-The second half is kind of what I thought it was going to look like when we found out Kobe couldn't play. Alabama is just one of the very best teams in the conference and they showed why today.

-Sean East was out collecting ankles in the final 20 minutes. He had some ridiculous crossovers and started making the layups and floaters he was missing in the first half. He's a lot of fun to watch when he's on.

-D'Moi Hodge's shooting slump continued. He at least got one to drop today. But man, he's 4-25 from 3 over the last four games. He was a 40% shooter before downslope. They need him back bad.

-Good point by @GabeD here. You can't win games missing bunnies.
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-I thought Mo Diarra looked impressive again. Alabama had a huge size advantage and didn't dominate the boards because of him. I've said that I thought before the season he was going to be a starter -- that's the kind of impact I thought he would have. He flashed a couple of drives to the rim and if he can prove he can knock it down from deep, he's going to give opposing defenses a lot of trouble. He's just getting more and more comfortable the longer he's out there.

-In case it was already obvious, I think this game showed how valuable Kobe Brown is to this team. Guys get asked to do more than they're capable of when he's not on the floor. Sometimes they're able to handle the challenge, but you can't rely on that night-to-night.

-The good news for Mizzou is that it still took care of business this week by getting their win over Arkansas. I wouldn't put too much stock into this one. They play Ole Miss on the road on Tuesday, who's dead last in the SEC, then return home for Iowa State. We'll hopefully see what they look like with everyone available by then.

This morning Mizzou's quadrant ranking score is 1.11. This week saw a hit as UCF dropped from Quad 1 to Quad 2 and SIUE went from Quad 3 to Quad 4. Mizzou lost 2 points with those moves. They gained 4 points by beating Arkansas and lost 1 point yesterday.

Mizzou is currently tied for 34th with Memphis. That would put them in the 8-10 seed range. Most importantly, last year the top 40 teams in quadrant score all made the tournament and were seeded within a plus/minus 5 of their rank. So Mizzou's range would be solidly in with a seeding of 29-39. The bubble didn't start until #41 as VCU didn't get in. Only 5 of the teams ranked 41-50 got in.

This week is a big week for the Tigers. Ole Miss is worth 3 points with a win and -2 with a loss. Iowa State would be a 4 point win and -1 with a loss. Winning both this week would put you solidly in the top 30.

From Kansas City Channel 41's Mick Shaffer:
"Trevor Lawrence is still undefeated on Tuesdays and Wednesdays."

My column from today's game

Thank you!

Thought I would share a follow up.

Former NFL player Peyton Hills, who saved 4 kids from drowning before experiencing trouble himself... has been released from Baptist Hospital in Pensacola. Great news! And an answer to many prayers!

On the twitters….

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1. Thank you Gomillion, Gholston, Hodge (apologies for misspellings throughout) for the first part of the season, without your contribution we don't have double digit wins, no doubt about this.

2. But the deeper into SEC we get the more we see who has the level of talent needed at this level. All three of those players are somewhat one dimensional, useful yes but often over exposed.

3. I like Honor starting, but I would bring East in at the under 16. His play has actually gotten better in SEC play. He is a starting guard in the SEC, no doubt.

4. Diarra, 8 points and 12 rebounds in 14 minutes? Really, don't care if he gathered a bunch of stats in junk time he still did it against most of their skilled bigs. He probably isn't a starter yet, but he is inching closer to being a must. That drive on the baseline, wow.

5. Shaw slowly getting better. Carter has a place in the top 7/8. He gives you rebounding and scoring

6. Mosley, well the 3 ball is a mystery but I would wager that is the last part of his game to come around. Mid range on in he is fantastic, he knows the game, plays great defense, and he and Shaw have a little magic going on.

7. Should win 7/8 games the rest of the way before the conference tournament.

8. Your rotation has shifted somewhat, that is a good thing.

2020 HS football season shut down in blue California due to COVID. To get their son prepared for college, his parents get legally separated so Jake can then move with his father and live in an apartment in Georgia, while his mom stays in California to work. This arrangement is thought to make him immediately eligible to play, and the state of Georgia's football season is on. (J.J. McCarthy from Michigan pulled a similar move to play HS ball in 2020 in Florida)
He plays one game for the new HS, does well, and then his parents do an interview with ESPN and are featured by Jeremy Schaap on Outside the Lines regarding their maneuver. They freely admit they plan to reunite their marriage after the football season.

Here's the interview (at 5:15):
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And here's the story:

Georgia HS association catches wind of the interview, and immediately rules Jake to be ineligible. After an appeal fails, there's a loophole where he can then transfer to another Georgia HS and once again, become immediately eligible. He transfers to Grayson, and wins the Georgia championship game against of all people, our boy Sam Horn.
All of this is chronicled well in Titletown the Netflix show. Well worth watching the first 2 half-hour episodes.

One thing is for sure, Jake is not afraid of cameras or publicity. And his parents seem very committed to his success. (his dad Randy played QB at Nebraska)

Can anyone who was there confirm? I heard the chant on TV, but couldn't make out what they were saying. Twitter says it was "F*ck KU"

That’s 5%.

If we were 7-20, a mere 35%, this is a 1 score game right now.

Lots of open shots.

We’re just shooting amazingly badly.

That’s all there is to it.

