What a night for Mizzou in the Pros! EVERYBODY gets a win!

First up, what an excellent Major League debut for Boston Red Sox starter, Tanner Houck! Mizzou Baseball really amped up their excitement of his debut, with messages from a slew of former Tigers, including one from MIGHTY MAX and another with former teammates, Kyle Gibson, Padres coach Jayce Tingler, and Ian Kinsler. Also, Tanner Houck is a really good dude...

Aside from Tanner, Soph and MPJ also had important games tonight, though they were pretty quiet in their team’s respective awesomeness. Still, how cool for them.

Next up, MPJ and the Nuggets are heading to the Western Conference Finals with their unbelievable win over the heavily favored Clippers. According to ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in the postgame broadcast, this is the first time in the 74-year history of the NBA for a team to come back from down 3-1 in a series TWICE. They will face the Lakers on Friday at 8pm (insert eyes emoji).

As for Mike’s stats, he played 15 minutes, only taking two shots, with 7 rebounds and 2 points and was +/- 1 (the only starter in the positive). Here’s the recap from the Missourian.

Last up, Sophie and her Mercury team pulled off a win on Tuesday night to advance to the Second Round of the WNBA Playoffs, beating the Washington Mystics 85-84. As for Soph’s stats, she played only 8 minutes, scoring 0 points with 1 rebound.

What a great day to be a (former) Tiger!

On to the links, which are surprisingly heavy for other sports!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Aaron identified the best linebacker recruits in Mizzou history.
• Nate the Great must have a lot of time on his hands, because he looked at ALL of Mizzou’s 2021 offers (yes, all of them), and identified who’s left on the big board.
• COMING UP AT ROCK M: We’ve got a new Dive Cuts this week, and we’ll continue Linebacker Week coverage.

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More Links:

Football

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Dave wrote that Drinkwitz’s “Hoosier State” strategy paid off with a four-star tandem.
• KC Star: Souichi covered how Mizzou will prepare for Alabama as training camp wraps up.
• PowerMizzou: Mitchell wrote about how Darius Robinson is a name to know on the D-Line.
• Rivals.com ($$): Sean Williams posted some Daylan Carnell (2021 commit) highlights for subscribers.
• The Maneater: Jack Soble wrote about how Rutgers transfer Mike Maietti could make a crucial contribution to this year’s team.
• From Max Baker at The Missourian (with more on this from MUTigers.com):

• LOVE THIS.

• This is AWESOME. As part of their #Mizzou4Change initiative, the football team is partnering with Angel Armies and Care Portal to help out foster families. (via MUTigers.com)

Other Mizzou Sports

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In a new Matter on Mizzou, Dave talked about 4 topics Mizzou fans should into: MPJ, Tanner Houck, Drinkwitz’s team giving back, and Aldon Smith being reborn in Dallas. Check it out!
• The Maneater: Sidney Dixon completed a Q&A with Mizzou Volleyball’s lone freshman, Emily Brown, in regards to her preparation for an abnormal season.
• Can’t wait to see Drew suit up!

• According to CBB insider Jon Rothstein, 8 early hoops tourneys are being moved to Orlando, including the Tigers’ scheduled Myrtle Beach Invitational.
• KC Star: Souichi wrote about how Mizzou Hoops was set to hit the beach, but will apparently head to Disney instead. According to his post, the Tigers will find out more about their schedule today.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Jeff Gordon wrote that there are no more shortcuts for Cuonzo at Mizzou (confession: I did not read this yet to know if it’s good or off-putting for fans)
• Columbia Missourian: Emily Leiker wrote that both men’s and women’s cross country teams are ranked in the preseason top 5 of the SEC Coaches Poll. Congrats, runners!
• Columbia Missourian: Joel Lorenzo asked us to give a cheer for Sarah Thompson, who was ranked as the # 16 NCAA swimmer in the country by Swimming World Magazine! Last season, before it was cut short (stupid Covid), she made the NCAA’s in three events (50/100 freestyle, 100 backstroke).

• Columbia Tribune: Eric Blum wrote about how Mizzou Soccer player Keiarra Slack’s speech at the athlete sit-in inspired her coach, Bryan Blitz.
• Really cool that women’s hoops got involved in this.

• According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports, Rivals Recruiting Analyst,Corey Evans, is joining the OKC Thunder, so another familiar hoops recruiting face bites the dust (joining Evan Daniels of 247, who left for a sports agency this summer).

Interesting/Non-Mizzou News

These are some of the best sports stories & other reading material I recommend— Enjoy!

• Marc J Spears of The Undefeated wrote a great piece about how the Clippers may have fallen short in the bubble, but head coach Doc Rivers showed us the way.
• Jason Reid of The Undefeated said that Week 1 in the NFL showed us that we should expect the protesting (and booing) to continue.
• But really.... So many compliments for LSU’s Coach O today, who basically said all of his players have had it and “he hopes they won’t get it again,” but not much to say for programs who have successfullly contained the spread with... I don’t know... taking safety precautions and wearing masks and such. I’m not raising a glass anytime soon to the former, but will definitely salute the latter.

• And I’ll leave you with this. Paul Rudd doesn’t age, and will always be one of my favorites.

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