Mizzou headed to Springfield, according to News-Leader

It’s been a while since Mizzou took on Missouri State on the hardwood — 22 years in fact — but the hiring of former Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin appears to resumed the connection between the two. According to the Springfield News-Leader, Cuonzo Martin has made statements suggesting the Tigers and Bears will play in Springfield in 2020-2021.

“We go on the road, it’s not final yet with paperwork, but we go on the road to Missouri State,” Martin said in a #Mizzoom Inside the Huddle interview as well as saying his team will play Wichita State. “Two high-energy games.”

So according to this report, Missouri would play both the Bears and Wichita State in next year’s non-conference schedule. It would be hard to believe Missouri would do a straight up home-and-home with Dana Ford’s squad, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see the Bears make two trips north in the following years.

To be honest, I’ve never seen the appeal in playing Missouri State. If you’re going to schedule a non-Power 5 local school on the hardwood, at least make it SLU, a program with much more recent success. However, it will be nice to see Missouri square off against a home-state school, and hopefully it’ll get the team up to defending their state as the flagship university. While the reports are unconfirmed at this time, it appears that Missouri State may be a mainstay on the basketball schedule for the foreseeable future.

More Mizzou Links:

• Dave Matter took some time to reflect on Eli Drinkwitz’s recruiting bump under the COVID-19 restrictions, which is a weird sentence when you say it out loud.
• If you’re into social media sleuthing — and be honest, who isn’t these days? — you may want to check the comments on Mizzou Hoops’ rivalry post yesterday. We haven’t received official word on the draft status of any of Missouri’s three potentials (Xavier Pinson, Jeremiah Tilmon, Mitchell Smith), but X may have dropped a hint in his comment.

• Sean Williams analyzed the latest 2021 commitment — CB Darius Jackson — for PowerMizzou subscribers. If you’re not however, you can still vote on the site’s Ultimate Mizzou Player Bracket, which is down to the Final Four.
• Mizzou Softball sent out lone senior Eli Daniel on a very touching note on what would’ve been her Senior Day. Daniel recently announced she wouldn’t be taking her extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA.

• Us too, DeMarre. Us too.

• Coach Drinkwitz appears to be zeroing in on the Windy City. Perhaps another commitment is nigh?
• This is obviously helpful for any graduating senior in any year, but if any of y’all know any class of 2020 Tigers who need some guidance in all this mess, send them the way of the Mizzou Alumni Association.

Yesterday at Rock M

• With the roster set, where is Mizzou Hoops looking to fill their 2021 recruiting class?

More Links:

Generally this is where we deposit the Missouri-related links that don’t fit with the bigger theme. HOWEVER, there are only so many of those to go around these days.

So as long as I’m doing links (Mondays and Tuesdays!) I’ll be posting stuff that’s getting me through this craziness.

• Here’s your weekly The Last Dance link roundup: a former White Sox exec shared an amusing, shoe-based anecdote about Jordan from his baseball playing days; USA Today hits on the big emotional moments featuring Kobe in the recent episodes; CBS details the story of Michael Jordan almost signing with Adidas over Nike.
• This feels like pertinent news to Chiefs fans who hang out around here — y’all have a new QB!
• This didn’t technically happen yesterday, but I really enjoyed this list of the MLB’s strangest trades that went up on the league’s site this weekend.
• 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.**)