Quick preview of today's game from Caleb Logue. Caleb will be interning with us this semester, covering women's hoops, softball and maybe a little baseball

326 row 32 3-4 (side of section closer to 50 yard)

Just sold 2 on Ticketmaster for 500 and netted 450 after seller 10% fees. Will sell other 2 for 475 and you avoid 20% buyer fees.

DM me

I have 2 tickets in Section 104, Row 20 and a Lot M parking pass for sale. $60 total for the 2 tickets and parking pass. Game is on Tuesday Feb 7, 8 PM. Tickets will be transferred electronically. Parking pass can either be picked up in Columbia or can be shipped (buyer pays shipping). Thanks

*I figured this game was over about 15 minute before tipoff when we found out Kobe Brown wasn't playing. Alabama is legit. I agree with Dennis Gates that the Tide is the best team in the country. Mizzou would probably lose to them at full strength more often than not. They weren't winning without their best player. Just a bad day for ankles in the Show-Me State.

*That said, Missouri didn't just roll over and die. They were in a tie game late in the first half before an Alabama run in the final two minutes (that's a little bit of a trend against the Tigers this year and it's a little concerning). Mizzou even made a couple of pushes to get it back to 12 or 13 in the second half. You never really thought they were going to win, but they were a couple of baskets away from making it interesting.

*But they didn't make very many baskets. 32% from the field. 3/28 from three (that's virtually impossible). 7/16 on layups. You may not beat anybody in the SEC shooting the ball like that. You're definitely not beating the league's best team. I didn't think Missouri was taking bad shots for the most part. They just didn't go in. Bad day to have a bad day.

*It's worth monitoring the three-point shooting of Sean East and D'Moi Hodge. Hodge is now 4/25 in his last four games. East looks like he isn't really even taking threes anymore. Is this a slump or a sign that when the competition ramps up, these guys aren't great shooters? I don't know yet.

*I'm not worried about Isiaiah Mosley. He's 1/12 from three in two games, but the jumper is going to take a little game time to get there. Gates said after the game he thought he played Mosley too much and caused him to lose his legs a little bit. Even without the three being a weapon he had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assists. You'd like to cut down on the four turnovers, but Alabama's really good and he's now played twice in a month. I saw a lot of things to like out of him. I said earlier in the year I wasn't sure this team needed him. I was wrong. He's going to be a vital piece.

*This was never a game I counted as a win, Kobe Brown or not. In my path to the tournament, I had this as a loss. Missouri now faces a five-game stretch in which the goal is 4-1. You're at Ole Miss Tuesday and that needs to be a win. Then you have Iowa State and LSU at home, at Mississippi State and home against South Carolina. 5-0 is possible there, but 4-1 is the goal. 3-2 doesn't kill you, but 4-1 is the goal. If you win four of the next five, you're 18-6 and you're on track for the tourney bid. That's a success for sure. If by sitting Kobe today you made sure he was healthy for those games, it's 100% the right move.



PS: Patrick Mahomes may not be human. And I'm a big Chad Henne fan tonight too. If the guy that was mad at me for a tweet about Nick Bolton recovering a game changing fumble during the Mizzou basketball game is a subscriber (which I highly doubt) I would like to take this chance to personally apologize to you for the great pain it caused.

Is he gone, or will he be eligible this year

In favor of Diarra. Outside of one game where he made a bunch of threes, what does he bring? Really weak with the ball. Mo has gotten better each game. He’ll at least grab a rebound.

Names his High School

#1 Houston loses at home to Temple as a 20 point favorite 56-55.

The comments about Alabama being the best team in the country got me questioning. Looking only at conference wins, the top 4 teams so far shake out this way:

Alabama is 7-0 and played only one team in the top 1/2 of the conference so far. They played KY at home and won, they do have 4 road wins in conference but MU has the best conference record of any of those.

Tennessee is 6-1 and played only one team in the top 1/2 of the conference so far. They also played KY at home and it is their only loss. They also have 4 road wins but all against the bottom of the conference.

Auburn is 6-1 and played only one team in the top 1/2 of the conference so far. Florida is that team and Auburn beat them at home. Their loss was on the road to GA a middle of the pack team so far, and Auburn has 3 road wins against bottom teams.

A&M is 5-1 has road and home wins against Florida and a road loss at KY. So three games against top half of the conference. They have two road wins with the second being against SC.

Of note, none of these top 4 teams have yet played each other.

Mizzou has played 4 of the top half already, KY, A&M, FL and AL going 1-3. As said previously the schedule starts to lighten a bit as long as the team takes care of business against those bottom teams.

*** Didn't find this info anywhere so I created my own spreadsheet, if you find errors, I will stand corrected and appreciate the help tracking.

Heck of a game

He is not afraid to replace anyone on the team.
This off season it started with the Offensive Coordinator. If you can replace yourself, there is nothing you won't do to improve the team.

I have put part of my stay-at-home time towards Netflix and Amazon streaming series, most notably the two in the title of my post. Yes, I have seen GOT and liked it too.

I welcome your suggestions for the next series to watch. It should be well written and acted, and full of action, like Breaking Bad, Ozark and GOT. It needs to be on Netflix or Amazon streaming. Thank you for your input.

Any hidden meaning?

Need to buy a parking pass for Iowa State BB game on Saturday, Jan. 28. I am in CoMo 😉😉

-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)