Join Mizzou beat writer Dave Matter for his live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday
Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Dave Matter in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.
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1. Kansas State's Nijel Pack just entered the portal. He's more of a scoring point guard, but he would be a huge addition. Illinois' Andre Curbelo is great when he's healthy. Bradley's Terry Roberts would fit in nicely, too.2. Antonio Reeves, Illinois State ... or Jason Roche, The Citadel or Texas Tech's Terrence Shannon.3. Those are hard to find. Mo Diarra could be that guy.4. I don't get really hung up on basketball assistant coaches. Gates has more than $900K to find three assistants. He should be able to hire one proven, attractive assistant with that kind of money.1. Brady Cook, unless JT Daniels comes to MU. He's not coming to sit on the bench wherever he lands.2. Nate Peat3. QB, 4; RB, 5; WR, 8; TE, 2; OL, 5; Interior DL, 6; Edge, 7; LB, 6; CB 5; Safety, 8; PK/P, 9; Return, 8. -
Concerning JT Daniels, I would prefer not to see him sign with Mizzou and let Cook, Macon and Horn battle it out for starting QB. Mizzou did recruit these guys and Cook andMacon will be in their third season with the team. Apparently somebody saw something they liked when they recruited them, but so far Cook and Macon have only had cameo appearances in their first two years. It’s time to put them in games and see what they can do. This constant bringing in of a guy for one year clogs up the system and at some point one of the QBs is going to have be frustrated enough to find somewhere else to play. -
This is Macon's second year in the program, not third.I understand the sentiments, but nobody has seen the current QBs p lay and practice more than Drinkwitz - and his job is ultimately on the line if this team can't score points and can't win games. He has heavily pursued two portal QBs in Jayden Daniels and JT Daniels - and hasn't played down his interest in adding a QB to the mix - so that tells me all I need to know about his faith in the current guys' being the answer for 2022.
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Good afternoon Dave,
Us Tiger fans need to be patient and give Coach Gates and his staff time to recruit and build a winning roster. Remember fans, there are a lot of winning programs out there at the Power 6 level that in-total have dozens of talented players wanting to transfer to another team where their PT increases. Without mentioning names, do you have any insight into the top 3-4 players he's targeting? -
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In the last several years the SECN has shown the spring FB game of SEC schools as spring FB camps ended in April. Mizzou’s spring camp and game are already over. If it was on SECN, I missed it. Since there is a battle for the starting QB position and Luther Burden’s first appearance in a Tiger uniform, I was wondering if you know if Mizzou’s spring game will be on SECN later in April?
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Dave - being an alum and season tix holder of the UofArkansas I appreciate your comments about our program. We had several bad years after Nolan and have struck gold w Musselman. AR has no Pro teams and the corp businesses back the team (NIL). Living in STL I rarely even hear about MIZ on the radio or TV. So when they say “it just means more”, we’ll it does in Arkansas. WPS.
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The statewide support is incredibly strong for the Hogs when those programs are in good shape. Musselman has three five stars on board for next year's team and continues to pull great players out of the portal. I thought he was a great hire at the time and now he's got arguably the strongest program in the SEC in terms of recent success and momentum.
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How many guys are currently on the men’s basketball team? It really proves the Brown brothers are here for the team? People are mad about Brazille leaving (me too), but I would even more upset if Kobe left. He truly is the star of this team and he has 2 years of eligibility left. Do you know why the Brown brothers are staying? They believe in Mizzou or Coach Gates? I would love just more knowledge of them as people.
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This is something I hate to admit, but as a college beat writer, I don't really cover the athletes any more. We cover the coaches and the programs as a whole. The players come and go, and we document what they do on the court and on the field, but we don't get to know them on a personal level any more. Interview access is limited to group settings or Zoom meetings. Players rarely - and mostly never - return texts or phone calls. We really don't cover the athletes: We cover their social media accounts, especially during the offseason.So, I couldn't tell you what the Browns are thinking right now. They could enter the portal at any moment, but they haven't yet. I know Kobe had been contacted by teams even before Martin was fired.
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Two things about this new free-agency era bother me. (1) We will no longer see players develop. One of the joys of college basketball is that players grow. If they do now, it will be at some other bidder. (2) When does NIL simply become paying players? The rules are apparently nonexistent. Coaches are supposed to stay out of the process? Riiight.
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That was some bummer Brazile news to wake up to, but hopefully he is getting a bag from Arkansas. Does the recent JUCO commit, Diara, profile the same as Brazile? From what I've read he's a lengthy, tall, bouncy big that plays primarily around the perimeter. It would have been fun to have two of those guys on the court at the same time.
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I haven't seen Mizzou connected to Curbelo in any reports yet. Jeff Goodman reported that the following schools have reached out: Gonzaga, St. John’s, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Kansas State, St. Mary’s, Clemson and Texas A&M. These lists are always incomplete but that's a snapshot of the interest.
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Absolutely not. Journalists cannot pay for interview access, as far as I view the job. If it's not the first rule of the profession, it's the second rule. Personally and professionally I don't want to be business partners with people I'm assigned to cover. If they decide they'll only do interviews for cash then I'll interview someone else.I don't begrudge any other media company paying athletes for interviews, but it's not something that's in any way possible/allowed at my company or something I'd engage with someone I cover.
