A number of sites in our network do this feature so I thought I'd try it out here. We do it during the college football season, but maybe I'll make it a year round thing if it goes over well. Every Monday morning I'll just post ten thoughts on whatever's on my mind. Some of it's going to be about Mizzou, some of it's going to be about other sports things, some of it might just be random things I feel like posting to get to ten. So here we go.
1. Blake Hinson to Ole Miss was a shock. After reading what he said coming off his Missouri visit, it seemed pretty obvious he was going to an SEC school. We all just thought it was the other one. Direct quote from one of our Ole Miss guys after Hinson's announcement: "I was shocked." But for Mizzou fans now, the only thing that matters is what's next? And the answer, for now, is that we don't know. It's a situation where clearly you want to add at least one more eligible body for next season. But guys that are available this late are usually available for a reason. Cuonzo Martin has said he isn't a big fan of the juco route. Could they get a grad transfer or a prep school guy who's just been overlooked? Maybe. We're going to scour our sources to find out what we can find out obviously.
2. I really don't think Hinson's decision is related to Jontay Porter's. I know that some people tried to make that connection. But from what I hear, they're not related. There's still no real expectation that Jontay is coming back. The latest mock drafts from The Athletic and NBADraft.net both have him going in the first round (26th and 25th, respectively). The consensus seems to be that he's a late first rounder. Invites for the NBA Draft combine went out on Friday. There's no official publicized list of them. We would assume Jontay got one, but can't say that definitively just yet. Cuonzo said a couple of weeks ago that if you don't get one, it's a good indication you should come back to school. But we expect he got one. Hopefully we'll know for sure shortly. Once again, the deadline to return is May 30th.
3. In non-Mizzou recruiting news, Romeo Langford is making his decision tonight. Langford is the No. 6 player in the country. He's deciding between Vanderbilt, Indiana and kansas. A few weeks ago, most people thought he was going to Vandy. But the tide seems to have turned to Indiana. Part of that is the fact that Langford--a New Albany, IN native--is making his announcement at his high school and it's open to the public. Most people find it hard to believe he'd make such a public event of spurning the home school.
4. Let's stick with basketball and talk about the NBA for just a second. First, I don't watch the NBA. Think I've seen about 45 seconds of the playoffs. I don't have a team to root for and I just like the college game better. But I pay enough attention to it that I have some idea of what's going on. Saw an unbelievable stat this morning: The Cavaliers beat the Pacers in seven games and no one other than LeBron James ever scored 20 points in a single game. That's pretty amazing. Meanwhile, LeBron averaged 34.7 points, 10 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 41 minutes a game. One guy shouldn't be able to win playoff series by himself. I get tired of the whole "who's the best of all time" debate between LeBron and Micheal Jordan. Throw in Wilt Chamberlain and they're both in the top three of all time. I don't really care which one is better. Arguments can be made on both sides. But one argument I'd make is I wonder what LeBron would have done if he'd had a Scottie Pippen on his team every year.
5. J'Mon Moore was the only Missouri player selected in the NFL Draft this year. I posted this in another thread, but over the last three drafts, Missouri has had a total of five players picked. Here are the three-year totals for each three-year period in the last decade:
2016-18: 5
2015-17: 9
2014-16: 12
2013-15: 11
2012-14: 7
2011-13: 6
2010-12: 5
2009-11: 10
2008-10: 9
2007-09: 9
Here are the cumulative records for Missouri in each of those three-year periods:
2015-17: 16-21
2014-16: 20-18
2013-15: 28-12
2012-14: 28-12
2011-13: 25-14
2010-12: 23-15
2009-11: 26-13
2008-10: 28-12
2007-09: 30-11
2006-08: 30-11
I don't think it's a coincidence that the lowest three-year periods also resulted in Missouri's worst three-year records. The good news is Missouri will have an absolute minimum of two players picked next year and I think it will probably be closer to five (Drew Lock, Terry Beckner, Terez Hall, Paul Adams and at least one more)
6. I have some general draft thoughts:
*Baker Mayfield may work, but I'm not sold on it. No way I'd have taken him with the No. 1 pick. If I needed a quarterback, personally, I'd have taken Josh Rosen.
