One Day...

Welp... one of these days Robin Pingeton’s Tigers will get over the hump, but unfortunately, last night was not it. With 2:22 left in the contest, Mizzou took the lead on a pair of Hayley Frank free throws, after being by down as much as 12 to start the fourth quarter (sound like any other team we cheer for?). Really, a loss tends to be expected when the opposing team hits 14 (!) threes and shoots 54% from behind the arc, including 6 by Destiny Slocum alone.

Lauren Hansen had a great game, scoring 19 points, her season-high, on 7 of 12 shooting, and five other Tigers hit double digits: Blackwell with 13 (4-8, 12 rebounds) Frank with 12 (4-12, 8 rebounds), Dufficy with 12 (5-6), Dickson with 11 (5-8) and Williams with 10 (4-5).

Briar Napier of PowerMizzou recapped the game, having many of the same thoughts as I did above. In the postgame, Aijha Blackwell was asked what they’ve learned from these close losses. Her response?

“I’m learning that we can play with anybody,” Tigers guard Aijha Blackwell said. “We can play with anybody in the country on any given night. We need to just find a way to figure out how to finish games. I just think that we’re right there, we just got to get over the hump.”

Next up for the Tigers is a match at an unranked (finally!) Auburn on Sunday. Good luck, ladies!

Moving on!

Look which sports site got a blue checkmark? I guess that means we all should up the effort on the content, as we are now super fancy and have some journalistic integrity to uphold... or something like that. I’ll try my best, dear readers.

On to the links!!! BIG game in 30 hours! Also, Go Chiefs! May your Super Bowl dreams come true once again.

---

Yesterday at Rock M

• Sam’s Kentucky Study Hall is an interesting one, and I highly recommend it (as always).
• Aaron dove into some recruiting in his new post. Check it out.
• Nate & BK are back with a new BTBS pod, covering Signing Day and the new coaches!
• COMING UP: an Alabama preview, a new Rock-M-Tology from Sammy, and a new recruiting reset for the running backs from BK

---

More Links:

Football

• PowerMizzou ($$): Sean Williams wrapped up the new recruiting class with a timeline of how it all came together.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Matter was back with a new weekly chat, and wrote about how Andy Hill’s coaching career has hit a reemergence all the way to the Super Bowl. Lucky him! And in a crossover post between the NFL & Mizzou, Hochman wrote about the connection between Mizzou’s new coordinator and that guy, Patrick Mahomes (who?).
• The Maneater: Jack Soble sat down with KCOU’s James Marshall, who was in Mobile for the Senior Bowl last week, for a Q&A. He also spoke with several Pro Bowlers about the Steve Wilks hire in a really nice piece.

Hoops

• PowerMizzou: Mitchell and Gabe were back with basketball hot taeks (and some NFL ones) in a new edition of Blowing Smoke presented by Weston Tobacco. I know that Sammy already plugged the Burgers’ Smokehouse Dance Class- Kentucky, but really, it’s worth a listen. If you fast forward to around the :45-50 marker, Gabe talks about why analytics-based sites/people (KenPom, Jesse Newell, Matt Harris- cough, cough) may not like Mizzou as much based on the data, one must also take into account other factors. Super interesting.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In Matter & BenFred’s new episode of the Eye on the Tigers podcast, the guys discussed whether Mizzou’s ability to close out late games is luck or team trait. And in a super fun post by BenFred, he looked at who would be on his March Madness team, if one could build a super team made entirely of St. Louis area products.
• Columbia Missourian: Joel Lorenzi wrote about the match up of SEC juggernauts, Mizzou & Alabama (feels weird to type Missouri and juggernaut in the same sentence), while Tyler Hollins wrote about Smith & Smith coming in clutch in Missouri’s win over Kentucky.
• MUTigers.com had the women’s game recap, saying that their comeback attempt was not quite enough as they fell to Arkansas.
• Columbia Tribune: Eric Blum looked at 5 things we learned from Mizzou’s win.
• The Athletic ($$): Brian Hamilton & Dana O’Neil chatted about college basketball’s most surprising and disappointing teams, among other things. Hamilton’s matchup for the weekend? Missouri-Alabama!

Brian: Intrigued by a couple separation games closer to home than a West Coast tilt. Alabama-Missouri on Saturday is about jockeying for supremacy in the SEC. Which, if you had said that before the year, might’ve been a claim that put you in concussion protocol.

• Andy Katz was asked for his predictions in games this weekend in a feature by Spencer Parlier for NCAA.com. LOOK WHO HE PICKED!!!!
• As a lover and former keeper of paper newspapers (I still have some from World Series’ past, but no recent ones), I LOVE this from Dave Matter.

• From their socials, Rally for Rhyan’s date is set, and DRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

• On this day (February 4) in Mizzou trivia, Tom Orf shared this gem. And a gem it is!!!

Other Mizzou Sports

• Track & Field heads to Arkansas this weekend for the Arkansas Qualifier to face off against 9 squads from the SEC, Big 12 and Pac 12. (Preview from MUTigers.com)
• No. 16 Volleyball heads to No. 10 Florida this weekend for a two-day matchup on Saturday (7pm, SEC Network) and Sunday (6pm, SEC Network+). Check out the preview on MUTigers.com.

• Joshua Reneau of The Maneater wrote a wonderful piece on former Mizzou soccer player, Peyton Bauman, who retired amidst some really scary health problems and family tragedy, and how she continues to help the team in her absence.
• Love this from Mizzou Gymnastics!

• TigerStyle wraps up their home schedule on Sunday, and holds steady in the latest NWSCA poll!

• Some great, great, GREAT advice from Dr. Scotta Morton. Man, I love her.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

If you’re looking to sign up for ESPN+, Rock M Nation now has an affiliate link: click Here for ESPN+ Now!

If you’re looking to sign up for a new streaming service, you can try FuboTV: click HERE for FuboTV access — FuboTV now has ESPN, CBS, FS1 and more sports channels.

(** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate nks.**)