@drewking0222 will have a story this afternoon from media day and I'm sure will include some of this, but thought the whole quote was worth passing on. I asked Gates about Mosley coming back and what parts of his game might need a little time to adjust. Here was his quote:

"Our job as leaders is to humanize these student athletes, humanize them and treat them as regular people, not just athletes. We all have continued and will always continue to put our arms around each and every player. My job is to never forget that. Why? Because Leonard Hamilton never forgets that. Our players have put their arms around Isiaih in his moments to help him, right? To help him (until) when we knew he would say 'Coach, I'm ready.' And at this point, he said, 'Coach, I'm ready' and ultimately when that happens, that's the level of respect; you got to allow people space, right? And understand, through it all, we're here for him. So I want to first applaud you guys and appreciate you guys, because sometimes to do your job effectively, you have to cross the line. You have to try to find the story. I asked you guys to give him space. I asked you guys his privacy and you guys have respected us. So I thank you guys for doing that. Because my job, no different than any recruiter, I tell them, hey, my job is to love you and protect you. And you guys allowed me to protect Isaiah and obviously the things that he had had to go through. And you know, ultimately at some point, you got to give him his space to talk about those things. And I appreciate you guys doing that for him. Because it's not easy. It's not easy at all for any of these young men that have the light shined on them the way that they do so I appreciate that. What I look at ultimately is a young man that has a dream and his dream is locked into his team success. The level of connection, the level of coaching, he's the first one jumping up and down when guys are successful. When we win he's the first guy giving high fives, when we are not doing well he's the first guy being able to correct 'Hey, we need to do that.' It's the same thing; when you have a loving environment, you see guys give, you see guys receive And it's all going to err on the side of our eight core values: friendship, love, accountability, trust, discipline, unselfishness, enthusiasm and toughness. And I expect that our guys continue to carry that not just in basketball but in the real world when they become fathers, husbands and obviously unbelievable citizens or CEOs and use it 20 years down the line. So we're excited to have our team closer to 100%."

Is there any reason why Mosley should not be starting over someone like Gomillion soon? I do not believe the “we need good players to come off the bench” argument. None of the top coaches/teams in the country bring their best players off of the bench.

Give us 15-20 minutes to get set up, just finished interviews

Gates, Honor and Aidan Shaw

-Nate Oats speaking first. He was asked if there was anything inappropriate said by the student section about the Darius Miles situation. He said there was, but that security did its job and escorted them out. He doesn't think it represented Mizzou as a whole, just that sometimes kids don't understand the severity of a situation.

-Oats said once they heard Kobe was out, they figured Isiaih Mosley was going to be the guy that stepped up. Called him a really aggressive scorer and thinks Mizzou is a perfect system for him. Said that he'll get better with more reps.

-Talking to Gates, Nick Honor and Aidan Shaw now. Gates said he loved the atmosphere again. Said he was just being cautious with Kobe Brown and isn't going to say anything other than what was put in the statement he put out.

-Gates said he still thinks Alabama is the No. 1 team in the country. They didn't do a good job of taking away Alabama's energy. He was disappointed they only got to the free throw line seven times in the second half after how good of a job they did against Arkansas.

-Gates said Aidan Shaw was going to get his first start today regardless of Kobe being out. He said since Kobe wasn't available, he wanted to put Shaw on the floor alongside an experienced forward, leading to Noah Carter also returning to the starting lineup. He said he thought about starting Diarra but didn't want to quite yet -- he's still getting into the swing of things.

-Nick Honor said it's been really good to have Isiaih Mosley back on the floor. He opens up the offense a lot.

-Nick on the missed layups: "It's just one of those days."

-Gates said he thought he played Mosley too many minutes tonight and it took away his legs on jump shots. They have to build up his conditioning.

-Gates said he's proud of how much Aidan Shaw has grown. Said he took the DNP in stride and had some really good practices afterward.

Was at the game. They took a beating from Mizzou.

Noah Carter and Mabor Majak are both warming up, everyone is available as far as I know. I'll let y'all know when starters get posted.

-We found out about 20 minutes before the game Kobe Brown wasn't playing. For the record, I asked Kobe how his ankle felt on Friday and he said it was good. So while it's not great that he missed the game today, I do think the staff just wanted to make sure he wasn't rushing back. There's a lot more season left to play and they'll need him for all of it.

-I thought it was interesting, though, that Dennis Gates didn't just replace Kobe in the starting lineup. He also took Ronnie DeGray out. DeGray has been really good in a few moments for the team, especially on defense, but he hasn't really had the same verve in the last few games. I still expect him to play a role on the team, it'll just be coming off the bench.

-With Kobe out, Mizzou needed someone to step up as a bucket-getter. Isiah Mosley answered the call. When he's on the floor, he's everything we thought he'd be on this team. He's still a little rusty from deep (everyone is today) but he's so good at creating shots. He's able to actually make something out of a possession going nowhere -- in past games, Mizzou would get stuck in those situations.

-I've also been blown away by how good Mosley is on defense. I remember reading Field of 68's Almanac before the season and that was the biggest question mark was not how bad he was defensively but whether he would play it at all. The reality is he gives a ton of effort and is a plus, not a minus, on that end.

-The whole team's been solid on defense, actually. That's really the whole reason they've kept it close. Alabama's offense is rated 13th on KenPom an the Tigers are holding them to a pretty rough field goal percentage. That's a big accomplishment.

-Sean East has gotten some really good looks and missed all of them. If those start dropping, Mizzou might climb back in front.

A 5- star QB in California, he was recruited by literally every school in the nation in 2019. His top 10 was Florida St, Arizona State, LSU, Auburn, Miami, Florida, San Jose State, Tennessee, Georgia, and USC.
He cut Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas , UCLA from his final list.
Was rated the #4 QB in the country.

Five-star quarterback Jake Garcia announces top 10 schools

Five-star quarterback Jake Garcia announced his top 10 schools with a list that includes USC, San Jose State, Auburn and LSU football.

usatodayhss.com

(edited: Gabbert was even higher)