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Terry Beckner Jr. is the ultimate team leader, and Jontay Porter’s got quick feet

A rundown of some of this weekend’s more interesting Mizzou (and non-Mizzou) story lines.

By Sam Snelling
NCAA Football: Missouri State at Missouri Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Hopefully you managed to avoid #RoyalWedding twitter yesterday, but if not we’ve got a good palate cleanser for you.

1. POLL TIME!

We asked a simple question to see where Mizzou fans stood on the eternal question of which would be preferable:

  • A College Football Playoff spot
  • A Men’s Basketball Final Four
  • ANY OTHER sport’s national title

After 1,890 votes only about 75 of you preferred the national title in literally any other sport other than Football or Men’s Basketball, which means over 1,800 votes when to one of the top two revenue sports being on the biggest stage and still falling short.

Realistically, you could say Mizzou has knocked on the door of the CFB playoff multiple times had it been in place in 2013, 2007 and the national championship Mizzou should claim in 1960.

In basketball, four Elite Eight’s have yielded zero Final Four trips, so you can understand why hoops fans might want to see “the best program to never make a Final Four” get over the hump and play on the last weekend of the year.

The poll thing is fun. I think we’ll keep doing it.

2. TBJ = Hero

Cuonzo Martin and Barry Odom have been making the rounds on the Mizzou Caravan the last few weeks. A couple days ago they landed in Kansas City, and Odom gave you yet another reason to love Terry Beckner Jr.

Beckner has been called a locker room leader many times and was a key component in the team managing to turn around the season and make a bowl. If Missouri is going to take another step forward this year, a big part of it is going to be Beckner’s leadership on the defensive side of the ball.

Offensively, Missouri exploded, but the defense became solid and reliable enough to prevent easy scores, which gave Drew Lock breathing room. If Beckner and his leadership can help the defense take another step against a tough schedule he’ll have truly left an impact on this program moving forward.

It’s nice when you’re best guys are always your hardest workers and your top leaders.

3. Jontay Porter has quick feet

The Mizzou freshman had the fifth-best shuttle run of anyone at the NBA combine. That’s something. We still don’t have official word on whether or not Jontay is staying in the draft or coming back to school. He didn’t scrimmage at the combine, which is usually a sign he has a guarantee he won’t make it past a certain slot in the draft.

If you’re looking to hear Michael Porter Sr. talk about his son, PowerMizzou had him on their podcast, and you can listen here.

A lot of people have talked about how honest Michael Porter Sr. was in the interview, I’ve never felt he was dishonest in previous ones. On whether he’ll be back without a son on the roster he said he would be, but I’m not sure how else he’s supposed to answer that question. If he hems and haws, we’d all talk about how he knows he isn’t coming back, which is why he gave a non-answer. On that question, he can only say he plans on being at Missouri because he, quite literally, under contract for two more years.

Jontay is almost certainly gone, and if both Porter boys are in the NBA I have a hard time imagining a scenario where it’s best for Missouri that he stays on. I don’t mean that to be demeaning to Porter Sr. because he’s obviously accomplished a lot with his kids. But I’ve got a hard time imagining he’ll want to grind away as a high major assistant when the boys will be playing basketball all over the country.

4. If you are into horses...

There was a race yesterday and Justify won, which means something to people who like horses. Justify also won the Kentucky Derby, which also means something. So there’s that.

I don’t know, I don’t really follow horse racing.

5. NBA —-> KCMO

RMN contributor Jarrett Sutton with a cool tidbit.

The NBA in Kansas City would certainly be a lot of fun, and it would finally give a home tenant for the beautiful Sprint Center.

As a big fan of the NBA, I might have to adopt a KC Team as my own since I follow the league and don’t currently have a rooting interest. I haven’t had a rooting interest since Michael Jordan retired the second time.

I don’t know how soon the NBA might be looking to expand, but wherever the league tends to go it tends to do well.

I also appreciate the number of sites who were able to create #content thanks to Sutton’s tweet:

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