While I haven’t finished my season-ending recap and look to the future just yet, we are in full-fledged awards season just ahead of the NCAA Gymnastics National Championships.

But first, it’s not your last time to check out a Missouri Tiger gymnast!!!

CONGRATS TO 5TH YEAR SENIOR, ALISA SHEREMETA!

After a stellar career-high tying 9.95 beam performance in Round 2 of the NCAA Los Angeles Regional on Thursday, she earned a spot in the national championships! What I find even cooler about Alisa is that she’s found so much success while dealing with an extremely demanding Occupational Therapy program that oftentimes keeps her from practicing with the team.

The Illinois-Chicago transfer, who was forced to leave her former school after the program was shut down, came to Mizzou after her freshman year (2020) and added regular appearances in both bars and beam to her already awesome floor routines. So much congrats, Alisa! Can’t wait to watch your last time out as a Missouri Tiger.

Moving on!

Regional awards were handed out on Tuesday, and plenty of Tigers found themselves receiving honors, including Mizzou’s coaching staff! In the Tigers’ region, per RoadtoNationals.com, are top-30 schools such as no. 1 Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Arizona, Arizona State, and others.

WTG, Shannon! Welker is in his 10th season with the Tigers, and has really just KILLED it these past few years, turning Mizzou into a destination program. Here’s how the Tigers have ranked the past 4 seasons: 2023 (14), 2022 (5), 2021 (14), 2020 (14), 2019 (17).

And WTG, assistant coaching staff, Casey Jo MacPherson and Whitney Snowden!

Whitney joined the Tigers last summer after a three-year stint as an assistant coach at Michigan State where she worked primarily on vault and floor development. After the team’s no. 9 finish nationally in 2022, she was named the WCGA Region 4 Assistant Coach of the Year. And now she’s a Regional 4 ACOY!!!

As for Casey Jo, who also is the associate head coach, is in her 10th season with the Tigers. The Arkansas alum helps primarily with beam and assists on floor as well. Per MUTigers.com:

In her eight years with the Tigers, MacPherson has helped bring Mizzou gymnastics to national prominence. Missouri’s top eight all-time beam scores, and nine of the top 12, have all come under her direction. She also coached three Tigers to WCGA Regular Season All-America honors on the apparatus: Britney Ward (second team in 2016 and 2017), Helen Hu (first team in 2020) and Sienna Schreiber (first team in 2021).

One last award.

As I shared on Twitter on Monday afternoon, Helen Hu announced her retirement from gymnastics despite technically having two years of eligibility remaining. If you aren’t a gymnastics superfan like I have recently become, you may not know that the Helenator sat out the 2021 season after knee surgery, so not only did she have an extra year from the medical redshirt, but also her covid year of eligibility. Alas, gymnastics is hard on the body, and after years of wear and tear, it can be hard to keep going. Hu had already given up performing on floor exercise, which she had competed in regularly pre-injury.

Tuesday she was given one last award to honor her beautiful career.

Tears. There truly is no one like her on beam. Her skill is just... jaw-dropping. We’ll miss you Helen, and congratulations on a great career.

On to the Links!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• You're going to need to check out the updates in Sam’s Transfer Tracker
• This week, Nate is analyzing Missouri’s 2023 Returning Production: Offense
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Read Sam’s Pourover: Perhaps Now is the right time for Caleb Love and Missouri | Player Review: Tre Gomillion

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More Links:

Hoops

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mizzou’s basketball roster under construction again this offseason (Dave Matter)
• The Tribune’s Chris Kwiecinski went on The Closers to chat hoops

• PowerMizzou: The latest from the portal (Gabe DeArmond) | Player Review: D’Moi Hodge (Drew King) | Player Review: Tre Gomillion (King)
• Poll Time: The last USA Today coaches poll was released now that hoops season is over, and Mizzou finds itself just out of the rankings, but you will find them receiving plenty of votes | UConn is No. 1 over Purdue in never-too-early 2023-24 preseason Top 25 And 1 (Gary Parrish, CBS Sports)
• I ain’t worried. We’re not known for spending a lot of time on content here when we foresee things going a different way. There’s always chance, obviously, but feeling good about this...

• Having a hard time finding Mizzou’s insertion in the One Shining Moment video? You will need to fast-forward to the 49 seconds mark to find Noah’s monster dunk, but it’s there.

