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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Arkansas and A&M both attacked the offensive glass. It was a bigger factor, I felt like, at Arkansas, but that's going to be the approach for most teams until Mizzou combats it. The Tigers need to exploit those chances with quick outlet passes and transition buckets, but easier said than done if you don't get the rebound. I'm no Xs and Os expert, but maybe by driving the ball more and earning some whistles inside you can create some foul trouble situations and get teams to back off the glass some. -
Is it fair to change expectations though? You are talking about how good it is that we are talking about NCAA tournament seeding midway through the first season for Gates, but if this team struggles through SEC play and ends up in the NIT, is that a disappointment? -
What disappoints you is up to you. I figured this was an NIT team when the season tipped off - but I always qualified any projections with the understanding that it's nearly impossible to have strong informed opinions on a team with this many newcomers. But once they're 12-1 with wins over Illinois and Kentucky it's fair to expect better things. So, sure, disappointment is fair if they fall short.
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Dave, thanks for all your great coverage of all things Mizzou.
My question is regarding the dichotomy of public opinion between Drinkwitz and his predecessor, Barry Odom. I just don’t get it Odom was a .500 coach with competitive teams and Dink is two games under :500 in his three years yet everyone loves him, think he’s doing a great job and recently richly rewarded him with an extension. Odom on the other hand was treated like a dead man walking almost his entire time as Head Coach.
I know Barry’s bald and a Lille vanilla while Drink is more personable but that shouldn’t matter. Bottom line Odom was more successful. Would appreciate your spin on it and will hang up and read :)... -
I would push back on the "everyone loves" Drinkwitz opinion. If you read my emails, my Twitter mentions or even this chat most weeks, I'd say there's just as much angst aimed at Drinkwitz than there was ever aimed at Barry - and sometimes more. He lost some fans with last year's Tennessee game (2021) and then even more after the Kansas State game in 2022. The Board of Curators believe in him enough to give him the extension/raise, but don't forget, Odom got a raise 11 months before he got fired. Drinkwitz is under major pressure in 2023.
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Last night was proof that team's won't always shoot well and score enough to be successful especially on the road. It seems the next step in the evolution of this team is finding a way to win some of those low scoring games? Not always going to score in the 80"s, especially on the road. Thoughts?
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I’m all for players benefiting from NIL. As you’ve said many times, coaches can change schools whenever they want…players should have the same right. But the system needs some guardrails. When a coach leaves there is a buyout on his/her contract that is probably paid by the boosters of the school that acquired that coach. While the players are still “student athletes” they are by no means “amateurs” anymore (if they ever truly were). Does the NCAA have the authority to establish some kind of “luxury tax” system that might go into a pool that would benefit non revenue sports or scholarship funds, something that would make it more expensive for schools that throw out multiple 7 figure NIL deals? Pro sports are trying (with varying degrees of success) to level the playing field with luxury taxes, payroll limits, etc. Thoughts?
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The only reason the pros have salary caps and luxury taxes is because the players are allowed to collectively bargain on those measures and have a say in the process. That's not the case for the college athletes. If college athletes could unionize and collectively bargain with the schools/conferences, then they could surely come up with some so-called guardrails while also making sure they're protected financially. But that would require the NCAA, the conferences, the schools, and ultimately, the courts to recognize college athletes as employees. And we're not there yet in college athletics.
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I say this every year: A team's ranking is not calculated in a vacuum. It all depends on what happens to the other ranked teams. If Mizzou beats Florida on Saturday and enough other teams in the 15 to 25 range lose a game or two, then I'd expect Mizzou to stick in the polls. Last week, every team from 11 to 19 lost at least one game. Ranked teams lose all the time and stay ranked. It's not the same as football where you only play once between new polls and can fall off ballots with one loss.
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Pinson plays at New Mexico State. He leads them with 12.9 points per game.Dajuan Gordon is also at NMSU.Blake Harris is a sixth-year senior at Furman, has played in only four games.Boogie Coleman is back at Ball State.Amari Davis is at Wright State.Anton Brookshire is at Iona.Torrence Watson is still at Elon.Yaya Keita has played only two games at Oklahoma.
