Never Fear, Tigers Fans!

Need a cure for your Wednesday night game from hell hangover? Well, Rally for Rhyan is here! And Mizzou is UNDEFEATED in RFR games, and it’s not going to stop this year. This game is too important to this team, this athletic department, the Loos family, and this fanbase.

Look who Rhyan got to interview! I am floored. Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) is an absolute icon in the sports journalism world.

In case you are not familiar with why this game came to be and why it’s so important, here’s the details: Brad Loos was a former Tigers’ assistant coach under Kim Anderson when his daughter, Rhyan, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma at age 5. To help raise money for pediatric cancer research, the Loos family started the Rally for Rhyan fund. While Rhyan has now been cancer-free for almost four years, the fight still goes on. With over $600K raised since its inception (guessing on the exact number- it was 500k prior to the 2020 game), the Loos family has been able to fund numerous pediatric cancer trials, and hope to continue to fight to stop pediatric cancer with your help.

In last year’s RFR game, Mizzou beat Arkansas 83-79 in an overtime THRILLER with X leading the Tigers in scoring with 24 points. Reed Nikko tallied his first double-double (I miss him), and Javon & Dru also scored in double figures. As for money raised at the game, $80,000 was raised for Rally for Rhyan. 2020 game recap from Dave Matter (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and CJ Moore (The Athletic)

Mizzou Athletics

Thomas Huitt-Johnson of Fan Sided site Trumans Tales, wrote a post last year detailing the history of the Rally for Rhyan games before the 2020 game. Here is some game history:

• The Tigers defeated Tennessee in the inaugural Rally For Rhyan game 75-64 on Feb. 13, 2016. The win broke up a nine-game losing streak that season for Kim Anderson’s team, and raised $50,000. 2016 post from Alec Lewis (The Maneater)
• In 2017, the Tigers defeated Arkansas 83-78. That game put to a halt to a 13-game losing streak for Mizzou, and the Tigers knocked off an eventual NCAA Tournament team with an inspired effort to grab their first conference win that year. Mizzou (6-16, 1-9 SEC) were led in points by Jordan Barnett’s 17. KJ Walton, Kevin Puryear, and Cullen VanLeer also had double figures. According to reports, $54,000 was raised at the game. 2017 gamers from Edward Redler (KOMU) and Bill Connelly (Rock M Nation). Photo Gallery (PowerMizzou)
• In 2018, the Tigers faced off against Mississippi State in a matchup where both teams were trying to claim a late-season victory to add to its tournament resume. Missouri won the game in overtime 89-85 after a 3-point shot from Kevin Puryear with 10 seconds left gave the Tigers the win. $60,000 was raised at the game. 2018 gamers from Dave Matter (STL Today/NCAA.com) and Alec Lewis (Missourian)
• And in 2019, Mizzou downed Vanderbilt 77-67 to win its fourth-consecutive event, and raised $55,000 for cancer research. They were led by strong performances by their three-man freshmen class, with Jeremiah Tilmon scoring 19 points and nabbing 8 rebounds in 35 minutes. 2019 gamers from Anne Rogers and Dave Matter (STL Today), and Brendan Lavell (Rock M Nation)

Super excited for this game, but we need to move on to that great effort by Robin Pingeton’s Tigers, who put a lot of pressure against No. 1 South Carolina in the Other Columbia™ on Thursday evening. The final score was 77-62, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. While several Tigers spent significant time on the bench with foul trouble in the first half (Williams & Blackwell), other Tigers went to work as their replacements and kept the game together; it was tied at the half! RS freshman Micah Linthacum played in her first SEC game of the season, and admirably had a defensive rebound and a block in her 5 minutes. Shug Dickson, coming off the bench, led all Tiger scorers with 15 points. AB, who struggled with her shooting stroke, still tallied 10 rebounds, keeping that streak alive.

