Mizzou Softball Continues its Ascent

After a successful series win against Top 10 Arkansas, Mizzou continues to move up in the national polls, this time climbing four spots to No. 15 in the USA Today/NFCA poll and the USA Softball poll, and even higher in a few others!

Eric Blum took a look at Mizzou’s elevated profile in his new piece for the Columbia Tribune, revealing that, among other things, the Tigers have never given away the opening game of an SEC series. That’s a pretty cool stat, actually. No matter how many opening SEC games the Tigers have trailed in, and there have been several, they’ve always come back and won.

You just can’t count this team out, and that’s one of the reasons this team is so fun to watch. After Sunday’s win, Coach Larissa Anderson spoke with the media, talking about the team’s success and how it’s gotten here:

“It’s their preparation. We get to the hitting facility, we go early in the morning before games. ... They’re completely prepared,” Anderson said. “It’s three years of preparation, and looking back, when I can sit back and just watch my team play, it’s all the hard work that they’ve put in, our coaching staff has put in, our strength and conditioning coach, for the last three years.

So it’s three years of preparation, of culture and dynamics and discipline and structure that are leading up to this opportunity. They’ve bought into what our own philosophy is. And that’s really where it comes from. When they understand what their expectations and their standards are, and they buy into that, then I don’t have to worry about anything. My team can just go play. I don’t have to be the leader from being the head coach. They’re led from within because they know their expectations every single day.”

While the Tigers weren’t able to pull off the sweep on Monday, losing 8-4, it showed that the SEC is up for grabs and talent runs up and down the standings. After the game, Kendyll Bailey told reporters, “SEC softball is for real. [The] bottom of the SEC can beat the top of the SEC. It doesn’t matter who’s Nos. 1, 2, 12 or 13.”

Woooooo weeeeee. That SEC Tournament is going to be a fun one, huh? The Tigers are definitely on the right track, as they sit at 34-11 overall and 12-6 in the SEC heading into a three-game series against No. 3 Florida beginning Friday in CoMo.

On to the Links

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Nate wrapped up his month-long series, “Let’s expand the Playoff” with Part 5. Where do you stand?
• BK wrote about Tristan Wilson, Mizzou’s newest commit.

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More Links:

Football/Mizzou in the NFL Draft

• It’s a slow time of the year football-wise, and Dave Matter took time out to examine the massive changes hitting the SEC East. Changes, he wrote, like three new football coaches, a new offensive system at Kentucky, and a new defensive scheme at Missouri.
• Happy Draft Week! To celebrate, Nick Bolton appeared on NFL 360. His appearance starts about 5 minutes in. If that’s not enough Bolton for you, Coach DJ Smith answered why the Frisco native should find himself on an NFL roster.

• NFL draft analyst Eric Edholm joined Dave Matter in a video analyzing Mizzou’s NFL hopefuls.
• Why Joshuah Bledsoe? Head Coach Eli Dinkwitz gives all the reasons why he’ll be an ideal fit on an NFL team.

Other Mizzou Sports

• Baseball continues to have a rough season, losing to K-State 13-8 on Tuesday evening. Yikes. They fall to 12-26 on the season and face Alabama on the road this weekend. Reid Glenn has the recap, writing that Mizzou’s bats did all they could, but poor pitching sealed the deal— another loss.
• It’s Meet Week for Track & Field, and man... they are busy!

• Tiger Style is back in the Big XII and they are celebrating with some billboards! Let us know if you spot any near you!

Mizzou in the Pros

• Monday Night was Porter Bro v. Porter Bro when the Nuggets took on the Grizzlies. The Nuggets took the W in dominating fashion, 120-96.

Jontay played 4 minutes, was 0-1 from the field, but did make all 3 of his free throws. Yay, Jontay!

Michael played a team-high 36 minutes, shooting 12-19 (3-6 from three) from the field, with 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Mike’s 31 points led all scorers. Wow.

• Jordan Clarkson scored 13 points in his 26 minutes of play in the Jazz’s narrow loss to Minnesota, 104-105. While he was not exactly efficient (5-20 overall, 1-10 from three), he did have 8 assists and 4 rebounds.

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