CBB Game Day: Jim Sterk stiff arms UCF

The news last night is that Jim Sterk is not a candidate for the now vacant UCF Athletics Director job. Tennessee hired Danny White from UCF, and the President at UCF is former Mizzou administrator Alexander Cartwright, who was instrumental in bringing Jim Sterk to Missouri. So it was reasonable to connect Sterk to the position. And while White was reportedly making $1.1 million per year while Sterk is making less at around $700,000, he still chose to release a statement affirming his position at Missouri:

Thanks to Souichi for tweeting out the entire statement. Regardless of whether there was any mutual interest, there are plenty of reasons to think Sterk may have a wandering eye. Sure the statement itself says a lot, and even Dave Matter tweeted out some good reasons why Sterk would want to stay, but the reality is things haven’t been exactly smooth for Jim Sterk since he took the job.

There was a very public disagreement and lawsuit from South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley, a private turned public rebuke of his potential head coaching hires list with the Board of Curators, his giving out a big-money extension to Barry Odom a year before firing him... How happy you are with the Athletic Director has a lot to do with the success or failures of the main two money programs of Football and Men’s Basketball.

So even though he oversaw a smooth transition with the retirement of Hall of Fame Volleyball coaches and brought in Larissa Anderson to coach up the softball teams (both have gone really well since), the rocky handling of the football program and the lack of success in basketball (this year notwithstanding) it’s easy to understand why Sterk might consider a job that pays better, even if it’s going from the SEC to the Group of 5.

Sterk’s ultimate hire of Eli Drinkwitz is looking pretty home-runny at this point, and though it took some time getting it going, Cuonzo Martin is also looking pretty good these days. If Drinkwitz continues on his path, and Zo can fix the basketball woes for good, Sterk could be able to name his price to stick around Columbia. But at least we’re not going to have to worry about another AD search.

We had a big day yesterday, check everything out before the game tips off:

• Roster Reset: Which running back(s) will step up in Larry Rountree’s absence?
• Rally For Rhyan: the Fundraiser vol. 2
• Rock-M-Tology: A lot of movement, but Mizzou stays put on the three seed line
• Keeping up the momentum: just another game
• Hoops Preview: Missouri can cement itself as a contender with a win over Alabama

It’s BASKETBALL SATURDAY!

We pretty quickly get to find out how Mizzou will take on a potential 1-seed in Alabama since the game tips at 11am. So let’s make it three in a row today and keep this train going.

Missouri vs Alabama today:

TIME: 11:00 a.m. CT

DATE: Saturday, February 6, 2021

LOCATION: Mizzou Arena; Columbia, MO

TELEVISION: ESPN

STREAM: WatchESPN

TWITTER: @MizzouFootball

FACEBOOK: MizzouFootballShowMe

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