Mizzou Links, 9-26-07

I overslept a bit this morning, but that's fine because there's not a lot going on with the off week coming up...

• Dave Matter takes a look at the ridiculously high expectations built by the Mizzou offense at this point, and on his blog he releases his weekly power poll. Kansas moves past Nebraska, but not ATM...yet. Just wait till ATM loses to Baylor, though...you heard it here first! Sort of!
  
• Meanwhile, Joe Walljasper keeps the Mike Gundy story rolling for another day.
  
• This week's mutigers.com senior features: Tyler Luellen and John Ruth.
• Champaign's Mikel Leshoure will be visiting for the MU-NU game. Meanwhile, things are looking good in the recruitment of St. Louis' Hulas King and James Moore.
  
• Steve Walentik discusses the finalized CBE Classic schedule. Mizzou Basketball should definitely get a nice jumpstart to the season, facing Central Michigan and (probably) Fordham (not a terrible team) and 2 of 3 against UCLA, Maryland, and Michigan State. Of course, I guess I shouldn't count my chickens just yet...not after the Sam Houston Preseason NIT disaster a couple years ago...good times...
  
• The nice weekend for Mizzou Soccer was reflected not only by a jump in the polls, but also by the awards that rolled through the front door for sophomore Kristin Andrighetto (3 goals, 2 assists--named to Soccer America's Women's Team of the Week) and freshman Alysha Bonnick (3 goals, 1 assist--named to SoccerBuzz.com's National Elite Team of the week and named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week). As The Beef has mentioned, this is a great start for the team, but they've now got to bring it in conference play as well. The Trib's Ryan Nilsson has more.
  
• Mizzou Volleyball will attempt to avoid an 0-4 start in conference play tonight, but they'll have to do it in Manhattan against #18 K-State. They've got a chance--there's no doubting that they've been competitive this season with all those 5-setters--but I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile, Na Yang is 1 kill away from moving into Mizzou's Top 5 for all-time kills.

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Mizzou Links, 9-25-07

• Dave Matter's got some notes about MU/NU, Jeremy Maclin and Mike Gundy. And then he's got a little more about Gundy on his blog, as does the Missourian. I'm a bit surprised by the amount of coverage this is getting...if Mike Leach had gone off like this, everyone would have just said, "Crazy Cap'n Mike is at it again!" and that would have been the end of it.
• So apparently Bob Davie posts on Tigerboard...he rightly gets lacerated by Stewart Mandel for bitching and moaning that "I think there ought to be an NCAA rule -- 25 times a game you have to put two backs in the backfield." Yeah, Bob...tell that to Florida, kinda sorta the defending national champion.
  
• Mike Dearmond has a blurb about Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week Jeremy Maclin. And speaking of the Dearmonds, PowerMizzou has a little Like Father, Unlike Son action for you.
• It's Mid-Major Monday over at Sunday Morning QB. Poor Iowa State...
  
• Also blogging at the Trib: Steve Walentik, with more from his interview with Kareem Rush. Walentik also links to this Big 12 Shootaround at the Dot Com. I was a bit taken aback when I realized that Richard Roby still has eligibility left. He has to be CU's all-time leading scorer by now considering he's averaged 15+ PPG for 9 straight years.
  
• Inside Mizzou catches up with Mizzou commit Laurence Bowers.
  

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Mizzou Links, 9-23-07

'Twas Appalachian State-level hot hot hot yesterday...I think the cheering crowd at the end of the game was just reacting to the fact that it was the end of the game, not that Mizzou had won or anything...