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Georgia looked so dominant the other night, though they will not be returning their 6th year QB next year. Bama had some of its best players in a while these past 2 years, but could not pull off the National Championship. There is so much talk that Kirby and the Dawgs have crashed Saban's party and that Bama's run is at an end, but I am curious as to your thoughts? Does Bama under Saban have another Natty in their future?
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Don't give up on Saban and the Tide yet. I'd say he's still got some good years left. They're still signing elite classes. LSU is going to be a factor in the SEC West. Hugh Freeze might get Auburn turned around. Kiffin isn't going anywhere - at least not yet. Georgia is on top of the sport right now and Kirby is only 47, but sleep on Bama at your own risk.
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Even though the Championship game was a one-sided clunker...I thought this past college football season was the wildest and craziest since 2007. TCU beating Michigan, seemingly invincible Georgia almost going down vs. Ohio State, Tulane beating USC, Mizzou almost beating Georgia, etc.
Overall...there seemed to be more parity and TCU's remarkable one season turnaround showed us that a team can rebuild quickly with a new coach, portal transfers, and likely some well spent NIL dollars.
Like many, I thought that the NIL and transfer portal would be the ruination of college sports...but now I'm thinking maybe not? Maybe this is just what was needed for a non-blue-blood like Mizzou to get back to college football relevancy.
Your thoughts on all this...including the soon to be 12-team playoff format? -
Agreed. People make the mistake of measuring an entire season on who won the title. Fa more often than not the teams with the most five star players are going to hoist the final trophy, but there's more hope now than ever for teams outside of the five-star club to win 10 games and compete for championships. The 12-team playoff will only open the door for more programs to get in on the action. A record number of teams made the final AP poll that weren't in the preseason poll. Maybe that says more about the voters' not knowing who's good and who's not, but I think it says more about parity and the ability to improve your roster faster than ever before.
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Hi Dave,
I believe that Coach plays Carter and Ghomillion too many minutes. Carter has major issues on D and Ghomiilion tries to do too much when he attempts to continually post up bigger and stronger players near the bucket. They are both situational role players.
To that end, Shaw and Ronnie need more rep minutes.
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The strength of this team is supposed to be its balance, so I don't think you can just start taking guys out of the rotation. Gomillion's had a few bad stretches, but he's still a valuable piece to this team. Same for Carter. DeGray and Shaw don't provide much offense. Shaw has great upside but he just isn't much of a threat on the offensive end unless you draw up a lob for him - and that doesn't work every possession.
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We don't have much to go on with the new offensive coordinator hire, but I do have some issues with it. One, I don't like coaches who coach a position they never played, with Kirby being a WR in college and now tasked with developing the mechanics of our young QBs. The other issue is that we are bringing a coach whose recruiting territory was out west where we don't have many resources devoted to. Just looking at those two issues, should one be concerned or not?
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Nah. Bill Belichick played center in college - and he's one of the greatest defensive coaches in football history.Gary Pinkel was a college tight end - and earned his reputation as a quarterbacks coach at Washington.Former Mizzou D-line coach Craig Kuligowski is one of the best position coaches I've covered - and played O-line in college.Mike Leach might be the best quarterbacks coach in modern college football - and didn't play college football.As for Moore's recruiting area, it's not a big deal. Drinkwitz's staff mostly recruits their position and travels nationally to find players at their position. If anything, adding a West Coast guy might open some recruiting areas for the staff.
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Does gates realize that everyone is going to circle and speculate nonstop around this mosely situation until we got answers? I would say his handling of it is disappointing and one of the only negative things I have to say about him so far-overall highly impressed just not sure he knows how to handle the media here.
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With TCU being demolished in the Championship game how much long lasting damage do you think they did to trust the quality of play in the Big 12.? Yes, they beat Michigan but you wonder whether playoff officials in the future are feeling "burned" by trusting how truly battle tested Big 12 teams are especially with quality SEC teams in the future readily available to be chosen.. Your thoughts?
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There might be something to that, but I think the Big 12 might be more hurt in the eyes of the committee by losing Oklahoma and Texas - even though Texas hasn't been all that relevant in a long time and OU is coming off a crummy season. Either way, the 12-team field will give the Big 12 champion a spot at the table.
