This past weekend, St. Louis Lutheran North’s Jack Buford was among two St. Louisans to visit Mizzou. By all accounts, the visit went quite well. The whole family had a good time.

You’ll forgive Mizzou fans for getting a bit optimistic about the fact that, yesterday evening, Buford’s coach suddenly announced that Buford would be announcing his college of choice on Wednesday.

Now, we’ve all followed recruiting enough to know that unexpected twists and turns are almost expected. Buford has visited Arkansas as well, retweets plenty of Illinois things on Twitter, and probably doesn’t need to visit Oklahoma to understand what the Sooners have to offer.

Still, the tea leaves say happy things. And Buford would be a lovely get. The 6’5, 320-pounder is a four-star prospect per the 247Sports Composite, and assuming he not only commits but then remains committed until signing day, he would be Mizzou’s first four-star get from St. Louis since, incredibly, Andy Bauer in the 2014 class.

Part of that five-year gap is because of recent struggles, and part is because the 2015-17 classes didn’t offer many four-star recruits to pursue. Still, if Buford were to commit — and a bit earlier in the recruiting cycle than expected, no less — it would be a hell of a boon to Mizzou’s summer recruiting efforts, in the STL area and outside of it. Fingers crossed.

Yesterday at Rock M

More Links:

• SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.
• The Trib talked to Karissa Schweizer and her coaches. “It’s just a slow progression and her taking care of her body. She rests right. She eats right. She drinks fluid throughout the day.” WELP, guess it’s too late for me to become an elite athlete.
• Former Trib writer Blake Toppmeyer, now with the Knoxville News, wrote about former Tennessee head coach and current Mizzou offensive coordinator Derek Dooley’s return to the SEC.
• HELLO, NEWBIES.

• No Mizzou players were selected last night in the opening evening of the MLB draft, but the coming days will define the ceiling of next year’s squad.
• Jada Williams of Blue Springs just completed her [does quick math] seventh grade season. And now she has a Mizzou offer.

That’s crazy. How good could a seventh grader—oh. Damn.

• Mizzou, meet Legends. Legends, Mizzou.
• Mizzou Softball has had an SEC all-freshman team performer for five more years. Now for a few more all-conference performers, I guess...