• Official Box Score and Interactive Stats (Missourian)
• Official Game Recap
• Recaps: Missouri Beats Illinois State (Missourian), Tigers top Redbirds despite lack of focus (Post-Dispatch)
• Nebraska: Bring On the Cornhuskers (Trib), Tigers can focus on Nebraska after waltzing by Illinois State (KC Star), Ready for the Big Red (PowerMizzou)
• Offense: Tigers Offense Clicks against Redbirds (Missourian)
• ISU: Redbirds Fail to Counter First Punch (Trib), Illinois State quarterback’s family support staff travels to Tiger game (Missourian), Illinois State falls at Mizzou 38-17 (Pantagraph), ISU-Mizzou about dollars, experience (Pantagraph)
• Defense: Terrell leads Tigers' defense against Redbirds (Missourian), Freshman Sheds his Redshirt (Trib)
• Notes: Game Notes (Trib), Mizzou notebook (KC Star), Tigers notebook (Post-Dispatch), Missouri Graphic (KC Star)
• Grades: Report Card (Post-Dispatch), Tiger Grade Card (PowerMizzou), Questions & Answers (Trib)
• Recruiting: Smith enjoys unofficial visit to Mizzou (PowerMizzou)
• Vlogs!: Tigers tapdance around matchup with Nebraska (Mike Dearmond's vlog)
• Other football: Big Ten Has Seen Better Days (Missourian)
  

And some non-football links...

• Alden's contract extended (Trib), UPDATED (Behind the Stripes), Alden confirms two-year contract extension (KC Star)
  
• Kareem Rush pays visit to Missouri basketball scrimmage (Missourian), Rush ready for Round 2 (Trib)
  
• Missouri volleyball team drops third straight (Trib)

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Mizzou Links, 9-19-07

Okay, why is ESPN covering the latest OJ charges? OJ's not even remotely a sports figure anymore. That ended about 10 years ago. He's not "O.J. Simpson, former running back" anymore. He's "O.J. Simpson, crazy man and pop culture figure."

And I'm sorry, Roger Cossack, but how much is ESPN paying you to make observations like "Guns make crimes very serious"? I'm in the wrong line of business.

Okay, another question for you Rog...how much money have you made off of OJ in your life? And how does that make you feel? Okay, pretty good, I imagine...anyhoo...

• The big news today is that backup DE John Stull was arrested for third degree assault yesterday after apparently punching dude over money owed or something. Stupid. No word on disciplinary actions, though I guess it's good timing to have happened the week of the Illinois State game...in case a 1-game suspension is in the works. Also, freshman Kendall Irving and redshirt freshman Jesse Hernandez have left the program. Eh, attrition happens. More scholarships for this recruiting class! Oh, and Steve Redmond was also arrested last weekend, for a noise violation. Can't imagine a suspension comes from that one, but...jeez, busy weekend. And I guess we can count our lucky starts that we don't have Texas' situation at the moment. Funny stuff. (Here's the real post about Texas' issues.)
  
• Here's the weekly release for ISU. Mizzou is looking for its 14th ever 4-0 start...it's third under Pinkel. Pretty sure they'll get it.
• Illinois State has now lost two 5th-year senior starters to season-ending injury, which stinks for them.
  
• Jeff Wolfert is still looking for his groove...and not in an Angela Bassett sort of way.
• PowerMizzou has its Tuesday Top Tigers.
  
• Dave Matter unleashes his weekly power poll.
• The CNNSI.com headline for this story was "Police: No Charges in MU Sex-Assault Probe." I thought I had failed catastrophically as a blogger for missing this one...I had no idea there was a sexual assault probe going on at MU! Oh...Millersville University...naturally...because that's the first MU that comes to people's minds...thanks, CNNSI...

Alright, some non-football news...

• There will be another open practice for Mizzou Basketball at 10am before the Saturday football game.
  
• Mizzou Volleyball plays Kansas tonight to kick off the the Border War, er, Showdown. The Kreklows look to move to 13-2 versus the Beakers. It'll be the first volleyball match of the year for the wife and I...hooray...
  
• Looking ahead to the spring, Rivals.com says Mizzou Baseball has sick pitching and something to prove...that's a pretty good combination. Seriously, we might have the best pitching staff in the nation in '08...this might be the earliest I've ever looked ahead to baseball.
  
• RSFr x-country runner Ben Brammeier was named Big 12 Runner of the Week after his strong performance in Nashville.
  
• Okay, you twisted my arm...one more football link. It's never too early for bowl projections!! I mean really, it's not like anything's going to change over the next 12 weeks or so. Gator or Holiday...no no no, I want Cotton.

