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.
-
He was asked a lot early in the season but never really offered a substantive answer to the issue. He's not the kind of coach who's going to specifically talk about weaknesses for his team. He was asked a lot but didn't offer much in response. One common answer was opponent free throws after a missed Mizzou free throw shouldn't really count toward the stats because the rebound is only possible if Mizzou misses the free throw. Or something like that. -
-
-
-
Didn't Drinkwitz comment that Mookie was the most impressive player in the spring? Also, I heard an interview where Garcia said that Mookie was the most athletic of the WRs. That's good to see that Burden made a good catch in the spring game. That's the first time I heard anything about him in the offseason. Here's another question, wouldn't Burden be better served on the outside whether than the slot if his goal is to get drafted high in the NFL. Slot receivers are less valued than those that play on the outside. I realize Drinkwitz shouldn't care about draft position of his players, but rather putting out the most productive lineup, but it's also important to develop 5-stars into the NFL if you want to attract more elite recruits in the future.
-
I didn't hear Drinkwitz say that. Maybe he did but I was covering basketball most of the spring. Either way, Drinkwitz saying good things about Cooper doesn't mean Burden isn't playing well. Drinkwitz needs to win games not worry about what's best for Burden in the 2025 NFL draft. Slot receivers go high in the draft, too. UNC's Josh Downs and LSU's Kayshon Boutte were both slot receivers in college. Jeremy Maclin played in the slot at Mizzou and was a first-round pick.
-
Hi Dave. Despite the Tigers losing to Princeton in the second round, this tournament has been one of the more memorable ones in NCAA history. It’s actually made a positive case for NIL and significance of portal recruiting. Everything seems more competitive and the lack of Blue Bloods in the later rounds would seem to validate this…would you agree.
Also, I’ve seen a lot of grousing from fans about the lack of defense and rebounding on this year’s team. It seems true that better defensive teams have an enhanced opportunity to go deeper in the tournament. But I think Gates did a remarkable job with what he had. Personally, 2 or 3 more wins with better defense but a more plodding style would not have yielded the same excitement factor that brought fans back to Mizzou Arena. The Princeton loss aside, I thought it was a great year. -
I'm not ready to say this NCAA Tournament is completely related to NIL and the portal. Remember, NIL and the portal were in full effect last year, when the Final Four was Kansas, Duke, UNC and Villanova. All bluebloods.Here's what happened this year. We didn't see upsets in the mid-major/low-major conference tournaments, so the bottom of the field was better than most years, opening up the chance for more early upsets. Also, the top of the field was watered down. Purdue was the best team in the Big Ten this year - but the Big Ten wasn't all that good. Illinois, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and probably Indiana all underachieved. So, yes, I believe NIL and the portal has leveled/will level the playing field, but I would still believe that to be true if this year's Final Four was Kansas, Texas, Arizona and Duke.
-
-
-
-
The reality is most of the athletes growing up in St. Louis don't look two hours to the west as their natural home school. Some might have, but not a lot. They identify with being from St. Louis, not from Missouri. So Mizzou coaches don't naturally have a home-field advantage over schools with stronger brands and more success on the field. Like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, etc.
-
-
Dave, baseball team seems much improved, sans a three game sweep in South Carolina last weekend, albeit with two one run games. Where do you see this team finishing this year? Did Steve show/do enough to keep his job?
Also, will we see Sam Horn back on the mound anytime soon? -
We're big into asking for predictions I see today. The SEC is stacked. We all know that. They'll have to finish close to .500 in league play to get an NCAA regional. They've got an series this weekend at Kentucky, which is No. 1 in the nation in RPI. There's no such thing as an easy SEC schedule, but the Tigers don't play LSU (No. 4) or Arkansas (No. 6), but they're going to have to win some series against other very good programs to have a chance to break the NCAA skid.When Horn first stepped off the mound on Feb. 25 with the forearm injury, they said he could miss up to six weeks. So, I doubt we'll see him in the next couple series - if we see him on the mound at all.
-
As to the Kalkbrenner question raised earlier, you might have forgotten that in 2019 Cuonzo had just won a tight recruiting battle against Northeast Utah Tech A&T Community College for Jordan Wilmore. We also had the 7'2" Irish bigman Axel O'Kongo. With that frontcourt, we just didn't need to waste the effort to get Kalkbrenner.
-
-
Dave, I saw a tweet that Caleb Love had a visit to Columbia planned. Do you have any insight into whether this is true or if it's planned? I can't recall the source of the tweet, but I was skeptical since you and Gabe (the blue-bloods of Mizzou sports coverage) hadn't reported anything.
-
I haven't heard anything substantive on a Love visit. But he doesn't need to visit Columbia to pick Mizzou. He's been on the campus, been in the arena. He needs to talk to Gates and the staff; and that can be done outside of Columbia. He also has plenty of time to make a decision.
-
OK, folks. I'm out of time. We'll do this again next week. Remember to subscribe to the Mizzou Matters newsletter. You'll get a new edition on Friday.