The Tigers were only out-rebounded by 8 (2 on the defensive end), and when you consider that the Gamecocks’ roster is made up of several no.1 recruits and All-Americans, I’m pretty happy with the result. They hit a bit of cold shooting in the second half (27%, after shooting 56% in the first half), but the effort was there. Can’t wait to see this team moving forward, because I know they’re going to pull it together.

Here’s the box score from ESPN.

ESPN.com

Here’s Coach P’s take on the game, from Colin O’Brien of the Jeff City News-Tribune.

On to the links!!! Sorry, I wrote A LOT. Super excited for the game tomorrow, and that my parents got to sign up for their vaccines (unrelated, but yay, mom & dad)

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Sam’s Ole Miss Study Hall painted a very sad picture of Wednesday’s events.
• BK continued his recruiting reset with the Wide Receivers.
• Aaron, enthused after watching the Super Bowl, wrote about the Tigers in the trenches. Interesting stuff!
• COMING UP: an Arkansas preview, a new Rock-M-Tology from Sammy, and another recruiting reset from BK

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More Links:

Football

• PowerMizzou ($$): Sean Williams put together a new target profile for Dylahn McKinney.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Matter was back with a new weekly chat, covering some spring football and hoops questions.
• Here’s a social media update from Mizzou Football, just so y’all don’t forget about them.

• Welcome, Harry!

Hoops

• PowerMizzou: Mitchell and Gabe were back with basketball hot taeks (and one Tom Brady take) in a new edition of Blowing Smoke presented by Weston Tobacco. Good stuff.
• KC Star: In the newest “For Pete’s Sake”, Pete Grathoff said that one projection shows a potential KU-Mizzou Border War meeting in the NCAA Tournament. OOOOOHHHHHH!
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In the new Ten Hochman, Benjamin Hochman discussed how in Mizzou’s wins, X and Tilly had been active, but they were M.I.A. against Ole Miss, while Jeff Gordon’s Tipsheet took a hard stance on the Tigers— I did not like this but shared it anyway. And.... BenFred and Matter, in a new Eye on the Tigers podcast, discussed Mizzou’s disappearing act.
• Nikki Chavanelle from HawgBeat shared Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman’s thoughts on Missouri. Check it out.
• The Maneater: Jack Soble wrote about Dru Smith, who scores quietly and lives loudly.
• Columbia Missourian: Shannon Mia Belt wrote in her women’s hoops recap that Missouri just couldn’t handle South Carolina while Joel Lorenzi wrote Missouri’s lack of energy extends possible trend in Wednesday loss.
• Columbia Tribune: Eric Blum gave his weekly “5 things we learned” opinions after the Ole Miss loss.
• Y’all!!!! I smiled SOOOOO damn big when I saw this. Jontay is BACK (playing for the Grizzlies’ G-League affiliate)

Other Mizzou Sports

• Reid Glenn of the Missourian covered the news that Missouri Baseball was picked to finish 6th in the SEC East rankings. RUDE! You show em, Steve Bieser!
• The Columbia Tribune’s Eric Blum wrote about softball’s return to the field 11 months after the Covid-19 shutdown.
• New year, new unis! (and read the preview at MUTigers.com)

• Ben Miglore of the Missourian wrote about the start of Mizzou Softball’s season, who will face an early test at the JoAnne Graf Classic in Tallahassee, Florida.

The host of the tournament, Florida State, went 17-7 last year and has been a perennial power in college softball. It enters the tournament as the preseason No. 12 and will face Missouri twice. That Top 25 matchup carries with it a battle of two of the top players in the nation.

• LOVE to see this from Coach Grevers’ squad!

• The Maneater’s Jack Horan wrote about Track’s second place performance in the Arkansas Qualifier, who got individual wins by Ja’Mari Ward (long jump) and Georgi Nachev (triple jump).
• Track heads to the Music City Challenge this weekend in Nashville in their final regular season meet. Things get kicked off at noon today. Check out the preview from MUTigers.com!
• Throughout Black History Month, Mizzou Track & Field has been sharing inspiring stories of previous members of Mizzou T&F. Rosalyn Dunlap was incredible

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