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BASKETBALL Kobe Brown named Lute Olson Award National Player of the Week

After leading the Missouri men’s basketball team to a victory over Braggin’ Rights rival and nationally-ranked Illinois, Kobe Brown was honored as Lute Olson Award National Player of the Week, announced on Monday.

Against the No. 16 Illini, Brown poured in 31 points to go with eight assists, five rebounds and four steals. His 31 points are a career-high total and the most ever by a Mizzou player in the McBride Homes Braggin’ Rights Game, while his eight assists are also a career high and his four steals are a season best.

After leading the Tigers to the 93-71 victory versus Illinois, Brown is second on the team with 14.4 points per game, while leading MU with 5.7 rebounds. The senior is shooting 61.5 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from 3-point range, while adding 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals.

Brown and Mizzou are back in action on Wednesday night, hosting No. 19 Kentucky. Tipoff at Mizzou Arena is set for 6 p.m. on SEC Network.

OFF TOPIC Iowa State Pulls Out Of The AAU

@pepe le pew, I'm interested in your thoughts since you have great insight into Mizzou's positioning within the AAU.

@RedditCFB: Iowa State announces it's withdrawing from the AAU, an association for top research universities. They cite an increased focus on medical research, which no longer aligns with their core mission.

Final Thoughts on Football Untill Basketball is Over

We finally have an exciting basketball team so I am not going to waste anymore time after this post dwelling in football until basketball finishes up. Here are the things I need to see in order to be convinced Drink is the guy.
1. Go 8-4 or better. Squeaking out a win against Auburn would not have made this season significantly more successful in my mind. 8 wins mean you took care of business and only have 1 questionable loss. If the offense can be turned around like the defense this team could win 10 games but I am not going to hold that tankard to Drink. The following things on the list are what will lead to a minimum of 8 wins.
2. Hire a competent and experienced OC. Whoever Drink answers to whether it is DRF or the BOC needs to make it clear this is no longer optional. He needs an OC and unless that OC drops dead mid season he is not to call plays.
3. Two P5 or really good G5 OL with experience.
4. A QB better than 22 Brady. Ideally I would not like the plan to be Brady improved he is our QB. Baseball is my expertise and I have witnessed guys pick up 5-10 mph in the off season from velocity training programs. So I would think Brady could build his arm strength up but it is not just arm strength. It is field vision, decision making. I was very reluctant to criticize Drink’s play calling during the regular season because every single game Dom was standing wide open in the endzone and Brady just couldn’t see him. I had to cancel the bowl trip due to illness this year so I can only go off what I saw on TV but I didn’t see guys running free in the endzone. I think the bowl had a lot to do with Drinks play calling, the rest of the year Brady’s inability to do things high level D1 QB’s can do.

I am borderline furious with Drink for not playing Horn more this year. Because now we don’t know a damn thing other than he has a way better throwing arm than Brady. But we don’t know his game management, his ability to read a defense, his accuracy and so on. So in my mind the only safe bet is to go find a high level starting QB in the portal but according to reports the price tag is about $5 million and we just don’t have the type of scratch to do that. If any of the big money boosters love Drink and want him to be the guy they may want to consider bucking up for a purchase like that this year.

Ultimately I don’t care who the QB is as long as they are a significant upgrade from 22 Brady.

5. Last but certainly not least, no unexpected departures from the defense. We saw in the bowl game even without the guys who are going pro the defense can be damn good. Keep it together.

That’s it the end. No more football but by the time basketball ends I hope to look up what is going on and find that all of these have been addressed.

BASKETBALL Missouri receives more votes, not ranked in Top 25 poll

The Tigers check in with 57 points, which I believe is the most they've gotten all year

Mizzou QB's

Brady Cook - Starter in 2022
Sam Horn - Redshirt Freshman, very little playing time, thought to be QB of the future.
Gabarri Johnson - True freshman, highly rated, skills both running and throwing.

Hopefully a true QB competition.
Maybe an OC might see something different than Drink.
I don't see Gabarri getting much playing time as a true freshman unless he comes in and shows talent way above what they see in Cook and Horn, don't see it happening.
Sam Horn, hopefully the game slows down for him in his second year, a light comes on and he becomes what most of us thought he would be.
Brady Cook, I don't see Cook leading this team in 2022 and Drink keeping his job. Drink needs to do better with the QB position he just does.

Any thoughts out there?

When a person tells you who he is…believe him.

Drink has told us who he is for the last three seasons…
He is a great recruiter that can’t develop players.
He is stubbornly loyal to his system
He’s all about sales not performance

For those of us old enough… we have been sold a Corvair… not a Corvette… looks cool, runs good sometimes..but every so often the engine falls out.