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Mizzou Links, 9-18-07

• Dave Matter says Danario Alexander is in danger of being "Wally Pipped"...meaning he misses a game (or games), and his backup (Jeremy "Lou Gehrig" Maclin) takes a star turn (Mike Dearmond mentions the same thing). I say it doesn't really matter who starts. They'll all end up with the ball in their hands. But in the meantime, here's another "Jeremy Maclin is turning heads!" feature.
• Mike Dearmond also has a nice feature of Mizzou's small-town O-line.
  
• Gary Pinkel Media Day quotes! Whadda ya know...he references Appalachian State. And it's a Chase Daniel chat! He's single and looking! (More Pinkel quoty goodness here)
  
• Graham Watson wonders what to think about this coming game in her 'Tuesday Musings'. (I swear, she must read Sanity..."Musings"?) And apparently Illinois State has a solid ground game. Uh huh.
  
• Dave Matter has more about Monday Media Day.
  
• In recruiting news, Inside Mizzou has Q&A's with both Blaine Dalton and Aldon Smith. And if that's not enough Dalton for you, head on over to Power Mizzou for another interview.
  
• Mizzou Basketball will have a Mizzou Madness the Friday night before the OU football game.
• Mizzou Soccer stayed in the Top 25 after their losses to the #1 and #3 teams in the country. Good to see. They will host #20 Cal Friday night...they're 'Playing for Pink'! The Missourian has a nice feature on team player Mallory Forst.

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Mizzou Links, 9-17-07

• Well I guess the big news stemming from yesterday is the fact that Mizzou Football is now ranked #25 in both the AP and USA Today polls. That's cool, I guess. And we should probably move up a few more spots with a win and an off-week...have to figure a few teams ahead of them lose in the next two weeks. Looks like the MU/NU game will pit two teams ranked somewhere around #20.
• Ziggy Hood says that Mizzou defenders are over-running the ball. I wholeheartedly agree. We all see the problem with arm-tackling, and over-running is usually the main cause of that. The over-pursuit was also what allowed those trap plays to work. The DE's flew toward the ball before realizing what was going on, and they got sealed off, opening up the outside. Can't happen against a team with an actually good RB. That said, Saturday was definitely an improvement over the previous weeks.
  
• Dave Matter empties the notebook on the WMU game. Good to see that somebody else shares my assessment that those Daniel INT's might end up being a good thing. He seemed to need a reminder of his mortality, and that worked out pretty well. Would have been nice to see him set that record, though.
• Graham Watson does a little Monday Morning QB'ing...
  
• I guess there's been a bit of fallout regarding Mark Mangino's ripping into a KU player on the sideline. Uhh...I'm sorry people's ears were offended, but...IT'S FOOTBALL. WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU EXPECT TO HEAR WHEN YOU PLACED A MICROPHONE ON THE SIDELINES??
  
• JUCO forward Keith Ramsey visited Columbia this weekend and apparently enjoyed himself, though he held off on committing. Inside Mizzou and PowerMizzou have more. (And on a side note, I'm seeing that Gabe is doing more of the Huskers Illustrated style of headlines...on the PM front page, the main headline is "Did Ramsey Make a Decision on Visit?" Spoiler alert: no, he didn't...and I hate headlines like that.)
  
• Finally, MU Soccer certainly held its own this weekend in California, but after losing a tight one to #1 Stanford on Friday night (3-2), they fell to #3 Santa Clara yesterday afternoon, 2-1. Michelle Collins scored her fifth goal of the season early on, but MU couldn't quite hold on. I'll be disappointed if they fall too far in the rankings after their strong performance.
  

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Mizzou Links, 9-16-07

• Official box score
• Official release
• Game recaps: KC Star, The Missourian
  
• Game notes: The Trib, KC Star, Post-Dispatch, PowerMizzou
  
• Report cards: Post-Dispatch, PowerMizzou
  
• Jeremy Maclin rules: Inside Mizzou, The Trib, PowerMizzou
  
• The media jinxed Daniel's INT-less streak: The Trib, The Trib again,
• Maclin's recovery from knee injury is mind-boggling (Post-Dispatch)
  
• Tigers Giddy for Gadgetry (The Trib)
• Daniel gets 'W' but not Record (Post-Dispatch)
  
• Chase Patton Scores a Rushing Touchdown (The Missourian)
• Moving past the misery (Kalamazoo Gazette)
  
• Fans make first-time visits to Missouri football game (The Missourian)
• Wrapping it all up in Missouri--it's all about the MAC anyway (Kalamazoo Gazette)
  
• Mike Dearmond's vlog (KC Star)
  
• Questions & Answers (The Trib)
• Breaking down Mizzou (KC Star)
  
• Quarter-by-Quarter recaps (The Missourian)
  

And from other non-football happenings...

