Will Mizzou have any baseball players left after the draft? I kid.

The Major League Baseball draft just finished and um... a decent amount of Tigers/former Tigers (?) have been selected. I can’t keep track of who graduated and is out of eligibility, who is transferring, who is leaving early, but it seems like a good number of them have gotten selected. Will they all sign? Who knows? But congrats, fellas!

Per MUTigers.com’s release:

The 2023 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft concluded Tuesday with two more University of Missouri standouts selected in the final 10 rounds. Senior pitcher Chandler Murphy was taken by Tampa Bay in the 12th round (363rd overall), before graduate third baseman Luke Mann was picked by Oakland in the 14th round (406th overall).

The two selections doubled Mizzou’s 2023 crop of draftees to a total of four, joining fourth-round selection Austin Troesser (New York Mets) and Zach Franklin (Chicago White Sox), who were picked during the second day of the draft on Monday.

So yeah... time to add some more players, KJ!!! But really, they do seem to be losing more than they’re bringing in.

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And because the Clips, our new fave NBA team, played so late on Monday night and the Links were already done, I have lots of extras, and maybe some repeats?

I know Josh shared this yesterday, but the thing my dad and I were talking about later is that in this video, you can see Kobe directing the team. He’s really taken a leadership role already. WE SIMPLY LOVE TO SEE IT.

[insert heart eyes emoji at this play]

[I actually died when I heard PG — THE PAUL GEORGE, YOU GUYS — spout Kobe’s praises on tv]

Dennis Gates was in attendance and chatted with the sideline reporter. Love this guy.

• All the highlights.

Though not released yet, Kobe did some podcast rounds, meeting with The Ringer’s Tate Frazier for an episode of Thru the Ringer, and also chatted with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye of the Road Trippin Podcast over the weekend. Be on the lookout for those eps soon— I’ll share when they’re out. I’m particularly excited about the RJ pod because he’s hilarious and gratuitously swears.

Also receiving a lot of pub for the way he’s playing is our favorite BVI native, D’Moi Hodge. He’s received so much praise, and he deserves ALL.OF.IT.

Is it KCP or D’Moi Hodge? Who knows, really? But there’s no denying they have similar games (via Lakers SB Nation writer)

Also check out this story from Last Word on Sports’ Jordan Pagkalinawan on the promising performance of the Lakers’ 2-way deals.

On to the Links!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Now that Nate’s big previews are complete, he’s recapping said previews!
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Sam conducted his annual exercise of asking fans for their top 8 rotation predictions, then shares the results and his thoughts.
• Rock M Nation is on Threads (twitter-ish Instagram)! You can follow us at: https://www.threads.net/@rockmnation

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More Links:

Football

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Listen to a new Eye on the Tigers podcast ep with Dave Matter & Ben Fred, called “Not your normal SEC Media Day preview.” Not your normal because we’re going to be subjected to words at Media Days from a number of CFB Villains that surprisingly don’t work at Alabama, given that university’s complete obliviousness to right and wrong. And they talk about some fun stuff, too.
• Columbia Tribune: Mizzou football will have another quarterback battle. Here’s who could win the job (Matt Stahl— still posting stories despite being gone over a week, ha!)
• PowerMizzou: Listen/watch the new PowerMizzou live, which talks about the upcoming SEC Media Days | Upside/Downside: Special Teams (Jarod Hamilton) | Highlights of the 2024 recruiting class so far (Sean Williams)

Mizzou Hoops Past & Present

• I love Dennis Gates.

• Former Missouri Tiger great Kimmie English is now the head coach at Providence. In this piece by The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton, read: A 34-year-old ‘rising star’ takes over at Providence — and bets on his brain
• Looks like Mizzou will be getting a visit from 2024 4-star Ryan Jones, Jr.

• You can catch the TBT Show Me team in a loaded Wichita region.

• Let’s get to know Mizzou newbie but CBB vet, Abby Feit!

• While in Vegas to watch Summer League, Mizzou Hoops head coach Dennis Gates scurried over to the Aces’ facility with his daughter to take in the Mercury-Aces game... and catch up with Sophie! (and Coach K!)

Other Mizzou Sports

• More on Mizzou Baseball’s draft picks at the Missourian: Troesser & Franklin | Murphy & Mann
• You can now buy Mizzou merch with a small portion of the proceeds (like 6-12 bucks, I think it said?) going to the athlete, courtesy of Mark Cuban’s company, the NIL Store. These designs are pretty generic, but the idea is nice. Personally, if I’m going to buy merch, it’s going to be a custom logo or design from Aidan or Luther’s sites... something not so cookie-cutter.

• This is unfortunate. As Josh reported, just a FEW WEEKS after Coach Leroux finally retired with Coach Hankins set to move from co-head coach to solo head coach, he’s left for USC.. and he’s taking a lineup regular with him. Yikes.
• Amari Celestine just got back from working at a gymnastics camp at NC A&T University. I think it’s really important to continue to promote and encourage diversity in gymnastics. In this video, Amari demos her signature move, the “Celestine.”

NBA / WBNA News

• Jontay was the only former Mizzou player on the court on Tuesday night in NBA Summer League— thank goodness, Karen needed a bit of a break from all this basketball watching — and I tuned in late at the right time to see the big man do this... and hear all the praise from the announcers!

His stat line in the 107-99 win: 12 minutes | 8 pts on 3-5 FG (2-4 from 3PT) | 1 REB | 1 TO | 1 PF | +7 (tied for 2nd highest +/-)

• Here’s the remaining summer league schedule for our favorite guys— Kobe (Clippers, guaranteed contract), D’Moi (Lakers, 2-way contract), Jontay (Bulls), Druuuuu (Heat, 2-way contract), Mark Smith (Nuggies):

Wed, JULY 12: Kobe @2:30pm (NBA TV) | Mark @8:30pm (ESPN 2) | D’Moi @9pm (ESPN)

Thur, JULY 13: Jontay @2pm (ESPN2) | Dru @4:30pm (NBA TV)

Fri, JULY 14: Kobe @3:30pm (NBA TV) | Mark @8pm (ESPN 2) | D’Moi @9:30pm (NBA TV) | Dru @8pm (ESPN 2)

Sat-Mon, JULY 15-17: Summer League Playoffs

**you can watch NBATV with your cable subscription, at least right now. You don’t need a League Pass sub.

• St. Louis native (and Lou Brock’s grand-niece) and Illini grad Taylor Rooks chatted with MPJ for a new episode. He says a couple of dum-dum, no-thought things here (sigh), but it’s also a good convo and I love the way she gets everyone to open up.

• The Mercury did not do well against the super team Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night. Soph’s stat line in the L: 2 pts on 1-7 shooting. So I guess the tweet below was her one basket?

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