Football

• PowerMizzou: SEC Check-In: An early look at 2024 recruiting (Sean Williams) | Three-star RB Harry Stewart checks out Missouri (Williams) | Checking out the Comp series with Jarod Hamilton: LSU | Kentucky | South Carolina | Vanderbilt
• Columbia Missourian: MU men’s hoops linked to several players in transfer portal (Jack Knowlton)

Mizzou Signee News

• MU signee Hendershott lifts Rock Bridge girls soccer over Helias (Missourian reports)
• Catching up with Jordan Butler (Drew King, PowerMizzou)
• All-Metro girls swimmer of the year: Kylee Sullivan adds her name to list of all-time Parkway South greats (Greg Uptain, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Other Mizzou Sports

• Baseball: Congrats to freshman pitcher Connor Lunceford, who makes an appearance on the Perfect Game Midseason All-Freshman team.

• Softball: The Tigers are on the road in Baton Rouge this weekend (weather pending, of course), but they’ll return home to a SELL OUT, their first of the season.
• How Missouri softball revived a struggling offense to win Alabama series finale (Matt Stahl, Columbia Tribune)

• Cross Country: New-ish XC head coach Lindsey Anderson — she was hired in the offseason — has been named to the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame! Per MUTigers.com, she immediately elevated the strength of the Tigers’ program. In her first season, she guided senior Marquette Hanson to a national championship appearance and he became the first Tiger to appear in the title race since 2019.

• Men’s Golf finished in third place at the Cowboy Classic. Congrats, fellas! Read the recap at MUTigers.com

• Gymnastics: I miss it already. Addy Lawrence was only a freshman, and in her first season, grabbed a team-high tying 9.975 on beam.

Former Tiger News

• Best of luck to LDW, who will be declaring for the WNBA. She scored 20 points in the National Championship. It was AWESOME to see (too bad her coach got a W, too)

• AB had a tough, injury-filled year at Baylor, but she announced last week she will be returning next season to the Bears

• Not only can you hear Brooke Wilmes on SEC+ doing Tiger Softball broadcasts, but some student-athletes have been lucky enough to also be coached by her! (Ethan Becker, KOMU)

NBA/G-League Corner

• Jordan Clarkson & Utah Jazz (36-42):

JC has been out since March 5 with a finger sprain on his left ring finger.

• Read the cover story in SLAM here: https://t.co/eUwaJ8XyJE and an article about his postgame beer here at GQ: The Real-Life Diet of Jordan Clarkson, Who Indulges in a Postgame Recovery Beer

• Michael Porter, Jr & Denver Nuggets (52-27):

4/4 vs HOU (L 124-103): 33 min | 23pts on 8-20 FG, 6-15 3PT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 2 TO | 2 PF | -17

4/2 vs GSW (W 112-110): 34 min | 29 pts on 10-17 FG, 4-8 3PT | 11 REB | 1 PF | 1 TO | +4

3/30 vs PELS (L 107-88): 27 min | 10 pts on 5-15 FG, 0-7 3PT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 BLK | -23

3/27 vs 76ers (W 116-111): 31 min | 15pts on 6-14 FG, 3-7 3PT | 6 REB | 1 TO | 1 PF | +13

UP NEXT: Fri, 3/3 vs Grizzlies @9pm | Mon, 3/6 vs Raptors @8pm | Wed, 3/8 vs Chicago @8pm

• Dru Smith & Brooklyn Nets (43-35) / Long Island Nets:

4/2 vs DEL (Conf Finals): 33 min | 14pts on 5-13 FG, 2-7 3PT | 4 REB | 4 AST | 3 STL | 4 BLK | 1 TO | -21

3/31 vs CLE (Conference Semis): 37 min | 19pts on 9-12 FG, 1-2 3PT | 7 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 2 PF | -9

3/26 vs ORL (L 119-106): 4 min | 1 AST | 1 PF

3/25 vs MIA (W 129-100): 4 min | 1 REB | 1 PF

UP NEXT: Wed, 4/5 vs DET @6pm | Fri, 4/7 vs ORL @6:30pm | Sun, 4/9 vs 76ers @12pm

• Jontay (Wisconsin Herd) and Jeremiah (905 Raptors)’s G-League teams didn’t make the conference championships and the data has disappeared.... so sorry ‘bout that.

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