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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Hello Dave
Last year the new Mizzou AD move around the student sections in the MBB games which put them under the basket. It seemed to energize the team and the arena for a couple games (until they stunk it up again). Any work if they will move students to the bench side (shown on TV)? For the last decade ton TV that side is shown as basically 75% empty and looks REALLY bad. -
The student section has been behind the west basket at Mizzou Arena for as long as I can remember and didn't change last year. I haven't heard of any changes to the seating section. Student attendance can be hit or miss and the low sections along the sideline are where you can charge the most for tickets - not exactly within the budget of a student. From a financial standpoint it makes more sense to save those lower sideline seats for donors who can afford the higher prices. Put a winning team on the floor and fans will fill up those sideline sections.
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Best shape of their lives. Great chemistry with the receivers. Great leadership. Great attendance. Great accuracy. Great decision-making. Great greatness.OK, enough sarcasm. But in doing this for 20 years, I've never once heard of a bad preseason workout. The players are on campus going through workouts. They'll all say it's going superb, none of which matters until they keep score for real on Sept. 1.
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Is there a demand for a greater commitment from the fans? If the administration devotes more resources to baseball, does that mean taking away resources from football - a sport fans appear to care about much more? You're going to have to rob Peter to pay Paul. And fans care a lot more about Peter than they do Paul. The resources are finite. It's been really difficult for the baseball program to raise about $1 million for new outfield turf. El Drinkwitz says he needs an indoor practice facility and he's got donors chipping in for a $30 million project.In a vacuum, yes, it'd be swell if Mizzou could commit more resources to baseball. But what resources? Where are they getting that money? And if the department is spending more of its own revenue on baseball, how do you explain that to football and, to a lesser extent, men's basketball - plus you're other well-performing non-revenue teams?
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Until Drinkwitz names a starter they all have a chance, theoretically. Jack Abraham came here to compete for the starting job. Brady Cook and Tyler Macon stayed at Mizzou for the chance to compete for the starting job. I'd say Abraham's experience gives him an edge - Drinkwitz made it clear he wanted a game-experienced QB for the first leg of the season - and that Cook's more promising passing ability gives him an edge over Macon. But whoever wins the job will have to earn it in July-August.
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I assume your four wins are Louisiana Tech, Abilene Christian, Vanderbilt and New Mexico State.Beyond that, I'd be really surprised if Missouri can't squeeze out a few more wins.Auburn has some talent in certain areas but not nearly as much as its peers in the SEC West.Kansas State isn't going to win the Big 12 but could put a scare into every team in that league. Unbeatable though? Hardly.Missouri gets Arkansas and Kentucky at home. I'd have both in my preseason Top 25. But, again, not unbeatable. (We're going to assume Georgia is a Georgia win - even in Columbia.)Then you've got three more SEC road games at Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina. I'd expect all three to be favored over Missouri, but, again, those aren't gimmes.Bottom line, I think Missouri has the talent to win six games and maybe seven. If the QB situation is better than the murky situation it is right now, then six or seven wins should be the expectation.
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Lots of comments on the chat sites out there about HCED's job if the team has a losing record this year. I love the trajectory of the program with recruiting and all, but it seems a tall order with SC, Tenn and Florida all being on the road this year to get to 6 wins. I suppose part of the concern is that LB could bolt for Ohio State or Bama after this year, but shouldnt fans really be thinking in terms of 2024 as far as a winning season is concerned? I can see 5-7 this year, and 6-6 next and then to me, that 2024 season is where it should all pay off. Isn't it a little premature to be jumping on Drink at this point? Come out to the games, folks!
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His job is not in jeopardy with a losing record in 2022. A losing record would put some pressure on Drinkwitz and the staff heading into 2023, but he's not losing his job the 2022 on-field results - barring some kind of epic 1-11 disaster. I don't think any reasonably minded fans/media are talking about Drinkwitz losing his job after the 2022 season. There's crazy on the fringes of every fan base, but we can have a smart discussion of the program without feeding those fringes.That said, I think it's very reasonable to expect good results BEFORE 2024. It shouldn't take four or five seasons to develop a winning SEC program - especially with the transfer portal expediting the rebuilding process. Drinkwitz didn't inherit the dumpster fire of a program that requires four to five years to scratch together a winner.He's indeed recruited back to back top 20 classes. The fruits of that labor should start showing up on Saturdays in the fall, especially the FBS transfers who are older and closer to contributing.
