It’s hard to think of anything else this morning

You all come to this space for Mizzou-related tidbits, and you specifically come here for daily Mizzou links. I feel like it’s necessary to note this considering that the news of the past 24 hours, and likely of the next 24 as well, has nothing at all to do with Mizzou.

I won’t take the time to write any sort of obituary for Kobe Bryant, or any of the other lives that were tragically lost on Sunday morning. There are plenty of excellent ones out there already. Bill Plaschke’s is particularly heart-wrenching. Charles Pierce for Esquire perhaps captured some of my thoughts most accurately, though far more beautifully than I could have ever done. (Editor’s note: I highly recommend Benjamin Hochman’s piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as well)

It is somewhat curious, though, how I never even second-guessed what today’s links would open with. Sports writers and bloggers often like to wax poetic about how important sports are — how they connect us in some grander way that’s bigger than ethnicity, nationality, religion, politics or whatever way we choose to separate ourselves from everyone else. And most of the time — as someone who admittedly does this — it’s just wishful thinking. Sports are silly, laundry-based games that we care about because we’re competitive and tribalistic. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those things in this context, but we should be careful to not assign the whole enterprise more importance than it’s due.

But Sunday? Sunday did signal a greater power in sports, and there’s no one on earth that can deny it.

For much of Sunday, many Missouri basketball players and notable alumni chose to respond to the news in their own way.

• Alumnus Sophie Cunningham:

• Former Tiger Michael Porter, Jr.:

• Freshman Aijha Blackwell:

• Senior Jordan Roundtree:

• Alum (and former teammate) Jordan Clarkson

• Several other current Mizzou Tigers retweeted messages of sorrow and grief surrounding the news.

Yesterday at Rock M

• Study Hall: West Virginia 74, Mizzou 51

More Links:

• Dave Matter recapped Saturday’s blowout loss to West Virginia.
• The Mizzou women couldn’t pull off an upset in College Station, falling to No. 15 Texas A&M

• Tyler Murray at ABC 17 spoke with Coban and Jevon Porter about their basketball family, and once again, the impact of Kobe Bryant on their lives.

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