzou Matches Best Start Since 1993 with Doubleheader Sweep of UIC

The Tigers have now won five consecutive games and are off to a 9-1 start, matching their best 10-game start to a season since 1993, a year in which the Tigers went 30-19 under head coach Gene McArtor. Mizzou has now won four one-run games and has three walk-off wins this season. The Tigers have also won three games this year when being tied after eight innings; they won one such game a season ago. The Tigers have yet to allow a team to score more than three runs in a game and have allowed just 15 runs in 10 games this season.

Mizzou Tigers pennant Misc

I came across a reddit post breaking down Shane Ray's NFL prospects, it includes a bunch of GIFs and analysis, if that's your thing then hit the link.