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IT’S GAME DAY. MIZZOU’S BACK IN THE TOURNAMENT, AND IT’S GAME DAY. And the links are awfully Porter-flavored.
Michael Porter Jr.’s dad says he was awfully rusty the other day. (Well yeah.)
“I felt like he looked extremely rusty,” said his father and assistant coach Michael Porter Sr. “He looked like Michael, but as far as Michael the basketball player, that wasn’t him. It was still somewhat of a shadow. He’s getting it back. It’s going to take a lot of repetition. I think he’s on his way physically. I love that he’s not hurting anymore.”
Okay, he was also a little more encouraging.
[W]hen when his son, Michael Porter Jr., expressed his interest to return to play for the Tigers this past week at the family’s kitchen counter, Porter Sr. made his perspective known.
”All you have is right now,” Porter Sr. recalled of the conversation. “You have to give thought to the future but don’t live in fear. And if you want to play and you want to help these guys, then let’s do it.
”Don’t second guess it. Don’t look back. Be all-in.”
MPJ thinks his mind is just about back to where it needs to be.
“I have made some progress. Practice has been going good. I’ve been getting up and down a lot more and I’m starting to feel better,” Porter said. “There is a little mental hurdle even at this point. My mind’s telling me I want to do some certain things that I just won’t be able to do for a couple months after I get the nerve regeneration. I feel a lot better at this point than I was a week or two weeks ago.”
He got a little philosophical, too.
“Life doesn’t always happen the way you want it to, but we’re here and we have an opportunity to do something special,” he said Thursday from the eye of a media scrum-swarm in the MU locker room. “This is what the whole season was about, so regardless of how the season went, we’re here and we’re ready to go.”
Let’s go.
Other Hoops Links
- F*** cancer.
- Mizzou is indeed back where it belongs. But the Tigers want more.
- Mizzou Women’s Hoops hopes its offense made the flight to Palo Alto. The Tigers didn’t pack it for their last couple of road trips.
Yesterday at Rock M
More Links:
- Man oh man, what a horrid start for Mizzou Wrestling at the NCAA Championships. In the first session alone, No. 2 Joey Lavallee, No. 5 John Erneste, and No. 15 Canten Marriott all lost to unseeded wrestlers, leaving Mizzou’s hopes for a top-five finish (much less a top-three finish) on life support. Things stabilized in the second session, with Mizzou going 8-1 and advancing four wrestlers to the quarterfinals. But they stand sixth overall at the moment.
- Chicago Simeon products — like Mizzou commit Xavier Pinson — made massive waves on day one of the NCAA Tournament.
- Mizzou Women’s Swimming & Diving produced two All-American finishes on Thursday — Sharli Brady and the 200-meter free relay team.
- Mizzou Softball welcomes No. 20 Mississippi State to town, desperate for a spark. Meanwhile, No. 24 Mizzou Baseball takes on No. 16 LSU in Baton Rouge. Our Ryan Herrera will have a preview of that series up later this morning.