• Inside Mizzou has a detailed summary of yesterday morning's basketball summary.
• As expected, Mizzou Volleyball's reconfigured (a.k.a. Klein-less) lineup wasn't quite ready to beat a Top 10 team on the road. Here's the recap, and here's the mutigers.com live VolleyBlog. And here's a little more from The Trib.
  
• Mizzou Soccer almost pulled off something quite impressive, scoring the tying goal at #1 Stanford with about 13 minutes remaining, but the Cardinal scored in the 88th minute to pull out a 3-2 win. Despite committing six more fouls and allowing three more corner kicks, Mizzou was only outshot 13-12, and almost pulled off a really nice tie. They play #3 Santa Clara at 1pm CST.
  

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Mizzou Links, 9-13-07

• We've got basketball recruiting news! I'll let Atchison go more in-depth on this guy, but Laurence Bowers is on-board. Meanwhile, the pursuit of Notre Dame Prep's Kim English is on.
  
• Speaking of basketball, Mizzou will have a public workout at 10am this Saturday...I tend to avoid these due to the occasional outbreak of stupid optimism on my part.
• On to football. Martin Rucker has been disgustingly good so far this season, and Mike Dearmond takes note. Mike D. also says, "Hey MU fans: cheer up!"
  
• It's the latest "Cut to the Chase"! Love these things...Matter also has his latest Power Poll.
  
• Interesting stat from the Trib: "When leading by eight or more points, the defense has allowed 5.9 yards per carry. With a 7-point lead or less, the average shrinks to 3.1." Sounds about right. The Post-Dispatch looks into the defense's struggles as well.
  
• Graham Watson hands her keyboard to a WMU writer.
  
• It's a family conflict!!
• Despite the fact that I will be forever bitter about the phantom holding call and the 2006 loss to Iowa State (and trust me, I latch onto bitterness for long periods of time...ask me about the 1998 basketball loss at OU--the one where Brian Grawer got the tying 3-point play, only Johnnie Parker dunked the ball home and negated the basket--at your own risk...and yes, I just spent five minutes digging up that article...), I actually feel a bit sorry for Iowa State fans at this point. They're staring down "the suck" at the moment, and it's not going to be a pretty 3 months...
  
• What's the perfect remedy for a team that just got some horrible injury news? UMKC! Mizzou Volleyball smoked the always-horrid 'Roos, finishing a sweep with a 30-8 win in Game Three. OUCH. Mizzou had 5 errors the entire match. More on this one later.
  

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Mizzou Links, 9-12-07

So KOMU just broke out footage of the last time Mizzou played WMU in 1999. Kirk Farmer throwing a gorgeous pass to Eric Spencer for a TD...Devaughn Black (RIP) busting a really nice TD run (he had 205 yards in that game)...that must be why I was so optimistic in September of that season. Of course, the next weekend we got obliterated by Nebraska...a couple weeks later, Farmer pulled his 'pushed into the sidelines, break leg, scream, puke, pass out' routine, and Mizzou fell into a three-year black hole. Good times.

• I skimmed over this yesterday while linking to Dave Matter's Monday blog post, but he has a full newspaper piece on it today: Chase Daniel is (KNOCK ON WOOD!) 37 passes away from Trent Dilfer's NCAA 'consecutive passes without an INT' record. He set the Big 12 record in the first quarter against Ole Miss. He (KNOCK ON WOOD!) hasn't thrown one since the deflected INT in the second quarter of the Nebraska game. Boy...talk about taking something for granted...I hadn't even noticed.
• Dave Matter's been busy since coming back from his buddy's wedding...he goes Inside the Numbers on Western Michigan. Meanwhile, Graham Watson helps you 'get to know' the Broncs.
  
