The Border War is back in Football, and we are Zooming with Zo.

We’ve got the Border War in hoops set (thanks, Bill Self, SO MUCH for your graciousness) , and now we will have it for football too! Who’s excited?

Athletic Director Jim Sterk posted a letter to Mizzou fans this morning. As an MU employee and Mizzou sporting events attendee, I received it in my email, but it was also posted on MUTigers.com for the masses. After updating us on the stats from all sports this season — glad he took time out to do this — he got to the main event right before he signed off.

The Border War is Back and all that’s left is finalizing the contract.

Last fall, Mizzou announced a six-year agreement to play longtime rival Kansas in men’s basketball starting with the 2020-21 season. Two of the games will be played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City with two games each in Columbia and Lawrence. In addition, the institutions are expected to resume playing in other sports as future schedules allow and a four-game football series is being contracted as of this writing.

From Souichi Terada’s post in the KC Star, this is perhaps when we can expect it to occur:

(kU Athletic Director Jeff) Long conservatively hoped a game could be played in the mid-2020s or 2030s. Missouri’s schedule is booked through 2026, though there’s a chance it can move games to different years or buy out games currently scheduled against other schools. MU is already set to play K-State from 2022-23.

So I know it’s not coming for a hot second, but Rock M Nation is really pumped for this news, and I know you are too! Just look at our Twitter feed!

Choice #9 reminds me of a very specific time in my life when I was living in NC, so that’s got to be atop the apex for me.

Every Mizzou beat writer under the sun covered this story, so consider this your Choose Your Own Border War Coverage Adventure: Eric Blum (Columbia Tribune). Blair Kerkhoff & Friends (KC Star SportsBeat KC podcast). Adam Cole (Columbia Missourian). Peter Baugh (The Athletic- $$). Michael Wayne Bratton (Saturday Down South).

Pivoting to hoops (see what I did there?) To my complete and utter delight — I may have shrieked when I saw it come across my Twitter feed (yeah, I did) — Cuonzo started a Zoom series. First up? THE Kassius Robertson.

Allow me to remind you for a minute about Canadian Kash, who made such an impact on Mizzou that we included him in our Best of 2010s Top Tigers of the Decade piece. Here’s what I wrote (he was the first person I picked when the list came out):

What can we say about Kassius from Canisius? My favorite Canadian has to be one of the single greatest grad transfers in Mizzou history, and he stole our hearts with his silky smooth three-point shooting stroke — who in their right mind thought he’d be that good? Cuonzo Martin needed Kash to be great, and man— was he. He learned an entirely new offense, became a combo guard, and faced tougher competition than he ever did in the MAAC, but he took it all in stride, and left Mizzou good enough to be in the running for SEC Player of the Year, won First Team All-SEC, and now is lighting up the court professionally in Germany. — Karen Steger

So yeah... I love Kash, so for him to be Zo’s first guest on Zoom with Zo filled me with JOY. I also wonder if he was chosen as the first guest to “woo” a certain grad transfer? Said grad transfer specifically mentioned the staff’s work with grad transfers like Kash as a reason to listen to the Tigers, and we know he’s talked to him directly, per The Athletic’s CJ Moore (story in Links below).

The full interview is a whopping 22 minutes long, and CERTAINLY worth your undivided attention. You almost had to drag me back kicking and screaming to the sales floor at the PT job after starting this on my break.

Witness the magic. FULL magic here: http://youtu.be/X0X4B3SSThs.

I’ll leave you with this poor kansas fan’s look of distaste. Looking forward to this for years to come!

Onto the links we go. They are SUPER SIZED today! Lots of video goodness for you.

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Site Manager Sam put up the results of the LAST Fan Pulse of the CBB season. This is a National Championship game I really wish I could have seen, as a big Izzo/Michigan State fan, and I really like the Zags/Mark Few.
• COMING UP!!! ROUND 6 of Nate & BK’s MTL Draft! And a new player review- The XMan!

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More Links:

Football

• PowerMizzou (free): Gabe and Mitchell’s new endeavor, ZOUMCast, featured Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman of TightEndU. Check it out. Pretty cool stuff! They also are going to be going in-depth with members of Mizzou’s coaching staff. First up- Ryan Walters.
• The Athletic ($$): Peter Baugh put together a Mizzou Mixtape if you will, featuring classic games, highlights, and lowlights to rewatch. Check it out... if you’re a subscriber! **Reminder: You can still get a 90-DAY free trial of the site by clicking this here link.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Matter’s Best of Mizzou series continues, and we have reached no. 14.... SPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNN (not at all sorry for that, y’all). Here’s a story stream link of sorts to his other pieces in the series thus far.
• Today’s Mizzou Memories features the Cotton Bowl title, and a tweet by Coach Kool. That was a good day...

