1) I’m going to start with women’s basketball because, frankly, Sophie Cunningham deserves that. You don’t get a lot of chances to say you saw the best at something. I think I’d say it about Chase Daniel, but some would argue Phil Bradley. People that saw Derrick Chievous or Anthony Peeler play would argue for those guys, but some would say Willie Smith or Steve Stipanovich or John Brown. I really don’t think there’s an argument with Sophie. She’s the leading scorer in school history. She’s a three-time all-SEC first-teamer. She took a program that hadn’t been to an NCAA Tournament in nine years to four in a row. Maybe someone can argue against her as the best player in school history…but I’d disagree.
2) Mitchell Forde did a great job wrapping up the game, the season and her career. And that really was the story on Sunday. The game was over with about eight minutes to play and there wasn’t a whole lot of drama, so from the Mizzou perspective, it was about looking at what Sophie (and to a lesser extent Cierra Porter and Lauren Aldridge) meant to this program. As an athlete, I don’t know how you can be paid a higher compliment than to have your teammates say what Jordan Roundtree said about Cunningham: “Sophie Cunningham has changed the city of Columbia forever. She really, really has. And that kind of impact is just hard to describe. I’m excited to see her jersey go in the rafters one day, and I’m just really blessed to be able to say that I was able to play with her.” That, my friends, is a legacy. And this is someone who has always handled the spotlight quite well:
Some people are more fun to cover than others. Sophie was fun to cover. Watching her go from a really good high school player to the most recognizable person in town was something. I wish her well in whatever she does in the future and many of us will be watching.
3) I’ve said at times this season that it would be a failure if Cunningham never played in the Sweet 16. And I think failure is too strong a word now that it's happened. It’s a disappointment for sure. But I can’t call the last four years a failure (And I want to be clear, even when I was saying a failure, I didn’t mean by Sophie, but more by Robin Pingeton). It’s not a failure. This team beat a one seed this year and took a two seed to the final minutes, both on their home court. They can compete with anybody. They just can’t do it every single day. The goal is for that to come. And that’s where Pingeton’s success or failure will ultimately be determined. This cannot be the mountaintop. This can’t be where it ends. To truly take advantage of Sophie Cunningham staying home, Missouri has to be better after she leaves than they were when she was here. And so we’ll see if they can get it done.
4) Another career came to an end on Sunday night. Jeremy Maclin announced his retirement from the NFL. Maclin was the second guy I covered at Missouri (Brad Smith was the first) that you just didn’t take your eyes off of. He had the chance to score every single time he touched the ball. I think the moment everyone remembers is the punt return against Illinois in the first game of his career. Gary Pinkel has often told the story that he got home that night and told his wife he thought he had a superstar. Maclin wasn’t a star in the pros, but he had a good career. He was a star at Mizzou. My favorite stories about Maclin weren’t about football. He was a legendary dramatist with injuries. When Maclin got hurt, you were worried he was going to the hospital. And yet somehow he always played the next series. Talk to anybody that played with him or was with the team at that time and they’ll have a story about Maclin being convinced he was seriously injured only to be ready to go a few minutes later. That’s neither here nor there, just a little non-football memory of great one. Congrats to J-Mac on a good career and on retirement and full-time fatherhood.
5) Now to the career that is currently on hold. The first thing I thought when I saw that Jontay Porter had torn his ACL again was just how awful I felt for the kid. He passed up millions and he came back and he didn’t get to have the year he was supposed to have. And then he worked for five or six months and he’s on the verge of getting drafted and it happens again. Life’s not fair man. So I want it clear that the first thought and the thought that matters is that this sucks for Jontay.
6) But the reality is, the second thought is, “What’s this mean for his future?” And I have no idea. Truthfully, I think it means the same thing as two weeks ago: He’s got to leave and get paid to play basketball. Literally every day he’s not getting paid is a day he’s wasting. I will admit that it is certainly up in the air who will pay him and how much at this point. I’ve seen a lot of people saying no way he gets drafted now. I don’t agree with that. There are 60 draft picks and somebody’s going to take him. His potential means you have to take him. But I’m not sure it’s in the first round. And I’m not sure they guarantee him money. But I do think he’s still going to leave and I do think at some point he hears his name in the NBA Draft.
7) I’ll wrap this up looking at it from Mizzou’s perspective: What do you do if he wants to come back? And the truth is, I don’t know. Do you tie up a scholarship on a guy who might be ready around the start of SEC play? Or might never ben? One part of me says you have to. But the other part of me says this program needs a talent infusion and it needs to not have its best players on the shelf injured. I’ll say this (and again, I don’t think this is a bridge that will need to be crossed, but we’re doing hypothetical things right now): If he does want to come back, you’ve got to say, that’s fine, but rehab’s here, you’re working with our doctors, you’re part of the team every day, etc. Because if we’re using a scholarship, the idea is that you’re going to be healthy enough to play basketball for us. And to do that, you’ve got to be a part of the team. Whether people believe it or not, that was an issue with his brother. It really wasn’t with Jontay. He was much more of a team guy and his teammates truly embraced and liked him for sure. But once he got hurt and was doing everything in Denver, that kind of told me he knew he was leaving. Because having been around the kid, if he didn’t know that, i truly think he would have been here most of the time. He liked this team and he was bought in. I think once he moved to Denver, the future was already decided. So I don’t think he’s coming back…but again, if we’re talking in hypotheticals, it would add yet another wrinkle to a job that’s already had plenty of them for Cuonzo Martin in the first three seasons.
