Braggin’ Rights and #respect? It’s a Boxing Day miracle!

Winning Braggin Rights is fun, don’t get me wrong. Every time Mizzou and Illinois tussle, I’m always down for victory to be the prize in and of itself.

But are you telling me beating curb-stomping Illinois also comes with the privilege of winning kudos and even additional awards? I feel like we should do this every year! Who would say no?

Jon Rothstein, aka Mr. “This is March” himself, put Mizzou near the top 25 after the rivalry win, saying the Tigers’ performance against Illinois was worth noting.

32. Missouri: Moved the needle against Illinois.

Voters in the Associated Press agreed with Rothstein’s assessment, placing Mizzou 32nd overall and among the “others receiving votes” category of the ballot.

And in NCAA.com’s official rankings, industry stalwart Andy Katz put the Tigers into the Top 25, ranking Mizzou all the way at No. 23.

23. Missouri (NR): The Tigers blitzed Illinois in their best win thus far for Dennis Gates. The Tigers Kobe Brown dropped 31 on the Illini. Mizzou will host Kentucky this week. The joint should be rocking.

Finally, Kobe Brown’s standout individual performance earned him one prestigious honor to call his own.

Filling up the stat sheet like he did tends to catch people’s eye, especially in widely covered games of national significant cough cough SEC Network.

Yesterday at Rock M

• In which Parker attempts the close the book on this long football season... and so do Nate and BK

More Links:

• Dennis, what’s going on at the athletic department this week?

Thanks, my dude. And on (government observed) Christmas!

• As Dennis said, SEC schedule incoming for the hoops programs...

• In a rare turn of events, Jeff Gordon at the Post-Dispatch ranked the Tigers first in his power ranking of area college basketball programs.
• At the Trib, Chris Kwiecinski wrote about recent football signee Jamal Roberts, whom he argues could be the next great Mizzou running back.
• Finally, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch obituary for former Tiger and long-time STL resident/activist/mentor Demetrious Johnson is worth reading if you haven’t already.
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