The topic of the day should be the game, but yesterday Mizzou announced a pretty big gift. Literally:

The five figures ended up being about $5.2 million. And immediately speculation started because of Cuonzo Martin’s well known and rather pricey buyout at this stage of the game, that number is awfully close to what the buyout becomes on May 1st.

Here’s the thing...

That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

Instead of a big long thing about how it does work, I’ll link to Matt’s tweet, since he works for a university and knows how this fundraising thing works a little:

This money is meant to be an investment for the program. This is a good thing... for the program. Regardless of who the head coach is next year, or 10 years from now, this endowment should help that coach. Its an investment into the program in perpetuity. Something Matt went in deep on recently when we got to learn all about how cheap Missouri has been and how it’s cost them.

The investment into the program is something we’ve been talking about for a while, something Missouri has been needing to do. And they found a fantastic way to give the budget a boost without having to just pump money into the program.

I’ve long insisted Mizzou didn’t need to break the bank to improve it’s hoops program, just spend more strategically. Anywhere from $600k to $1m per year would take them from below average to slightly above average. Use that money to improve your analytics staff, to pay for assistants who can reel in players, and get more fine finishes around the locker room and practice facilities. It doesn’t take much to make things better. This isn’t the football team trying to keep up with Texas A&M or Georgia. The margin for hoops is much finer, but it still exists.

So an extra $200k+ per year is only money than can improve the margins for a program struggling to make its mark.

Missouri-Alabama Basketball: Time, Location

TIME: 2:30 p.m. CT

DATE: Saturday, January 8, 2022

LOCATION: Mizzou Arena; Columbia, MO.

Missouri-Alabama Basketball: Follow the game, TV Channel

TELEVISION: SEC Network

STREAM: WatchESPN

RADIO: Tiger Radio Network

TWITTER: @MizzouHoops

FACEBOOK: Mizzou Men’s Basketball

ESPN+: ROCKMNATION

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Missouri-Alabama Basketball: Betting odds, predictions

As of Friday evening, Missouri is a 13.5-point underdog to Alabama, according to DraftKing’s Sportsbook. The total points (over/under) is 148.

KenPom predicts...

Alabama 81, Missouri 68 | Saturday concludes a three-game stretch of playing KenPom top 20 teams, and it hasn’t been a kind run of games for this struggling Tiger team. That they get this one at home may help in the slightest, but even that advantage could be nullified by (a) the COVID break and (b) the potential of missing players. Missouri will need a minor miracle to avoid dropping their third straight game against a team that has SEC title ambitions.

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