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The tenth anniversary of Mizzou’s entrance to the SEC will occur next week. Have they won any championships yet? They were eastern division FB champs in 2013 and 2014. This was somewhat diminished in my opinion by their losses to ALabama and Auburn in the SEC championship game by a combined score of 101-55. Since then they have basically been a .500 team. Basketball was supposed to be the sport they would excel in, but while they have made the NCAA tournament a couple of times, they have finished under .500 too many times. Have they won ANY championships in ANY sport? MU has a great wrestling program.that other SEC do not compete in. Maybe they moved to the SEC to get bigger money paydays than they did in the Big12, but it seems like the last several years the athletic department has run deficits which makes me wonder if the move to the SEC was worth it.
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The volleyball program has won two SEC championships. That's it over the last decade. Softball, football, gymnastics and swimming have been competitive in the SEC for more than one fleeting season or two. Otherwise, yes, it's been a struggle to compete for championships.But does that mean Mizzou made a mistake in joining the SEC? No. Not at all. And measuring that decision made in 2011 all comes back to one reality: Campus leaders at Mizzou and around the Big 12 had lost faith in the conference's ability to stick together and survive together. Mizzou didn't just impulsively leave the Big 12 on whim. There were legitimate concerns about the Big 12's future - and with Oklahoma and Texas deciding to also leave a decade later, those fears were realized in time.So, it's true that Mizzou has struggled to compete for championships across the board in the SEC (for a wide variety of reasons) ... but also true that it was the right decision at the time.
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If there is one aspect of football that should be much better - maybe even among the top 3 or 4 in the SEC - it should be the return game. With Luther III returning punts and Nathanael Peat (along with a partner - Elijah Young? Kris Abrams-Draine?) returning kicks, that will hopefully take a little pressure off whoever is the starting QB ... or am I way off base?
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Nah. There was far more uncertainty late in the Larry Smith years when the program didn't have replacement pieces for Corby Jones and Devin West. I'd say coming out of the 2012 there was more uncertainty. The team crumbled late in its first SEC season. Pinkel opened up the QB competition because James Franklin had injury issues and didn't play great down the stretch. I'd say there was some major concerns coming out of the 2015 season when a rookie head coach took over the program.Yes, this team has major question marks at quarterback and a third defensive coordinator in three years, but it's stable and solid in several key areas: wide receiver, pass rush, safety, left tackle, running back depth, special teams.
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Attendance at football games is an issue. What amazes me is the large number of tailgaters around and within a mile of the stadium that never attend the games. Do you think if MU lobbied the SEC for a pass out that would help get those to attend? They could sell out every game if those that tailgate would actually go to the games.
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Regarding the earlier comment on MBB seating behind the benches - I understand that is where the athletic department can sell to big money folks. But when they sit empty, it looks bad and is embarrassing. If I am a recruit, I'm comparing that to other school arenas where those seats do not sit empty. It seems simple to me that they could figure out a way to use students or faculty or support employees as seat fillers or something so those seats aren't empty.
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Do Jeremy Maclin and Justin Smith have the backing of voters to the college football hall of fame to have a chance to be voted in? Is this a one shot election or do they have multiple years to be voted in? Mizzou has such a lower profile for football success than say Alabama or Ohio St that it seems to me that for either one or both have longshot chances to be voted in. Who does the voting - coaches, ADs, writers? Both are really good players and were solid pros, but I wonder if enough voters outside Missouri will vote for them?