• The Missourian takes a look at defensive leader Lorenzo Williams. Only Pig Brown and Brock Christopher have made more 'successful' plays than Zo so far, but he only makes the big plays...the entire D-line just has to has to has to make more plays.
• Mike Dearmond has a quick blurb about Michael Keck's shoulder surgery.
  
• I must have been asleep when Tyler Wilson committed to Tulsa (???), but Jeff Ermann has the latest on a new name popping up on the watch list.
  
• Guess this means Stefhon Hannah is one of the top 4 point guards in the conference...he was named to the Bob Cousy Award Watch List, along with BU's Curtis Jerrells, Texas' DJ Augustin, and KU's Russell Robinson.
• The Missourian has a bit more on Julianna Klein's ACL injury.
  
• Here is the official release regarding the utterly huge weekend for Mizzou soccer...playing #1 Stanford Friday night and #3 Santa Clara on Sunday. Go 1-1 (or even 0-1-1...or 0-0-2, I guess), and the season starts to look a lot brighter.
  

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Mizzou Links, 9-10-07

Happy birthday to me! I damn near overslept this morning, but alas...here I am...and I just saw the tail end of a commercial for the Columbia Mall Car Wash that used a clip of Mizzou football in their ad...it was, I believe, a clip of Justin Gage catching a TD pass against SW Texas. Current.

• Power Mizzou has a hilariously creepy photo feature from The Grove...I'd say they went out of their way to take pictures of hot girls (like a certain friend of mine would have been doing with his cell phone cam), but from what The Beef said about The Grove, you couldn't avoid the hot girls. They were apparently everywhere. For all we know, they were trying to take pictures of the trees, but the hot girls kept getting in the way.
  
• There's something of a QB controversy in Kalamazoo this week, as Bill Cubit has played 3 QB's with extremely mixed results. Apparently he's going to try and stick with sophomore Tim Hiller, but we'll see what happens if WMU gets off to a rough start like they did Saturday against Indiana.
• Inside Mizzou has the best article title of the weekend with their "Chase and the Temple of Doom" game recap. (And here's the game notebook.)
• The Missourian discusses Martin "Slash" Rucker, Mizzou's part-time TE, WR, QB, RB, and FB. Hmm...maybe we should see if he can play DE too?
• Graham Watson scored some nice prognostication points with her Saturday prediction.
• After OU's destruction of Miami on Saturday, I was thinking LSU really needed to show something to avoid losing some of their first place votes to OU. After the LSU game, I started thinking that it's USC who better show something...they looked just fine last week against Idaho, but they'd better bring it against Nebraska. Otherwise they'll start losing luster in light of how dominant OU and LSU have been. Though apparently "I am a better qb than sean glennon. And i am drunk."
• The Trib's Steve Walentik talks about the higher expectations for Mizzou basketball this year.
  
• Mizzou Soccer had a nice weekend, shutting out Indiana and Eastern Illinois. I'm still taking a wait-and-see approach here with Bryan Blitz's team, but so far so good...there's no doubting that...
• Mizzou X-Country started the season with a head-to-head win over Murray State in the Mizzou Cross Country Challenge. Not bad at all.
• And finally, Roger Federer is really really really really good. Having grown up playing and watching tennis, I got used to what good tennis was...it was a strong all-around game with one massive strength. With Sampras and Becker, it was the serve. With Agassi, the return. As Agassi put it the other night during the Federer-Roddick match, Federer's better than everybody else at more than one thing, which is unheard of. His return, his forehand, his volleying, his passing shots...it's unreal. And it's always disorienting watching him because his game invents shot angles I've never seen before. Just not sure how he does it. I think he's raised the game of everybody on the tour--a very good thing since tennis was slumping for a few years there as Sampras and Agassi got older and nobody really filled the void--and he's still beating everybody.

