Mizzou’s elder statesman, Larry Three-Sticks, is ready for his final season

Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a great piece about senior running back Larry Rountree III (Larry Three-Sticks) and how he’s a key piece — maybe THE key piece — to a team that has a new staff, a yet to be determined quarterback — there are 5 currently on the roster, and little receiver experience, among other issues. This means the elder statesman just might be the most important player on Coach Drink’s roster.

With a passing game short on continuity and chemistry, a proven running back of Rountree’s caliber is a treasured asset. With 2,748 rushing yards over three seasons, Rountree ranks sixth all time on Mizzou’s career rushing list with a strong chance to become the program’s most prolific rushing back in team history — by October.

According to Matter, the senior might be in luck. His new coach has been very successful thus far when having a productive, high-volume running back at his disposal.

As for how Larry Three-Sticks is approaching his senior season, the accolades don’t matter. On the media Zoom call last week, he said this:

“It’s my senior year. We’ve got nothing to lose,” he added. “If at the end of the day I can leave here second or first all-time rushing, that’ll take care of itself by us winning ball games.”

I highly suggest reading the story to find out more info from Rountree, what Drink might run formation-wise given the lack of practices, as well as stats from Drink’s time with productive running backs.

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Nate wrote a game preview for the BYU Cougars.
• Sam wrote the piece on Mizzou’s newest commit, Tyler Hibbler. Welcome, Tyler!
• COMING UP: A new ep of Dive Cuts, and BK has a recruiting assessment out later this morning!

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More Links:

Football/Hoops

• KC Star: The Sports Daily KC Podcast with Blair Kerkhoff discussed the Tigers’ recruiting push and how they’ve done it.
• Saturday Down South: Michael Wayne Bratton wrote about Keke Chism’s official signing.
• Trumans Tales (Fansided): The staff continued their 2020 positional breakdowns with Defensive Backs, Interior Defensive Line, Wide Receivers, and Defensive Ends.
• RECRUITING ROUND-UP: PowerMizzou ($$): Sean Williams took at look at recent offer to 2022 ATH (and two sport star) Elijah King from MN. Gabe wrote about how the Tigers are keeping a close eye on JUCO DL Jalen Williams ($$). Mitchell Forde wrote about a 2022 PG who’s already been hearing from Mizzou ($$). Adam Gorney and Mike Farrell of Rivals published a Fact or Fiction with their takes on Mizzou’s recruiting (FREE).
• Tyler Hibbler commitment news: Souichi Terada (KC Star). Josh Helmholdt (PowerMizzou). Dave Matter (STLToday). Allen Trieu (247Sports). Andy Kimball (ColumbiaMissourian).
• And with this most recent commitment, here’s this update from Dave Matter:

Per 247Sports state rankings, Mizzou has commitments from four of the top 10 players in Missouri and six of the top 18. Iowa State is the only other school with multiple commitments (two) in the state’s top 20. (That doesn’t include East STL QB & Mizzou commit Tyler Macon)

Other Mizzou Sports

• According to MUTigers.com, Former Mizzou Soccer player Sarah Luebbert has been signed by the Chicago Red Stars for the National Women’s Soccer League Challenge Cup. High honors for the former Tiger, as the NWSL is widely considered one of the best women’s soccer leagues in the world.
• More selections for the SEC Leadership Council: Hayley Frank (women’s basketball), Danny Kovac & Sarah Thompson (swimming & diving)
• The Mizzou Pix Photo of the Year Contest continues with a matchup of #1 Mizzou Football at Homecoming vs #16 Mizzou Hoops, featuring X-Man!

Mizzou Sports on Social Media

• Great work in the classroom (in class and online)!

• Softball celebrated 48 years of Title IX and moving the sport forward.

• Happy 20th birthday to one of my favorite Mizzou Hoops athletes, Xavier Pinson!

• Immediately eligible transfer Keke Chism has signed on the dotted line!

• Our new football staff continues to... what’s the word I’m looking for? Impress? Accessorize? Entertain? We’ll go with entertain.

• Recent Mizzou Football commit Shemar Pearl is impressed with the Tigers’ recent string of commitments.

• Baseball coach Steve Bieser and his former outfielder/current Major Leaguer/awesome human, Trey Harris, spoke today about what the team can do moving forward to fighting racial injustice. This makes my heart happy, y’all.

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!

• The Columbia Tribune wrote about the retirement of KOMU sports broadcaster, Chris Gervino, and how “Good things can endure.” (fun fact: he interviewed me once at a Rock Bridge game after I was announced as their swim coach)
• From Sports Illustrated, some Brown University athletes who lost their sports may have their day in court. This will be interesting to see what comes of this.
• The New York Times covered LeBron James’ and longtime business parter Maverick Carter’s new venture into stopping voter suppression and encouraging people to vote. Super cool.
• Another day, another badass WNBA player foregoing their 2020 seasons to fight continued racial injustices. Natasha Cloud will not stick to sports and I LOVE TO SEE IT.
• BenFred wrote in STL Today that figuring out 2020 would have been hard enough, but Manfred and Clark have made it even harder.
• Haley O’Shaughnessy of TheRinger.com (a great website) asked what life will look like inside the NBA bubble.
• From Quartz, while promoting Black-owned booksellers has been awesome for business, stores are struggling to keep up with the demand for anti-racist books like Robin D’Angelo’s White Fragility and Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (side note: I ordered both of these from a Black-owned bookstore located on Delmar, EyeSeeMe Books, and anxiously await their arrival) Here’s the twitter thread if you have trouble accessing the link.
• Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune (via STLToday.com) wrote about Love Smith’s Illinois team, which currently has 8 black coaches on staff, more than any FBS school.
• And finally, two super happy things from the universe’s favorite Tweeter/Twitterer/Social Media Superstar, Rex Chapman:

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