*The Arizona Cardinals took Rosen. They paired him with Texas A&M WR Christian Kirk as the second pick. I love both those guys. The Cardinals offense will be fun to watch.
*The Chiefs drafted a whole bunch of guys I've never heard of. This is par for the course.
7. Who might take Lock next season? Mel Kiper Jr. has him as the No. 5 overall prospect as of right now. Teams drafting near the top probably need a quarterback for the most part. Here's a look at teams that will could be looking for a QB next year, either because they don't have one right now or they have an aging starter:
Patriots, Saints, Redskins, Dolphins, Giants, Chargers. Maybe the Packers and the Jags?
8. Think before you hit post. Even if you're just a team mascot, don't post stupid crap on social media.
The Royals fired that dude this morning. Fortunately, there aren't going to be many opportunities for anybody to hang a W at Kauffman Stadium this season anyway.
9. A non-sports story I'm looking forward to reading. I try to read a lot of longform features. A lot of them have to do with sports, but a lot don't. For those interested in this medium, I subscribe to the Sunday Long Read from Don Van Natta (an ESPN writer) and every week Richard Deitsch (from The Athletic) posts his best journalism of the week as part of his Monday Media Column. This week, two stories were in both of those. I haven't read either, but want to read both:
The doting father who robbed armored cars
Tales from the Toronto van attacks
A bonus story I haven't gotten to yet from last week: What it's like to live in America without broadband Internet access
10. For your listening/viewing pleasure, a podcast recommendation and a TV show. I'll wrap up the ten thoughts every Monday with time-passers. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I'll throw one out every week. I'll also give you a show I've watched/am watching/want to watch.
This week's podcast is The Greatest Pod in the South. This is done by two friends of mine in the Rivals network, Neal McCready from RebelGrove.com and Jay G. Tate from AuburnSports.com. It's basically just two middle-aged white sportswriters sitting around shooting the shit. I like these guys because my opinions on most things align with theirs. They're two of the guys in this network whose work and opinions I respect the most. And they're both pretty funny. It might bore a lot of you, but I like it. They also talk about alcohol a lot.
This week's show is "Seven Seconds" on Netflix. It's about a cop who runs over a kid on his bicycle and covers it up. It's only ten episodes long. I watched it in about a week.
Like I said, I'll post these every Monday. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you'll quickly decide you don't care what I think about anything other than Mizzou sports (and some of you don't even care about that) and you'll skip over it. If enough people like it, I'll keep doing it. If not, maybe I'll just start a blog.
1. Blake Hinson to Ole Miss was a shock. After reading what he said coming off his Missouri visit, it seemed pretty obvious he was going to an SEC school. We all just thought it was the other one. Direct quote from one of our Ole Miss guys after Hinson's announcement: "I was shocked." But for Mizzou fans now, the only thing that matters is what's next? And the answer, for now, is that we don't know. It's a situation where clearly you want to add at least one more eligible body for next season. But guys that are available this late are usually available for a reason. Cuonzo Martin has said he isn't a big fan of the juco route. Could they get a grad transfer or a prep school guy who's just been overlooked? Maybe. We're going to scour our sources to find out what we can find out obviously.
2. I really don't think Hinson's decision is related to Jontay Porter's. I know that some people tried to make that connection. But from what I hear, they're not related. There's still no real expectation that Jontay is coming back. The latest mock drafts from The Athletic and NBADraft.net both have him going in the first round (26th and 25th, respectively). The consensus seems to be that he's a late first rounder. Invites for the NBA Draft combine went out on Friday. There's no official publicized list of them. We would assume Jontay got one, but can't say that definitively just yet. Cuonzo said a couple of weeks ago that if you don't get one, it's a good indication you should come back to school. But we expect he got one. Hopefully we'll know for sure shortly. Once again, the deadline to return is May 30th.
3. In non-Mizzou recruiting news, Romeo Langford is making his decision tonight. Langford is the No. 6 player in the country. He's deciding between Vanderbilt, Indiana and kansas. A few weeks ago, most people thought he was going to Vandy. But the tide seems to have turned to Indiana. Part of that is the fact that Langford--a New Albany, IN native--is making his announcement at his high school and it's open to the public. Most people find it hard to believe he'd make such a public event of spurning the home school.