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Mizzou Links, 8-23-07

• I'll admit it: I didn't see this coming. Gettis? Yes. Lambert? Yes. Moye? Maybe. Gachkar?? Not a clue in the world. Mutigers.com covers the news too. With his speed, it's not altogether surprising that he'd be fantastic on kickoff coverage, but still...surprised me a bit. I never really gave him a chance...just figured he would need to put on about 15 pounds before having a chance. Pinkel's attitude toward redshirts definitely took a 180 beginning in 2005, and I'm not totally sure what to think. Guess it's okay as long as we recruit somebody just as good to replace them in 2011, and it really might be a sign that the program is in better shape--they don't have to hoard every resource as long as humanly possible. We'll see. Pinkel will decide on the other borderline players after today's scrimmage. Not surprisingly, Dave Matter has some pretty solid analysis.
  
• Got any questions for Lorenzo Williams?
• Today's feature stories: Dave Matter takes on giant and former walk-on Colin Brown, while the Missourian takes on Tommy Chavis. “Winning is No. 1 and if we are winning the sacks will come eventually." Maybe, Tommy, but if the sacks come, the winning might be easier. Meanwhile, Mike Dearmond goes after "The Chosen One," Mr. Temple. Can't decide...is he going for 'stoic' or 'regal' in that picture?
  
• Inside Mizzou talks to Mizzou commit Steve Moore about...well, Mizzou commit Marcus Denmon. Meanwhile, Steve Walentik interviews Denmon.
  
• Mutigers.com has a nice preview of this weekend's volleyball season-opening Magnolia Classic.
• Also: "NCAA Taking Academic Reform Seriously."
• And finally, GOOD FREAKING LORD. I...wow. Pretty sure my Pirates didn't score 39 runs in June. By the way, Orioles...don't think I'm not noticing what you're doing. You will not steal the Pirates' claim to "Most Hopeless Franchise," so stop trying. Next thing you know, they'll be passing up a Ryan-Howard-for-Kris-Benson trade or something...
  

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Mizzou Sanity, 8-22-07

• So it's hard for me to think any higher of Dave Matter now that he's pointed me to a fun stat nerd website, CFBstats.com. I expect to have some fun with this one before the season starts.
  
• Practice reports! Here's Dave Matter, telling us about Jeremy Maclin's emergence. Here's Graham Watson, telling us about the injured RB's...a hint that Derrick Washington might be on the field in 2007. Here's Gabe Dearmond, telling us that Washington took some snaps with the first team.
  
• Speaking of true freshmen, the Missourian has a profile of Gilbert Moye, who's apparently moving up the ranks in the safety rotation. Not sure what I feel about him playing this year.
• It's Like Father Unlike Son time! Woohoo! God bless family bickering...
  
• So apparently Marshall Brown was playing with a pelvic fracture toward the end of last season?? Ouch. Meanwhile, here's the Trib's article about Marcus Denmon and Zaire Taylor.
  
• Well, it was only an exhibition, but a 5-0 win for Mizzou soccer over Indiana is better than a 5-0 loss, right? For the record, Indiana went 9-7-4 last year. I'll wait to get my hopes up, but this is nice.
• And finally...Nolan Richardson shouts "Rapido!" My sense of morbid curiosity had a lot of fun watching that crazy old man rooting for Mizzou last year, so in return I will now root for Mexico...to finish 2nd, anyway.
  

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Positive Pub on Denmon

While out and about earlier today, I caught the beginning of Soren Petro’s show on WHB in Kansas City. For those who don’t know him, Petro is the best thing going in sports talk – smart, opinionated, exceptionally well-informed, and steadfastly opposed to engaging in fake controversy. On a day when there’s much to talk about – the Chiefs’ quarterback battle, the Royals’ blowing a lead last night, Michael Vick’s guilty plea, the renewed possibility that the Nashville Predators might relocate to KC – do you know what he led with?

Marcus Denmon – the best basketball player in the city – has committed to Missouri.

His words, not mine. That’s awfully high praise, especially considering that Travis Releford, a Kansas commitment and an elite national recruit, is in the same class in the same town, and Michael Dixon, a prime point guard prospect from Lee’s Summit, is just a year behind.

Petro indicated that Releford will be a fine complementary player as a collegian, but he predicted stardom for Denmon because of his blinding quicks and his ability to dominate a game with the ball in his hands. Petro says that Mizzou is getting a physical ballplayer, who despite less-than-imposing size, can get into the lane and finish. Petro said Denmon is perfectly suited for Mike Anderson’s relentless style of play.