• Aldon Smith joined Jay Glazer on NFL on Fox to discuss his long journey back to the NFL. Hoping for nothing but the best for this guy. Really.

Hoops

• The Athletic ($$): God Bless, CJ Moore, y’all, for his premium Mizzou Hoops content. It comes too few and far between (I understand why), and consider this your off-season primer before he virtually meets up with our very own basketball overlords, Sam & Matt on their Dive Cuts pod next week. This is GREAT stuff, you guys.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Christina Long penned a really great piece about the impact of Coronavirus on former Mizzou hoopers now playing overseas. I highly recommend it.
• Can’t wait for next season, KB.

• Kind words from Cuonzo about X’s performance down the stretch.

• Dave Matter was back in action with his STL Today chat. Read the Q&A here. I found this interesting regarding Tray Jackson:

Dave Matter, STL Today

Assorted Mizzou Sports News

• Mitchell and Gabe of PowerMizzou were back with new hot taeks on their Blowin’ Smoke, Presented by Weston Tobacco series (free). They predict their confidence level of whole whole slew of topics, ranging from MLB, hoops transfers and draft success to college football and the end of social distancing.
• Souichi Terada of the KC Star wrote a very interesting story on #TigerStyle wrestler, Allan Hart, who decided to run a marathon with no training and while subsisting on a diet of only oatmeal and ramen. More on this at MUTigers.com as well.
• Eric Blum of the Columbia Tribune (I think that he wrote it— I’m NOT clearing my cache and browser history again, dammit) wrote about adversity not being anything new for Coach Grevers’ swim & dive squad. Lest you forget, he took over the head coaching gig once Coach Rhody was relegated to administrative leave (and eventually replaced) after a Title IX complaint.
• This is super cool. Vote for Mizzou in the D1 Softball Memorable Moment Madness tourney!. #1 Kentucky (blech) is taking on #4 Mizzou at the moment.

• Happy Birthday to softball academic coordinator, #MizzouMade Kelsea Roth!

Interesting/Non-Mizzou News

These are a few of the best sports stories & tidbits I found regarding some goings-on in sports and the world— Enjoy!

• Unrelated to Mizzou, but still SEC-related... The Locked on Vols podcast discussed one of my favorite non-Mizzou hoops duos. Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams, and how they revamped the Vols. Friend of the Site, Blake Lovell (Locked on SEC pod host), joined the chat.
• This looks beautiful, St. Louis. #LightItBlue

• In “Things that MSHSAA Should Have Done a Lifetime Ago,” they have canceled ALL spring sports events. About damned time. Though it is HEARTBREAKING for seniors in high school to suddenly just be done with their sports without so much as a wave goodbye.

• 6-TIME Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix chatted with Outside the Lines about her 2020 Olympic training on hold, and what she’s doing to inspire others. LOVE HER.

• If you scroll down in this draft post by former Mizzou beat writer, Tashan Reed at The Athletic, you might see a familiar face... ($$)
• Katie Nolan, host of ESPN’s Always Late with Katie Nolan is just... the greatest. In her Zoom chat with sports colleagues, they tried to see who could get the most famous person to join them. It’s almost 10 minutes long, but WORTH it.

• For my Blues fans out there (I miss hockey), this is awesome. Carve some time out of your day to watch it.

• Some thoughts from the St. Louis Cardinals.

• In case you want to watch Kobe’s best play against each NBA team (deep sigh trying to remain composed), we have SportsCenter twitter to thank:

• MULTIPLE Academy Award winning film, Parasite, is now streaming on Hulu, and they are NOT here for your rude comments.
• This is a really cool way to show love to cities’ healthcare workers. But we could all probably even think of some better uses for empty hotels, right? (sorry, spiders)

• WOAH. Talk about a lineup.... (immediately sets alarm for 4/11 at 3pm to watch this)

• If you’re looking to sign up for ESPN+, Rock M Nation now has an affiliate link: click Here for ESPN+ Now! (** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)