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You can appear on the ballot multiple times. Smith and Maclin have been on the ballot in other cycles before this year. As a two-time All-American, I would think Maclin would have a good shot at some point. Smith is the best defensive player I've covered at Mizzou but the more time that passes might hurt his candidacy.I'm not wild about the All-American requirement for candidates, because it's my opinion that Chase Daniel is the best player to come through the program in the last 25 years. But he's not eligible for the Hall of Fame because he wasn't a first-team All-American - in years when other college QBs included Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, Colt Brennan, Matt Ryan, Colt McCoysHere's how the voting process works, from the National Football Foundation:"Once nominated for consideration, all FBS player candidates are submitted to one of eight District Screening Committees, depending on their school's geographic location, which conducts a vote to determine who will appear on the ballot and represent their respective districts. Each year, approximately 15 candidates, who are not selected for the Hall of Fame but received significant votes in the final selection, will be named automatic holdovers and will bypass the district screening process and automatically appear on the ballot the following year."And from there ... more than 12,000 NFF members and Hall of Famers are given a ballot. The NFF's Honors Court, "an elite and geographically diverse pool of athletic administrators, Hall of Famers and members of the media," then deliberate and decide the class.
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In your recent article about players to watch in tonight’s NBA draft you mentioned that Kobe Brown and Yuri Collins are returning to their college teams for the upcoming season. Do you think either or both will ultimately play in the NBA? Kobe had 30 points vs Alabama, but did not have the supporting cast to keep up that pace for the entire season. Collins led the country in assists for the season. He also led the country in turnovers. IMO he needs to improve that. I am baffled that None of the teams who have lottery picks apparently will take a pass on Kofi Cockburn. No NBA has room for his prescence on their roster?
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Cockburn might have been a lottery pick a decade ago, but the game has changed and there just aren't many minutes for a 7-foot 300-pound center who can't score beyond five feet of the basket or guard multiple positions. I bet he makes a roster as someone's backup center, but teams don't value big-bodied players at that position in 2022 like they did in the past.As for Brown and Collins, I'm not sure they'll ever develop into sure-fire NBA players. Brown has some obvious skills. He can score at all three levels and is a good passing big man. But I'm not sure he's elite at any one thing that will give him a long NBA career. There are countless really good college players who just aren't good enough to last in the NBA. Collins will have to consistently make jump shots to make it in the NBA.
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A few chats ago I brought up how I feared the NCAA would use the passage of NIL as an excuse to let KU off the hook for their transgressions. I think your answer was something to the effect that KU's violations (according to the accusations) were before NIL and that other coaches had been sanctioned for things that were later allowed. But my point is that, when you look at the farce that was the UNC, "Great Escape," the facts and logic you present won't matter. I think there's still a (too sizeable) chance that the NCAA simply doesn't want top punish what it considers its elite programs so they'll find a way to let KU escape with, if not no punishment (like the UNC debacle) but something akin to going and standing in the corner and think about what you did.
As a news reporter, I've covered far too many trials and when the jury doesn't come back fairly quickly, it's rarely good for the prosecution. -
Big difference between UNC and Kansas cases. The phony UNC classes were made available to all students - not just athletes - and the NCAA realized it couldn't charge UNC with academic violations that it couldn't prove gave athletes an illegal advantage. It's not the NCAA's role to decide if a university provides sham classes for students - as long as non-athletes are also taking those classes.The allegations at Kansas involve illegal payments to players from a sneaker company that wasn't also making payments to non-athletes. Those Kansas recruits/players were allegedly receiving benefits that were not available to non-athletes.
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The earlier discussion about the lack of conference titles since joining the SEC ten years ago got me thinking about how that stacked up against the last decade or so of being in the Big 12. Perhaps some sports were more routinely competitive, but I don't think there have been many conference titles in anything for quite a while. I think maybe the softball team won a couple, and the men's basketball team won a couple tournament titles, but I'm not sure as far as competing for the top spot in the conference there's actually been much difference in most sports.
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From 1996-2012, Mizzou won 10 Big 12 championships across five different sports. That doesn't include division championships in football:Baseball: 1 (2012 tournament)Men's hoops: 2 (2009, 2012 tournaments)Women's soccer: 2 (2008 tournament; 2009 regular season)Softball: 4 (1997, 2011 regular season; 1997, 2009 tournaments)Wrestling: 1 (2012 tournament)
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