Petro also labeled this as something of a statement moment for the Missouri program, because it’s proof that Anderson is fulfilling his stated goal of locking down the state’s best talent. Now, I think that overstates the case a bit – it looks like the Tigers will be shut out in St. Louis this year, where there are two or three elite-level prospects, and MU also targeted Releford – but it’s still a cogent point. Denmon and Steve Moore – two homegrown talents – have a shot at being cornerstones of Anderson’s first big recruiting class at Missouri, and most indications are that Mizzou sits in good shape with Dixon and St. Louis big man Tyler Griffey, two highly regarded prospects in the class of 2009. To get where he wants to be, Anderson needs for the state’s best talent to grow up thinking of Missouri as a destination location.

It’s a long way from last week’s doom and gloom, huh?

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Marcus Denmon commits, Zaire Taylor arrives

Here's a little pick-me-up after the disappointment of losing Scott Suggs. Marcus Denmon, a lightning-quick 6'2" scoring machine from Kansas City, has committed to Missouri's basketball team. Scout and Rivals both have stories. Denmon joins Miguel Paul (who is similar in size and style) and Steve Moore as early Tiger commitments for the class of 2008. Getting Paul and Denmon in the same class confirms what we already know about Mike Anderson: He wants to play fast. With three scholarships left to give, look for Mizzou's staff to target one bigger wing player and two more interior athletes. I suspect that one (and perhaps two) of those remaining three scholarships will be filled with junior college prospects.

And history's worst-kept secret was revealed when Zaire Taylor, a 6'4" guard who spent two seasons at the University of Delaware, enrolled at Mizzou this week. Taylor will practice with the Tigers this season, and will have two years of eligibility remaining, starting with the 2008-09 campaign. Reported to be a stellar defender, he'll give Missouri an experienced backcourt presence after Stefhon Hannah and Jason Horton play their final seasons this coming winter.

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Hoops Schedule Released

It's not exactly final (there's a whole lotta "TBA" on the page) but all of the dates (and most of the opponents) for the upcoming men's basketball season have been set. Clearly, this is the season of the obscure mascot at Mizzou Arena, as the Tigers welcome Boilermakers, Leathernecks and Kangaroos to Columbia.

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So Scott Suggs chose UW.....

I will leave the impact of this decision by a high school senior in the hands of those FAR more knowledgeable than I on the topic. What I did want to discuss has to do with why I wanted to be a part of this site's creation. That being, how "people in the know" create an environment of unstable fans through their "knowledge" which ultimately leads to disappointment and despair for a fan-base that already seem to get off on being disappointed....and trust me...I say that last part with all the love in the world.

And I would not be so committed to writing this piece if these incidents did not happen over and over and over again. To me, I would have believed people should have learned the lesson by now through the countless other times this has occurred...all the way up to what was likely the GRANDEST occurrence with Blaine Gabbert. Those in the know swore up and down it was simply a matter of time. They did so with such frequency I even bought into it. Never again.

So...without naming names and keeping those I feel are SO ridiculous in their espoused "knowledge" safe, here is what was discussed this past week on message boards by those believed and known to be "in the know" on these matters.

"Missouri feels good.....just saying that from what I can gather, Missouri feels good."

"But I keep coming back to the fact that Suggs grew up dreaming about playing for the Illini"

"He will play in the braggin rights, but for whom?"

"I think he will be a Tiger!"

"He should be one of the center pieces of a great Missouri team in a few years"

"I have to give the edge to us"

"there was a mention from Suggs that "it would be hard" to go to Washington. If it is MU vs. Ill, I feel good about about Mizzou's chances"

"UW people are fairly certain that Suggs is not coming to UW"

"If it is down to MU and UW and UW does not think he's going there, think that is a very good sign,"

And yes....in some cases these predictions were tempered with "just my thoughts" and the like, but let's be honest. When you see or hear someone who you believe is in tune with ALL that goes on, you don't typically pay attention to that caveat.

