Cuonzo Martin is awesome. That is all.

Cuonzo Martin made an appearance on the St. Louis radio airwaves on Wednesday as he joined 101 ESPN’s program “Rivs & BK” with Jamie Rivers and Rock M’s own Brandon Kiley. As you’d expect given the latest unfortunate situation surrounding the country, the whole conversation was just simply more important than basketball.

Martin had a lot of powerful messages, and he said it was time for him to take a stand and speak out from the death of George Floyd.

“ I have to do something. I have to be part of this change. I have to get into the trenches to be part of the change. I just can’t sit back anymore, and that’s what it came down to for me.”

Here’s some more from Cuonzo on 101ESPN:

There’s A LOT more to dig in from the interview, and it was such a good listen, so here’s the full segment on 101 ESPN for your listening pleasures.

As always, just tremendous stuff from Cuonzo Martin, and thanks to Rivers and Kiley for getting him on their show.

And Martin wasn’t even done for the day. Later on Wednesday, he joined several Mizzou student athletes and coaches on a powerful walk throughout campus and downtown.

The contingent later met at the Boone County Courthouse and kneeled for eight minutes and 46 seconds in remembrance of George Floyd.

“This isn’t political, it’s a human rights issue,” Eli Drinkwitz tweeted in a significant message, with an amazing picture on the right.

This was a pretty big statement made by Missouri and all I can say is that I am a HUGE supporter of this. Absolutely well done, Mizzou.

Onto the links!

---

Yesterday at Rock M

• Film Room: Defense 2020 Part Five - Zone Coverages, by Tim Bussen
• One final time! Find out who Nate Edwards and Brandon Kiley have selected as “Mr. Irrelevant” in the last round of The Missouri Tigers Legends Draft
• PODCAST: South Carolina, Recruiting, and The Missouri Tigers Legends Draft with Nate Edwards and Brandon Kiley on Before The Box Score

---

More Links:

(PowerMizzou)

• ($$) Mitchell Forde has a write up on South Carolina forward Cesare Edwards discussing his Mizzou offer
• ($$) Read up on the latest and 23rd edition of Gabe DeArmond’s Macadoodle’s Mailbag

(STLToday)

• From Dave Matter, Mizzou football players organize walk through campus
• From a Sports on Tap video with Dave Matter and Ben Frederickson, Mizzou football focuses on a couple new recruiting hotbeds

(KC Star)

• Souichi Terada writes about how Cuonzo Martin is standing up to social injustice
• From Souichi Terada, Mizzou Football players organize walk and are joined by Columbia PD, administrators

(The Athletic)

• With players returning to campus, Missouri changes testing policy (as all returning athletes will be tested for COVID-19) reports Peter Baugh. Good news here.

(Columbia Missourian)

• MU student-athletes, coaches march in honor of George Floyd, writes Adam Cole

(Columbia Daily Tribune)

• From Eric Blum’s conversation with Cuonzo Martin: Mizzou’s Martin on changing racial injustice: “We’re all part of this”

(Miscellaneous/Tweets)

• Mizzou has made an announcement that MU considers schedule change to fall 2020 semester. More info can be found here from the Office of the Chancellor
• From ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Missouri football players register to vote after leading march
• SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has released his statement

• Regarding Xavier Pinson, Jeremiah Tilmon, and Mitchell Smith, there has been no official announcement yet and the deadline to withdrawal from the NBA Draft is still TBD

• This was extremely well put by analyst Beyah Rasool...and this is such an incredible picture

• Here are more pictures and videos from the peaceful protest, from ABC17’s Andrew Kauffman

• Rivals150 has updated their 2021 recruiting basketball rankings, and Mizzou is involved with a total of 11 offers at the moment

• For the Blues fans out there, the one-year anniversary of the Stanley Cup Championship is approaching, and FOX Sports Midwest will have a special In Their Own Words broadcast on June 12th
• ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the NBA to approve plan for a 22-team return with eight-regular season games
• The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that MLB has rejected the 114-game season proposal

• From ESPN’s Field Yates, here’s a timeline for upcoming sports returning

• This will be a must-watch. Tonight (Thursday) is a one-hour special edition of Inside The NBA as the TNT crew will discuss the latest social injustice in America.

• 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.**)