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Dave, really enjoy the chats much more now that only subs can view. Why do you think there's such a disconnect between fans reaction to the portal, NIL and sports writers? I think it is hurting college b-ball big-time (elite 8 games rating down big compared to the last regular tournament in '19 and that's with all the blue bloods still playing), but as you have written many times, you're for free agency for the players. But the example that anyone can move whenever they want in jobs, it's just not accurate. When I quit a TV station earlier in my career, i could not move to another TV station because of my contract and that's basically what the players sign when they go to a school - play for the school and you get a few education, plus other benefits.
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I'm not aware of anyone saying anyone can move to any new job. That certainly has never been true for me in my career. But that's not the comparison that's being made. The NCAA and the schools insist that college athletes are students and not employees. But students who aren't athletes can transfer without penalties - so what's the logic in preventing student-athletes from transferring without penalty?
The reason fans and sportswriters may differ on this topic is because fans have an emotional attachment to the players. They like seeing their favorite players wear their favorite teams' jerseys. And when those players decide they'd be happier somewhere else, fans get upset and blame the system for allowing their favorite players to change schools. -
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--Is that a pretty big deal that Coach Gates was chosen to lead one of the teams in that Division I all-star game this Friday as part of Final Four weekend festivities? And if it is, as a Mizzou fan I'm obviously happy for him. But am curious to know how exactly he got chosen?
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Dave, I know you stated before that Choi is very hands-on with the MU athletic program. That doesn't necessarily sound like a good thing to me for the school President to want to be overly involved in something that I wouldn't think he's exactly an expert at. Or, are there perhaps any benefits that I'm overlooking as far his involvement with the Athletic Department goes?
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I don't know that it's a bad thing as long as he lets the people in charge of athletics run their department. He was very active in the recruiting trip to hire Eli Drinkwitz. He was very involved in the decision to oust Jim Sterk. He was in charge of the search for Desiree Reed-Francois. He's a hands-on leader overall - not just in athletics but all facets of the university. But as I wrote last week this was Reed-Francois' coaching search. He did not take over the process. Now I'm sure he made his thoughts clear but he gave her the autonomy to narrow down the search and make the hire
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The whole "floor/ceiling" thing that is very common these days in the lexicon of topics related to sports: I think I get the "ceiling" part(high ceiling=lots of potential to be good or great, right? Low ceiling = not much potential for that, right?). Am confused though about the "floor" aspect of it. Can you explain it to me?
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If a coach has a high floor then he has a track record where his teams are never bad/never too low. Prior to this season Cuonzo Martin was a high-floor coach. His worst teams were at least around .500 and always competent enough to be competitive with just about everyone on its schedule.
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Can they recruit? That's it. Yes, they'll have to put together scouting reports and be able to coach on the floor in practices, but Mizzou will run Gates' systems when it comes to Xs and Os. The coaches help but they're primarily recruiters. Do they have a strong network of high school/AAU coaches/handlers/agents? Are they good talent evaluators?
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Kansas will win NCAA Championship unfortunately I believe. They've done their duty in advancing through the easiest bracket for a # 1 seed to advance through in this year's NCAA Tournament, they got lucky to be matched up with a low-seeded football school to advance to the Final 4, and they'll have luck on their side again when they play Villanova which is having some major issues with injuries. That depressing prediction by me aside, is it too cynical of Mizzou fans to assume that KU will get the slap-on-the-wrist treatment when whatever penalties are finally handed out to them by the NCAA?
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How do you explain the befuddling collapse of the Softball team this season? Started out great in non-con and beat some highly-ranked teams along the way. They were very much living up to their lofty preseason rankings. These last few weeks, they somehow have become absolutely abysmal. This is one of MU fans' usually reliably excellent athletic programs we can count on year in and year out, so that makes it all the more infuriating. And apologies if you might've already addressed this earlier in chat, as I am just joining it today at this moment.
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There have been some injuries but more than anything returning players aren't performing as well as they did last year. That can happen. Not every player has a better senior season than they did junior season - and this seems to be a recurring theme for this program. Huge, huge home series against South Carolina this weekend.
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I haven't heard much buzz on Mizzou's chances with the five-star wing. Phillips, who plays at Link Academy in Branson, had been signed to play at LSU but backed out of his pledge after Will Wade was fired. I've seen Auburn and Tennessee mentioned as the favorites to land him. He also considered Florida State and USC before signing with LSU. Keep in mind, he's not from Missouri. He grew up in South Carolina and moved to Branson for his senior year at Link.
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Dave: I really only watched Mizzou games this year until I couldn't any longer, and then I checked back in at the tourney, and I watched a ton of games (even after my bracket was engulfed in the flames of my prognosticating ineptitude ), and frankly, wow, it's not a pretty picture. Shooting is really abysmal, teams struggle to get to 60 points, offenses are hyper-dependent on ball screens and teams are lost if those are guarded. The game is way too physical, which is killing scoring. It's just not a pleasant product to watch other than the drama. You watched way more than I have, so I'm wondering how you assess the quality of the product out on the court these days.
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