What are the lessons learned here?
#1 - Quit making predictions. You know you are either in a position of knowledge or know your readership holds another (in particular) in that similar position. You do yourself an injustice and defame yourself as an insider each time your pick goes south, which they often do, since we are dealing with teenagers.

#2 - Get better sources, or at least credit them differently. This one goes without saying, but of late, the "sources" involved here leave a LOT to be desired.

Just my thoughts...best of luck to Mr. Suggs on his future in the northwest.

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Hoops Preview: Pac 10 & Patriot League and Keon Scores on the Shore

Football, schmootball. So what if the gridiron season hasn't even kicked off yet? The hoops junkies at espn.com are already looking ahead to basketball season, and they begin with the Pac 10 (their boys are big) and the Patriot League (their boys are smart).

And to bring this back to Mizzou, Tiger soph-to-be Keon Lawrence made light work of the prestigious Jersey Shore League for the second straight year. Despite the presence of senior Stefhon Hannah and the arrival of DeMarre Carroll, I think Keon emerges as Mizzou's star this year.

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Mizzou Links, 8-7-07

Oh sure...I leave and The Beef actually contributes...and like that, he was gone. Just like Keyser Soze. So this won't be a long Links...I'm exhausted from the Chicago trip and am typing with one hand because my cat is laying on the other...he's apparently happy to see me.

• Here's a nice write-up from Tony Mejia about Kareem Rush and his second chance to make a first impression...
• A belated congrats to Roger Wehrli...making Mizzou proud...
• And now that that's out of the way, we talkin 'bout PRACtice. They donned the pads on Monday, and here are your reports from Mutigers, The Trib, Dave Matter's Trib Blog, Graham Watson's P-D blog, and the KC Star, Also: a Pig Brown feature from the Missourian, a Hood/Lo Williams feature from the KC Star, a LB corps feature from the P-D, a Gilbert Moye feature from Inside Mizzou, and Pinkel quotes from PowerMizzou. I've gotta say...LOTS of different information in all those reports. I was quite impressed. With the emergence of those newspaper blogs, this year's practices are the most closely covered I've ever seen. And that's a good thing.

Yeah, that's about it for today...in upcoming days I'll be digging up some info on the other Big 12 teams, but I'm behind today...tired...cat on arm...et cetera. Thanks to The Beef for filling in, and I totally agree about Selig. Aside from Gary Bettman, I guess, I have to say that Selig's the worst major sports commissioner of my lifetime. Disheveled and ineffectual is a bad combination for a commish.

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Mizzou Links 8-06-07

So...only Fan Day yesterday for the football team, leaving this edition of Mizzou Links a little thin

• Some good media day notes from Gabe D. HERE, along with the information on the ridiculous athleticism of Denario Alexander
• Gabe working hard yesterday with a follow-up on new Mizzou basketball committ Miguel Paul. Nice story can be found HERE
• Mike D with a story from yesterday on the WR's HERE, along with a piece from Blair Kerkhoff on the state of our Chase QB's HERE
• Tom Wheatley from the STL P-D with a story on the two Mizzou women's golfers who qualified for the USGA Women's Amatuer Championship HERE
• Graham Watson also checks in with some good info in her blog from yesterday HERE

• And a late addition, a great find by Trrip on Aaron Crow and his summer in Cape Cod HERE
• And another addition (rather than a new post about it)...HERE is Gabe D's practice report from this morning. Supposedly there WAS a practice yesterday, but no news of it anywhere. Anyway, yeah...if there was EVER a time to sign up for PM, now would be it...some great stuff each day.
• Dave Matters report is located HERE, all I have to say is god bless the internet and the defense sounded quite stout today.

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More Breaking News: Tigers land hoops recruit

Scout.com reports that Miguel Paul, a 6'2" combo guard from Florida, has given Missouri its second basketball commitment for the class of 2008, joining Kansas City power forward Steve Moore. Four scholarships remain to be awarded.

Dave Telep, Scout's head hoops recruiting honcho, says that Paul "is a combo guard with a zest for scoring the basketball. Some guys are wired up to get in the lane and get buckets and he's one of them."

Sounds a bit like Keon Lawrence, no?

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