Greetings from a hotel near O’Hare! Hit a bit of a snag heading back from the Sloan Conference yesterday. You could say that my travel day yesterday was like the Mizzou-Kentucky game of travel days.

I wasn’t able to catch any of the Kentucky game, but let’s see if I’m up to speed on what I missed:

1. Michael Porter Jr. warmed up before the game but watched from the bench.

2. He watched other things from the bench, too.

3. Kentucky made Jontay Porter work and work and work. Wasn’t a good evening for the freshman.

4. Mizzou’s defense got torched, though as Sam pointed out on Sunday, the Tigers went with the game plan that had worked so well the first time around. As it turns out, when your athletic, super-talented opponent gets smoking hot from 3-point range, there is no game plan that will work all that well.

5. Mizzou has been incredibly resilient this year without MPJ, and because of that, the Tigers still have something to play for heading into March. But ... now they really need him.

Does that about cover it?

More Links:

• SHOWMECAM

• PowerMizzou broke down the Shamar Nash commitment.
• Ban all basketball trips to College Station. They always go poorly, it seems. Mizzou Women’s Hoops wrapped up the regular season with a dud of an 82-63 loss to No. 17 Texas A&M. The Aggies seized control with a 22-7 second quarter and cruised from there. The loss dropped the Tigers to 11-5 in conference play and made them the No. 6 seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament. They’ll play the Florida-Ole Miss winner on Thursday evening, then face No. 3 seed Georgia if they win. A rubber match against new hated rival South Carolina would have to wait till the semis.

• Hey, wanna watch Karissa Schweizer win the SEC (and then talk to ESPN’s John Anderson)?

• Solid weekend for Mizzou Softball in the Mary Nutter Classic. The Tigers beat BYU and fell to No. 12 Arizona on Day 1 (they led the Wildcats heading into the seventh inning before stumbling), they run-ruled North Carolina on Day 2, they manhandled Wisconsin and Bethune-Cookman on Day 3, and they made a respectable showing against No. 3 UCLA on Sunday before falling, 4-0.
• Mizzou Baseball outscored Northeastern by a 35-17 margin over four games this weekend ... but lost twice. They won on Friday, lost 10-8 and won 20-1 on Saturday, and let one slip on Sunday to end with a disappointing series split.
• After falling to yet another top-10 SEC foe (Kentucky), Mizzou Gymnastics took out its frustrations on Illinois and UIC on Sunday, posting a season-high 196.625 score and running away with the tri-meet.

• Mizzou Tennis is falling back to earth a bit.

• Hayden Buckley is on the Haskins Award (college golf’s Heisman) watch list, which makes sense considering he wins like every damn event he participates in (give or take).