It may be Oscar season, but more importantly...

it’s Awards SZN for some spring sports. As Sammy pointed out in the links yesterday, the women’s gymnastics program is cleaning up in the honors department.

On Thursday, gymnastics All-American honors were released, so OF COURSE we saw multi-apparatus star, Siena Schreiber, receive several honors.

She is joined by Jocelyn Moore, who was First Team All-American on vault.

And of course, when you’re a NATIONAL CHAMPION, it should come as no surprise to also be named a conference wrestler of the year, right?

Big congrats to TigerStyle’s Keegan O’Toole, who was named Big Twelve Conference Wrestler of the Year for his natty and undefeated season.

From MUTigers.com, on the two-time All American and 2021 MAC Freshman of the Year’s impressive season/career:

In Big 12 action, O’Toole finished the regular season a spotless 8-0. He picked up three more wins at the Big 12 Championships to win the 165-pound class and finish undefeated. Against conference opponents, O’Toole had a 73% bonus-percentage with eight bonus-point victories.

At the NCAA Championships, O’Toole became the only unbeaten wrestler in the conference and the only Big 12 wrestler to take home an individual national championship. The only freshman to compete in a finals, he ascended to the top of the podium following his win in a 6-5 match against Stanford’s reigning champion Shane Griffith. The five points O’Toole gave up against Griffith were the only points allowed throughout the entire tournament.

It’s BIO UPDATE TIME!

On to the links!

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Yesterday at Rock M

Now that we have a hoops coach, I guess we’re back in football mode over here...

• BTBS Podcast w/ Nate & BK: SPRING GAME RECAP AND QUARTERBACK DISCUSSIONS!
• A-Aaron gave some updates on football recruiting.
• Sam (or is it Sahm*?) did some roster math and tried to determine what HCDG is working with.

*inside Rock M joke: we were talking about spelling people’s names wrong — did y’all know this bothers me? — and Sam’s like, “Actually guys, my name is Sahm”

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More Links:

Football

• PowerMizzou: Cayden Green talked about his final five with Rivals’ Clint Cosgrove (subscribers) and listen to a new episode of the Touchdown Luther Burden Show, where LB talks about the Spring Game and what he’d like to improve upon.
• Jack Soble (Missourian) gave a rundown of all the Mizzou players participating in pro day. Good stuff.

• UPDATE, 9am Friday: Rock M’s own Parker Gillam is on hand #scoops

Hoops

• Dennis Gates... D-WADE APPROVED. [I squealed when I saw this. Big Dwyane Wade fan]

• BenFred and Matter (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) chatted in a new video about new head coach Dennis Gates’ recruiting, from both a coaching and players standpoint.
• Anthony Kristensen and Matt Brolley (Columbia Missourian) provided readers with a list of players in the transfer portal who could be valuable for Missouri.
• I know Sammy shared this yesterday, but I really like the headline (and the person who wrote this) so here you go again: What we learned about Mizzou coach Gates from his audacious and astounding turnaround of Cleveland State.
• The new man in charge Dennis Gates chatted 1:1 with the voice of the Tigers, Mike Kelly. Give it a watch.

• Matter’s new chat at STLToday had a lot of hoops questions, and I thought this one about the state of women’s hoops and Coach P was interesting:

DRF’s not paying more than $1 million to buy out a coach in a sport that operates at a revenue deficit... If more people cared about the women’s basketball program and the program had a chance to profit financially, then maybe there’d be more motivation to make a coaching change, but that’s not reality... Are there problems internally? Perhaps. But nobody is talking. We reach out to players when they transfer. Almost 100 % of the time they don’t respond.

Keep in mind: This is what college athletes do now. They transfer. It’s never been easier to change schools. And for a lot of them, this is nothing new. They transfer high schools all the time. They change AAU teams every summer. It’s also never been easier to add impact transfers. That’s Pingeton’s challenge now.

Kiya Dorroh was a top 100 recruit but barely got off the bench this year. LaDazhia Williams went through a senior day ceremony, so no one seemed to figure she’d come back next year. As of today, Aijah Blackwell has not officially entered the portal or announced her plans to my knowledge, even though it’s been reported she plans to transfer. If she leaves, that’s a blow. But don’t forget, athletes are motivated by NIL deals, too. If she can get more endorsements in the short term in another market, who’s to fault her for looking around, regardless of any issues at Mizzou?

