Time to Celebrate the Smarties!

111 Mizzou student-athletes were named to the Spring Honor Roll on Thursday afternoon, so let’s take some time to recognize them for their hard work on the field/court/diamond and in the classroom.

To be eligible, they needed to finish the semester with a minimum 3.0 GPA or have a 3.0 cumulative GPA, and play a spring sport: track and field, baseball, softball, tennis and golf seven eligible MU programs were represented on the list.

Leading the way with an outstanding team GPA is women’s golf. WOW.

Numbers-wise, women’s track and field led the other teams with 40, while baseball had 20, men’s track had 18, softball had 16, tennis had 7, women’s golf had 6 and men’s golf had 4. I encourage you to check out the list, as it’s also got their majors listed, and it’s really interesting— not many General Studies or Communications majors among them (what Nate would call the ‘athlete majors’) and a lot of Business majors, which warms my heart as someone who currently works there (and hopefully forever and ever).

Onto the Links!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Nate and BK were back with a brand new episode of their critically acclaimed BTBS podcast, chatting about Mr. Steal Your Commit.
• BK wrote about how the Tigers lost quantity, but not quality, in this year’s transfer bonanza.
• COMING UP: Our “Team Texas” defensive lineman is awarded.

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More Links:

Football

• According to The Trib’s Eric Blum, noted college football expert Phil Steele has projected Mizzou to finish fourth in the SEC East.

Steele, in his annual college football preview magazine, picked the Tigers to finish fourth in the SEC East in 2021 behind division champion Georgia, second-place Florida and a resurgent Kentucky team slated at No. 3.

• Dave Matter was back with a new weekly chat at STL Today. I highly recommend checking it out.. if you’re a subscriber. There’s a lot of info to parse through about football, among other things. I will share this one tidbit, about the revenue difference between Mizzou and the other SEC schools, since this always a hot button issue (Dave’s data came from a USA Today study, by the way):

In terms of overall revenue, Texas A&M leads the pack with over 212 million. Weirdly enough, Alabama is third on this list. Where’s Mizzou? Last (though Vandy, because it’s a private school, doesn’t report their figures) with just over 106 million. What makes the that hole so enormous? Among other things, ticket sales revenue just KILLS the university. I mean… YIKES.

School: Ticket sales, contributions, rights/licensing

Texas A&M: $49 million, $85 million, $67 million

Georgia: $36 million, $52 million, $71 million

Alabama: $39 million, $7 million, $77 million

Missouri: $16 million, $27 million, $55 million

• Trumans Tales has started their game previews, and first up from Kyle Jones is Central Michigan.
• This seems good?

• Love this guy.

• RING THE BELL! (this M reminds me way too much of Michigan and left me confused for a minute)

Hoops

• Junior Kobe Brown is ready to be a leader, according to Nate Marcus’ newest article in the Missourian.
• Love this. (In case you need help ID’ing these players, this would be former Kickapoo teammates Trevon Brazille and Anton Brookshire)

• Zo & co. entertained some visitors from the East St. Louis Flyers on Thursday—2023 wing Macaleb Rich and 2022 PG Christian Jones.

Other Mizzou Sports

• Men’s golfers Jack Parker and Carson Meek have advanced to the championship round at the Missouri Amateur Championship, according to the Missourian’s Calum McAndrew.

• The Missourian’s Emma Eaton covered the hiring of the tennis team’s new assistant, 2016 NCAA Tournament MVP and Oklahoma State tennis alum Katarina Adamovic. Welcome, Coach!
• MUTigers.com provided an update on Mizzou’s baseball players who are currently playing summer ball around the country.
• Good luck, Jordan!

Softball

• Coach Anderson... I love her. And I think I’m going to need softball season tickets....

• Hatti announced her return on Wednesday evening, and Nathalie Jones got an exclusive interview with her on the decision.

• The Tigers made it official with JuCo All-American Addie Lange, who signed on Thursday. Catching will continue to be quite an asset for the Tigers as they’ll have two top-notch players ready behind the plate.

• Do yourself a favor and check out the press release from MUTigers.com. On why Lange chose the Tigers:

“Over everything else, the coach matters. Coach Anderson believes in her players, and you can tell her players believe in her,” Lange said in the release. “What Coach Anderson has accomplished over the past three years is nothing short of amazing. Who wouldn’t want to play for her?”

• Way to go, Vanessa! Can’t wait for you to get here!

• It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for the softball team though, as hitting coach/associate head coach Chris Malveaux is leaving the Tigers for Tennessee according to this article by Kyle Jones of Trumans Tales. While it hasn’t been announced, it’s likely his wife, who currently serves as the Director of Operations for the team, will be going with him (her job is posted on the MU jobs site FWIW). This is big hit — that’s an unintended pun — to the Tigers, as their offense was AWESOME this season. I have no doubt Coach Anderson will find a suitable replacement, though.

Mizzou in the Pros

• Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post asked if Michael Porter, Jr is more valuable as a foundational piece or trade bait. Specifically, he wondered if MPJ could be used as trade bait to nab Zion or Bradley Beal, who is a FA in 2022.
• Mile High Sports identified three things Drew Lock needs to do to win the Broncos starting QB job.
• Our SB Nation sister site, Mile High Report, reported that consistency is Drew Lock’s biggest issue and one that he has to correct to win starting job.
• I’m not sure if this was ever shared previously, but this is cool. The Mayor of Columbia is starting a podcast! I’m hoping she’ll have on plenty of her Mercury teammates, as she seems pretty close to Aussie Alanna Smith and my personal fave, Brittney Griner.

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