What would you rather do than watch this game?

After a couple of holiday weeks, an abbreviated Friday File. However, there are still happenings on the hardcourt and the Transfer Portal, of course.

Missouri received an additional five days for players to enter the transfer portal due to its appearance in the Music City Bowl on Monday, with the extended window set to close after Saturday. The Tigers saw a few walk-ons announce they departed the program, but no other scholarship players are expected to leave in the coming days.

Missouri’s top remaining targets in the portal, Texas A&M interior offensive line transfer TJ Shanahan and Washington State cornerback transfer Stephen Hall, are both still uncommitted as of Friday morning.

There’s still no update from Shanahan’s camp, which has been even quieter since the NCAA dead period began. Missouri is expected to host Hall this month, but the defensive back has kept his cards close to the vest lately. As a graduate transfer, Hall has an extended window to find his next program. He’s picked up offers from Kansas State, Mississippi and North Carolina in the past week.

Missouri expressed interest in Georgia State safety transfer Jeremiah Johnson before he officially entered the portal, his agency said, but there has not been an announcement of an offer from the Tigers since Johnson entered and his agency has no update on Missouri's interest. The Tigers targeted a third safety for the 2025 transfer class in Washington State transfer Adrian Wilson, but he signed with Arizona State on Dec. 23. There's still a need for depth in the secondary, and if Missouri doesn’t land anyone in the coming weeks, it could turn to the second transfer portal window in April.

After Caleb Grill returned in the Tigers’ matchup with Alabama State, the injury/sickness news turned to Ant Robinson missing the matchup. However, there is nothing to worry about. Robinson had food poisoning and should be fine going into the start of conference play Saturday.

So, for the first time since before Thanksgiving, Mizzou should be at full strength injury-wise when the Tigers take on Auburn on the road.

Unfortunately, I do not have a similar update on the women’s basketball injuries. The game against South Carolina didn’t bring any new information about the freshmen who have missed multiple games.

Londyn Oliphant’s concussion seemed to be a taboo topic when talking to Robin Pingeton. She directed the question over to Ma’Riya Vincent’s injury and talked about how the freshman forward has been working in on drills. Whether that means anything more than the straight-line running I saw her doing in December, I do not know.

Pingeton wouldn’t give any update on timeline, which I think means Oliphant’s progression isn’t coming along as would be hoped. A concussion is tougher to return from than people expect and it doesn’t follow a basic timeline. It’s all dependent on when she starts feeling better. I’ll keep trying to get updates as we move along, but it might be a little while before we see Oliphant again.

I have not seen Auburn play this year, and I know they are ranked 2, but looking at the team stats it doesn't look that bad. First we are playing there, away game.

They hit 1.9 more 3 pointers per game.

MIZ FT % 72.5
AUB FT % 75.5

Rebounds
MIZ 31.9
AUB 36.8

Assts
MIZ 13.6
AUB 19.4

Steals
MIZ 10.3
AUB 6.8

MIZ has a slightly better true shooting percentage.

All other stats are about the same.

Hopefully Ant is ready to go, should help assts and rebounding.

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Putting on my Kyle McAreavy hat, I contributed to his "The deep dive" series with an additional short reading on Stanford transfer punter Connor Weselman, through the lens of his offseason coach, Mike McCabe:

"He's a maniac in the weight room, so when those players gain that extra body weight that they have, it really helps in their consistency, in their punting," McCabe said.

Missouri's Junior Day will be Jan. 18, and the program is already handing out visitor graphics.

The first player to post one, that I've seen, is Class of 2026 defensive tackle Elijah Berman.

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