2023 promises nothing more than what we have seen.
He is who he is.. Unless he changes ..
we just need to stand by because..
At some point the engine is going to fall out

FOOTBALL Top ten true freshman receivers in Power Five (plus Notre Dame)

Here are the ten most productive true freshman receivers in Power Five football. They are listed in order of receiving yardage (catches/yards/touchdowns)

Jayden McGowan, Vandy 22/276/2 TD

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Dane Key, Kentucky 15/241/3 TD

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Barion Brown, 13/201/2 TD

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Tatairoa McMillan, Arizona 11/200/2 TD

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Antonio Williams, Clemson 12/184/1 TD

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Evan Stewart, Texas A&M 13/141/2 TD

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Kobe Prentice, Alabama 12/119/0 TD

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Jordan Hudson, TCU 7/102/1 TD

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Germie Bernard, Michigan State 4/100/2 TD

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Luther Burden, Mizzou 10/78/1 TD

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In terms of true freshman receivers, Luther Burden is ranked 8th in receptions, 10th in yards and 8th in touchdown catches. If you expand this to include all-purpose yardage (rushing and receiving) here's the list:

McGowan: 33/391/1
Brown: 17/326/3
Key: 15/241/3
Burden: 22/232/3
McMillan: 11/200/2
Williams: 15/209/1
Stewart: 13/141/1
Prentice: 12/119/0
Hudson: 7/102/1
Bernard: 5/100/2

So among true freshmen wide receivers playing at a Power Five school or Notre Dame, Luther Burden is second in touches (McGowan has played one more game), fourth in all-purpose yardage and tied for first in touchdowns. Let's put to rest the idea he isn't getting used enough. We were wrong. I include myself in this we. ANY idea that Burden isn't getting opportunities lies solely on us and stupid expectations. He has touched the ball more than all but one true freshman wide receiver in all of Power Five football. I'm done writing about this narrative that Luther isn't getting a chance. Time to move on to a new topic.

FOOTBALL Positives going into Next year

Since the negatives have been listed.

1. Burden, Carnell, KAD, Rakestraw, All DTs, Bailey, and others return.

2. Transfer portal is about to heat up

3.Baker seems to have the defense working with additions still to be made.

4.Drink likely wont be calling plays.

5.All players will have another year of EXP and development esp OL and Horn.

6. Easier start to the schedule.

7. Another higher ranked class replacing lower ranked classes.

Add more you can think of.

What do the naysayers want?

I don’t think any fan could be happy with the way this season went and particularly last night’s game. But I ask a serious question to those who are posting all the negativity last night and today. Do we really want to start over again as a program with a new coach right now? If we do aren’t we starting to look a lot like our program from the 80’s well into the Pinkel years? Those were some really ugly years that I personally don’t ever want to re-visit. And in this social media driven world, does it really serve any rational purpose to publicly bash our coach, our players, or their parents? Don’t even the biggest naysayers, when they turn off the emotion, have to acknowledge Drink’s recruiting prowess compared to really any of his predecessors, while at the same time acknowledging he’s a young head coach who’s learning as he goes? I know the extension was not popular here among those who routinely post, and we can certainly debate its merit, but Drink’s not going anywhere soon so wouldn’t it make more sense to support the program rather than bash it? I get it that we all pay our $9.99 a month to subscribe and that this is a “private” message board, and that it reads very similarly to any other board you look at after a loss (did anyone else look at the Illinois board this week?), and perhaps it serves as a great place to vent, but I would sure like to think that once the emotion of last night’s game subsides, what we see here posted doesn’t represent the mainstream thinking of our fan base. I’m sure I’ll be attacked for posting this, but I sure hope not as I’m just another frustrated Mizzou fan wanting what is best for our University. And I ask the question in all seriousness. Do people really think that changing coaches is the solution? I get it if we’re still having this conversation next year at this time, but isn’t a little more grace warranted now?

Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating

First and foremost, thanks to each and every one of you for choosing to spend some of your time and money here with us. It is not lost on me that we get paid to cover college sports and even though it's a job, it's an exponentially more enjoyable job than most people have. That's only possible because you all have chosen to be here.

Thanks to @Sean_Williams @JHamilton23 and @drewking0222 for choosing to be here as well and for making the site what it is for all of you. I would be remiss if I did not thank @mitchell4d for all of his contributions over the previous few years up until a few months ago for helping to take our coverage to new heights.

To those of you who are celebrating with family, whether big or small, I hope today is a chance to relax and mostly not be on here and to make memories that will last a lifetime.

But mostly I post this for those of you who don't fall into any of these other categories. We often lose sight of the fact that holidays aren't the best times of the year for some people. For some, they're really tough. For any number of reasons, days like today are difficult for a lot of people. If that's you, I hope your pain is temporary. If that's you, reach out to someone, whether it's on here publicly or privately or somewhere else. And if there's someone in your life you know is hurting today, reach out to them. Sometimes, all it takes is a message from a friend. Some will read this and roll their eyes and believe this isn't the place for it. But this is a community and if we can help one another out, we should do that.

Hope you all have a wonderful day. We can get back to arguing with each other tomorrow.
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