• And in former Mizzou player news, Xavier “X-Man” Pinson has likely bid adieu to LSU. While he’s open to returning to a new coach, he’s checking out his opportunities as a possible grad transfer (or he may be able to get a waiver since his coach — HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA — was canned?). Best wishes, XP!

Crootin’ Time

• Aidan Shaw, Blue Valley (yes, we want him back at The Zou). Go vote for him in the two categories mentioned, and his little sis, Aubrey!

• Drexel’s Camren Wynter

• Utah Valley’s Fardaws Aimaq

• Northern Iowa’s Noah Carter

• UPDATE, 8am Friday : My, how the turntables...

Other Mizzou Sports

• Mizzou hosts no. 3 Arkansas in baseball this weekend. The Missourian’s Tanner Ludwig has the preview. So does MUTigers.com, where they stated the Tigers are 31-28-1 all-time (four Tiger wins were vacated) against the Razorbacks, and this will be their 65th overall meeting. Arkansas has won four straight in the series, including a sweep in 2019.

First pitch in the series opener is set for 6 p.m. on Friday with the matchup streaming on SEC Network +. Saturday’s game will air on SEC Network in a 2 p.m. first pitch before the series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. on SECN +.

• Personal records abound at the Raleigh Relays! Big congrats to Martin Prodanov for his school record in the 1500m and Marquette Wilhite in the 5000m for his second all-time time.

• Congrats to the First Year Letterwinners from 2020-21! In a cool store for MUTigers.com, they talked with former Mizzou AD of Compliance, Mitzi Clayton, about the significance of women earning actual letter jackets of their own. Before 1992, the women letter winners were awarded windbreakers, not the actual jackets the men received. Former AD Mack Rhodes changed that during his tenure though, and with his help - along with the Varsity M Foundation - they tracked down all the prior letter winners from the late 70s- early 90s who hadn’t yet received a jacket and awarded them in a ceremony during Homecoming 2015.

Mizzou in the Pros

• With the draft looming, Dave Matter writes that Mizzou’s Tyler Badie is relishing his NFL Combine experience.
• Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz (45-28, 1st place in Northwest) took on the Celtics (go Jayson Tatum!) on Sunday and lost 125-97. Jordan Clarkson played 27 minutes off the bench, and had 10 points on 4-12 shooting (1-5 from three), with 4 REB, 0 AST, 2 STL, 5 TO and 2 PF. He was -19 (not even the worst!) on the night. NEXT UP: vs. Charlotte, tonight at 6pm.

Last Game(s):

March 21 L over the Nets, 114-106: 37 min (bench), 19 pts on 7-19 shooting (4-8 from three), 6 REB, 3 STL, 2 PF, +10 (2nd best)

March 20 W over the Knicks, 108-93: 39 min (bench), 23 pts on 10-18 shooting (1-5 from three), 6 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 1 TO, 2 PF, +16 (2nd best)

March 18 W vs Clippers, 121-92: 29 min (bench), 20 pts on 8-17 shooting (2-5 from three), 8 REB, 5 AST, 2 STL, 4 TO, 2 PF, +27 (tied for 2nd best)

March 16 W vs Bulls, 125-110: 35 min (bench), 26 pts on 11-18 shooting (1-5 from three) and 3-4 FT, 5 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL, 3 TO, 2 PF, +17 (team high)

• TILLY and the Lakeland Magic (9-18) took on the Swarm on Wednesday and lost, 123-112. Jeremiah played 23 minutes off the bench, and had 8 points on 2-6 shooting and 2-3 FT, with 3 REB, 3 AST, 1 TO and 6 PF. He was -11 on the night. NEXT UP: vs. Capital City Go-Go, tonight at 6pm

Last Game(s):

March 18 W over the Celtics, 106-103: 16 min (bench), 4 pts (2-3 FG), 3 REB, 1 AST, 3 TO, 4 PF, -8

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