We're at the point in the year where somebody's asking a lot about the momentum in St. Louis and the number of St. Louis players on the team. The difference is now it's a positive question whereas in the past it's often been a negative question. But this is something that gets talked about every year with every coach who has ever coached here. Drink gave the best answer I've ever heard and, frankly, the answer I've wanted to hear Missouri coaches give for two decades:
"You know, it's been interesting. When we first got here, obviously, we were adamant, still are adamant, about recruiting the local area as hard as we possibly can, and probably overextended ourselves in St Louis as far as recruiting. And I think now it's been to the point where we're recruiting the right players from St Louis, and not everybody from St Louis wants to play at the University of Missouri, and I get that. Not everybody that wants to play at the University of Missouri is going to be offered a scholarship. But now we've got the right fit, and we're showing what the possibilities are, whether you're talking about Martin Burks, Brady Cook, Cody Schrader, Mitch Walters, Luther Burden, Brett Norfleet, Drake Heismeyer, I know I'm leaving a lot of guys out. Toriano Pride, Nic DeLoach, you know, all of these guys are the right fit for the University of Missouri, and they've embraced what it means to play here, and also what that means to represent the University of Missouri in their city of St Louis, too. So I think it's been an awesome thing. I think the other thing that we've done, which has been really good, is that we've expanded our net, you know, and now we're recruiting at a really high level in Kansas City, with Armand and Cayden and Williams and Mekhi Miller, Logan Reichert. Now we're recruiting the rural areas of Missouri, you know, at a really high level too. And I think that has been a very good addition to our recruiting."
What he didn't mention directly is the out of state recruiting success as well. But as far as his answer, here's my translation:
"Yeah, you know, just like everybody else here when we got here, we stressed in-state recruiting and St. Louis is the biggest city in the state and that's where we put our emphasis. But then we realized that, hey, some of these kids just don't want to come here and aren't going to ever want to come here. We went out and won games and we've shown that we have a program they can be successful at. If they want to come here, and we want them, that's great. We'll recruit the hell out of those kids. If not, we're doing well in KC and the small towns and out of state and we'll go get kids from there."
It's EXACTLY the right answer. It pays some deference to St. Louis, which you have to do. But it also says "You know what? We're doing a damn good job a lot of places and we've shown we can get kids. We'd love a lot of them to be from St. Louis. But if they don't want to come here, so be it."
IMO, for way too long, it's been an unbalanced relationship. A lot in St. Louis (not all, certainly, and it's not the only place like this so I don't want anyone to think that I'm picking on St. Louis, but this is the one we're talking about and it's the most frequent subject of this conversation) have wanted Missouri to bend over backwards and do everything for St. Louis when that hasn't always been reciprocated. They've held Missouri to a different standard than they've held other programs. And I think, in a non-confrontational way, Drink has made it clear that they really value St. Louis and want St. Louis...but it's not going to be what makes or breaks him as Missouri's coach.
Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but that's how I read it and I think it's an absolutely phenomenal answer.
"You know, it's been interesting. When we first got here, obviously, we were adamant, still are adamant, about recruiting the local area as hard as we possibly can, and probably overextended ourselves in St Louis as far as recruiting. And I think now it's been to the point where we're recruiting the right players from St Louis, and not everybody from St Louis wants to play at the University of Missouri, and I get that. Not everybody that wants to play at the University of Missouri is going to be offered a scholarship. But now we've got the right fit, and we're showing what the possibilities are, whether you're talking about Martin Burks, Brady Cook, Cody Schrader, Mitch Walters, Luther Burden, Brett Norfleet, Drake Heismeyer, I know I'm leaving a lot of guys out. Toriano Pride, Nic DeLoach, you know, all of these guys are the right fit for the University of Missouri, and they've embraced what it means to play here, and also what that means to represent the University of Missouri in their city of St Louis, too. So I think it's been an awesome thing. I think the other thing that we've done, which has been really good, is that we've expanded our net, you know, and now we're recruiting at a really high level in Kansas City, with Armand and Cayden and Williams and Mekhi Miller, Logan Reichert. Now we're recruiting the rural areas of Missouri, you know, at a really high level too. And I think that has been a very good addition to our recruiting."
What he didn't mention directly is the out of state recruiting success as well. But as far as his answer, here's my translation:
"Yeah, you know, just like everybody else here when we got here, we stressed in-state recruiting and St. Louis is the biggest city in the state and that's where we put our emphasis. But then we realized that, hey, some of these kids just don't want to come here and aren't going to ever want to come here. We went out and won games and we've shown that we have a program they can be successful at. If they want to come here, and we want them, that's great. We'll recruit the hell out of those kids. If not, we're doing well in KC and the small towns and out of state and we'll go get kids from there."
It's EXACTLY the right answer. It pays some deference to St. Louis, which you have to do. But it also says "You know what? We're doing a damn good job a lot of places and we've shown we can get kids. We'd love a lot of them to be from St. Louis. But if they don't want to come here, so be it."
IMO, for way too long, it's been an unbalanced relationship. A lot in St. Louis (not all, certainly, and it's not the only place like this so I don't want anyone to think that I'm picking on St. Louis, but this is the one we're talking about and it's the most frequent subject of this conversation) have wanted Missouri to bend over backwards and do everything for St. Louis when that hasn't always been reciprocated. They've held Missouri to a different standard than they've held other programs. And I think, in a non-confrontational way, Drink has made it clear that they really value St. Louis and want St. Louis...but it's not going to be what makes or breaks him as Missouri's coach.
Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but that's how I read it and I think it's an absolutely phenomenal answer.
