A week ago, Mizzou’s future was a pretty big mystery. Sisyphus never got over the hump and the Tigers officially failed to beat an SEC opponent in the 2023-24 season. The last game of the season went just about the same as every other conference matchup — Mizzou showed just enough fight to make you think they could pull out a win, then melted in clutch time.
Everyone was absolutely well within their rights to be pessimistic about what came next. When last season ended, head coach Dennis Gates had earned the benefit of the doubt. You could question some of the moves he made, but figured they’d make sense in the long run because of what he was able to accomplish in 2022-23, as well as in his three-year tenure at Cleveland State. This season undid all of that goodwill. Any loss of confidence in his ability to evaluate talent was warranted.
That being said, I think that Gates took a step in the right direction this week, locking in Tennessee Martin transfer Jacob Crews after the departures of Curt Lewis, Jesus Carralero Martin and Mabor Majak opened up a roster spot.
The three guys who entered the portal weren’t difference-makers at the SEC level. And I mean no disrespect when I say that — most people aren’t. I certainly am not. Lewis has been one of my favorite guys to interview since he committed to the Tigers. And if Missouri had some better top-end talent, maybe those three find a role on a winning team.
But Gates doesn’t need role players right now. He needs to find the guys that can get the program back on track. Crews might be one of those guys — the 19.1 points and 8.2 rebounds he averaged and the 41.4% mark he shot from three are all significantly higher than what any of Lewis, Carralero Martin or Majak have posted playing D1.
That’s not to say that Crews is going to be a slam dunk. We won’t really know that until November when the 2024-25 season starts. I came into this season thinking Connor Vanover was going to be a majorcontributor for the black and gold— it didn’t turn out that way. I also came into the year not sure how well Dalton Knecht, a high-volume scorer from a Northern Colorado team that went 6-12 in the Big Sky Conference, would fit in at Tennesee. He proceeded to become the SEC Player of the Year. The point is, there’s a lot to like about Crews. He’s a husband and soon-to-be father. Talking with him on the phone, I got the impression he’s a very down-to-earth guy. He’s also coming from a UT Martin team that just won a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship. I’m still not ready to proclaim him the next Knecht, especially not knowing what the rest of the team is going to look like.
Figuring out how many others are leaving is possibly the biggest question mark for the team right now. We know they’ll go after point guard and a big man. We don’t yet know how they’ll make room on the roster for those players. Assuming Gates is bringing in two or three more newcomers, two or three more returners will need to come off of scholarship, whether that’s by entering the portal or taking an NIL deal to become a walk-on.
Tamar Bates told me after the SEC tournament he felt pretty confident about coming back next season. That leaves Caleb Grill, John Tonje, Aidan Shaw and the three freshmen, Jordan Bulter, Anthony Robinson II and Trent Pierce as guys who possibly won’t return.
After the season Gates just had, he has to hang onto the guys he feels can help him win the most and replace the ones who don’t. But the fact that Crews wasn’t somebody who filled one of the team’s two biggest positions of need (point guard and center) and the fact that the other transfer player MU seemingly has ties to, Pepperdine forward Jevon Porter, doesn’t either, it seems like there’ll be more guys heading out than initially anticipated.
We’ll likely find out who those guys are in the next week. Keep the transfer tracker bookmarked.
I made one of the biggest blunders of my career at the SEC tournament.
I got a text a little before noon on Wednesday. The guy introduced himself as Daniel, he was a producer for the “Paul Finebaum Show,” and he wanted to know if I was in town and interested in coming on the show to preview Mizzou’s game against Georgia. I answered yes to both questions. He responded with where to find the set, told me I’d go on around 3:30 p.m. and asked me to get there about 15 minutes early. I was super excited since I hadn’t been on the show before. I told a bunch of my family and friends to tune in.
I showered and went out for lunch. @GabeD suggested I check out Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville, Tenn. It’s inside this massive food court on Broadway. Traffic was slow on the way there, and then it took me a few minutes to figure out how the contactless parking garage worked. I ran into a few of Mizzou’s assistant coaches on my way up the stairs and talked to some of them. I saw Mizzou Radio broadcaster Chris Gervino and chatted him up as well.
I got to the second floor of the food court and could not find the restaurant anywhere. I must’ve spent at least 20 minutes walking all around looking for it (there were no maps showing where everything was). Finally, I figured out I had to walk across a bridge to get to the section where Prince’s was. There was a bit of a line, but it was at least moving. I ordered my food, waited a little longer to pick it up, then finally sat down to eat and realized… it was already 2:15.
I ate ONE chicken tender, put the rest in a to-go box, jogged back to my car, raced back to my hotel room, changed into my suit, drove toward the media parking lot, went to the wrong entrance, made a U-turn that I’m not 100% sure was legal, found the right entrance, parked my car and hopped on the shuttle that would take me to the arena. The driver was talking with somebody on the phone and took about five minutes to finish. He finally hung up and told me “We’ll take off here in about 10 minutes.” I begged him to start driving despite me being the only one on the shuttle and told him I was in a hurry. “Oh man, you’re gonna get me in trouble,” he said, reluctantly agreeing.
I got dropped off, thanked the driver, sprinted inside Bridgestone Arena and secured my credential. As I’m walking on the floor, I get a text from Daniel. It’s 3:28 and they’re gonna have to do the spot without me.
I walked up to the set anyway to profusely apologize. Daniel was very nice, said he totally understood, introduced me to Paul and told me he’d stay in touch to bring me on some other time.
I felt horrible. I still do. I had to explain to everyone who I texted earlier in the day what happened. The Arkansas/Vanderbilt game didn’t start till 6, so I had a whole two and a half hours in the arena with nothing to do but beat myself up. I still keep thinking of all the ways I could’ve saved time.
