Happy Monday! Let’s hear from incoming Mizzou freshman guard Torrence Watson.

“The first thing I realized about Coach Martin is, he keeps it real with us. When I came in, he told me I have a chance to play, but I’m gonna have to earn it. He’s a very tough coach, but I love that about him.”

By the way, at the 26-second mark, we get another glimpse of transfer Dru Smith’s glorious hair. I just can’t say how much I enjoy that coiff. It is truly spectacular.

Anyway, PowerMizzou caught up with Watson’s Whitfield High coach recently, too.

Do you believe Torrence feels pressure to come in and contribute immediately with Missouri losing guys like Kassius Robertson and Jordan Barnett that really carried a lot of the scoring load for them last year?

I don’t think so, no. Torrence has been having to deal with that for the last two years having to produce not only for himself, but also for our high school team. I do think there’s an opportunity there for him, though, to earn more playing time than a traditional freshman would have.

This weekend at Rock M

More Links:

• Last week, we learned that Mizzou’s 2016-17 athletics revenue ranked 32nd in the country (among public institutions that have to report such numbers). This weekend we learned that the Tigers had finished 33rd in the Learfield Cup standings for 2017-18. Now that’s what we call performing approximately to expectation (and not a bit higher). It bears mentioning that this is the school’s highest finish yet.
• St. Louis blue-chip receiver Marcus Washington looked like he was homing in on either Ohio State or Mizzou for a while there. It appears, with the announcement of more visits, that he’s going to open things up a bit instead.

• Another St. Louis target, Parkway North’s CJ Boone, might or might not be considering Mizzou all that much, but he certainly got some pretty good art from the Tigers recently.

• Recent QB commit Connor Bazelak got the PowerMizzou film room treatment. The short version: he’s pretty good.
• On the hoops side, a backup plan appears to be off the board. East St. Louis’ Terrence Hargrove Jr. committed to SLU.

• The Nuggets released their Summer League roster, and Michael Porter Jr., as we would probably have predicted, wasn’t on it.