Maybe I’ll get over it someday. But it won’t be any time soon.
Everyone was absolutely well within their rights to be pessimistic about what came next. When last season ended, head coach Dennis Gates had earned the benefit of the doubt. You could question some of the moves he made, but figured they’d make sense in the long run because of what he was able to accomplish in 2022-23, as well as in his three-year tenure at Cleveland State. This season undid all of that goodwill. Any loss of confidence in his ability to evaluate talent was warranted.
That being said, I think that Gates took a step in the right direction this week, locking in Tennessee Martin transfer Jacob Crews after the departures of Curt Lewis, Jesus Carralero Martin and Mabor Majak opened up a roster spot.
The three guys who entered the portal weren’t difference-makers at the SEC level. And I mean no disrespect when I say that — most people aren’t. I certainly am not. Lewis has been one of my favorite guys to interview since he committed to the Tigers. And if Missouri had some better top-end talent, maybe those three find a role on a winning team.
But Gates doesn’t need role players right now. He needs to find the guys that can get the program back on track. Crews might be one of those guys — the 19.1 points and 8.2 rebounds he averaged and the 41.4% mark he shot from three are all significantly higher than what any of Lewis, Carralero Martin or Majak have posted playing D1.
That’s not to say that Crews is going to be a slam dunk. We won’t really know that until November when the 2024-25 season starts. I came into this season thinking Connor Vanover was going to be a majorcontributor for the black and gold— it didn’t turn out that way. I also came into the year not sure how well Dalton Knecht, a high-volume scorer from a Northern Colorado team that went 6-12 in the Big Sky Conference, would fit in at Tennesee. He proceeded to become the SEC Player of the Year. The point is, there’s a lot to like about Crews. He’s a husband and soon-to-be father. Talking with him on the phone, I got the impression he’s a very down-to-earth guy. He’s also coming from a UT Martin team that just won a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship. I’m still not ready to proclaim him the next Knecht, especially not knowing what the rest of the team is going to look like.
Figuring out how many others are leaving is possibly the biggest question mark for the team right now. We know they’ll go after point guard and a big man. We don’t yet know how they’ll make room on the roster for those players. Assuming Gates is bringing in two or three more newcomers, two or three more returners will need to come off of scholarship, whether that’s by entering the portal or taking an NIL deal to become a walk-on.
Tamar Bates told me after the SEC tournament he felt pretty confident about coming back next season. That leaves Caleb Grill, John Tonje, Aidan Shaw and the three freshmen, Jordan Bulter, Anthony Robinson II and Trent Pierce as guys who possibly won’t return.
After the season Gates just had, he has to hang onto the guys he feels can help him win the most and replace the ones who don’t. But the fact that Crews wasn’t somebody who filled one of the team’s two biggest positions of need (point guard and center) and the fact that the other transfer player MU seemingly has ties to, Pepperdine forward Jevon Porter, doesn’t either, it seems like there’ll be more guys heading out than initially anticipated.
We’ll likely find out who those guys are in the next week. Keep the transfer tracker bookmarked.
I made one of the biggest blunders of my career at the SEC tournament.
I got a text a little before noon on Wednesday. The guy introduced himself as Daniel, he was a producer for the “Paul Finebaum Show,” and he wanted to know if I was in town and interested in coming on the show to preview Mizzou’s game against Georgia. I answered yes to both questions. He responded with where to find the set, told me I’d go on around 3:30 p.m. and asked me to get there about 15 minutes early. I was super excited since I hadn’t been on the show before. I told a bunch of my family and friends to tune in.
I showered and went out for lunch. @GabeD suggested I check out Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville, Tenn. It’s inside this massive food court on Broadway. Traffic was slow on the way there, and then it took me a few minutes to figure out how the contactless parking garage worked. I ran into a few of Mizzou’s assistant coaches on my way up the stairs and talked to some of them. I saw Mizzou Radio broadcaster Chris Gervino and chatted him up as well.
I got to the second floor of the food court and could not find the restaurant anywhere. I must’ve spent at least 20 minutes walking all around looking for it (there were no maps showing where everything was). Finally, I figured out I had to walk across a bridge to get to the section where Prince’s was. There was a bit of a line, but it was at least moving. I ordered my food, waited a little longer to pick it up, then finally sat down to eat and realized… it was already 2:15.
I ate ONE chicken tender, put the rest in a to-go box, jogged back to my car, raced back to my hotel room, changed into my suit, drove toward the media parking lot, went to the wrong entrance, made a U-turn that I’m not 100% sure was legal, found the right entrance, parked my car and hopped on the shuttle that would take me to the arena. The driver was talking with somebody on the phone and took about five minutes to finish. He finally hung up and told me “We’ll take off here in about 10 minutes.” I begged him to start driving despite me being the only one on the shuttle and told him I was in a hurry. “Oh man, you’re gonna get me in trouble,” he said, reluctantly agreeing.
I got dropped off, thanked the driver, sprinted inside Bridgestone Arena and secured my credential. As I’m walking on the floor, I get a text from Daniel. It’s 3:28 and they’re gonna have to do the spot without me.
I walked up to the set anyway to profusely apologize. Daniel was very nice, said he totally understood, introduced me to Paul and told me he’d stay in touch to bring me on some other time.
I felt horrible. I still do. I had to explain to everyone who I texted earlier in the day what happened. The Arkansas/Vanderbilt game didn’t start till 6, so I had a whole two and a half hours in the arena with nothing to do but beat myself up. I still keep thinking of all the ways I could’ve saved time.
Maybe I’ll get over it someday. But it won’t be any time soon.
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