4. Let's stick with basketball and talk about the NBA for just a second. First, I don't watch the NBA. Think I've seen about 45 seconds of the playoffs. I don't have a team to root for and I just like the college game better. But I pay enough attention to it that I have some idea of what's going on. Saw an unbelievable stat this morning: The Cavaliers beat the Pacers in seven games and no one other than LeBron James ever scored 20 points in a single game. That's pretty amazing. Meanwhile, LeBron averaged 34.7 points, 10 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 41 minutes a game. One guy shouldn't be able to win playoff series by himself. I get tired of the whole "who's the best of all time" debate between LeBron and Micheal Jordan. Throw in Wilt Chamberlain and they're both in the top three of all time. I don't really care which one is better. Arguments can be made on both sides. But one argument I'd make is I wonder what LeBron would have done if he'd had a Scottie Pippen on his team every year.
5. J'Mon Moore was the only Missouri player selected in the NFL Draft this year. I posted this in another thread, but over the last three drafts, Missouri has had a total of five players picked. Here are the three-year totals for each three-year period in the last decade:
2016-18: 5
2015-17: 9
2014-16: 12
2013-15: 11
2012-14: 7
2011-13: 6
2010-12: 5
2009-11: 10
2008-10: 9
2007-09: 9
Here are the cumulative records for Missouri in each of those three-year periods:
2015-17: 16-21
2014-16: 20-18
2013-15: 28-12
2012-14: 28-12
2011-13: 25-14
2010-12: 23-15
2009-11: 26-13
2008-10: 28-12
2007-09: 30-11
2006-08: 30-11
I don't think it's a coincidence that the lowest three-year periods also resulted in Missouri's worst three-year records. The good news is Missouri will have an absolute minimum of two players picked next year and I think it will probably be closer to five (Drew Lock, Terry Beckner, Terez Hall, Paul Adams and at least one more)
6. I have some general draft thoughts:
*Baker Mayfield may work, but I'm not sold on it. No way I'd have taken him with the No. 1 pick. If I needed a quarterback, personally, I'd have taken Josh Rosen.
*The Arizona Cardinals took Rosen. They paired him with Texas A&M WR Christian Kirk as the second pick. I love both those guys. The Cardinals offense will be fun to watch.
*The Chiefs drafted a whole bunch of guys I've never heard of. This is par for the course.
7. Who might take Lock next season? Mel Kiper Jr. has him as the No. 5 overall prospect as of right now. Teams drafting near the top probably need a quarterback for the most part. Here's a look at teams that will could be looking for a QB next year, either because they don't have one right now or they have an aging starter:
Patriots, Saints, Redskins, Dolphins, Giants, Chargers. Maybe the Packers and the Jags?
8. Think before you hit post. Even if you're just a team mascot, don't post stupid crap on social media.
The Royals fired that dude this morning. Fortunately, there aren't going to be many opportunities for anybody to hang a W at Kauffman Stadium this season anyway.
9. A non-sports story I'm looking forward to reading. I try to read a lot of longform features. A lot of them have to do with sports, but a lot don't. For those interested in this medium, I subscribe to the Sunday Long Read from Don Van Natta (an ESPN writer) and every week Richard Deitsch (from The Athletic) posts his best journalism of the week as part of his Monday Media Column. This week, two stories were in both of those. I haven't read either, but want to read both:
The doting father who robbed armored cars
Tales from the Toronto van attacks
A bonus story I haven't gotten to yet from last week: What it's like to live in America without broadband Internet access
10. For your listening/viewing pleasure, a podcast recommendation and a TV show. I'll wrap up the ten thoughts every Monday with time-passers. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I'll throw one out every week. I'll also give you a show I've watched/am watching/want to watch.
This week's podcast is The Greatest Pod in the South. This is done by two friends of mine in the Rivals network, Neal McCready from RebelGrove.com and Jay G. Tate from AuburnSports.com. It's basically just two middle-aged white sportswriters sitting around shooting the shit. I like these guys because my opinions on most things align with theirs. They're two of the guys in this network whose work and opinions I respect the most. And they're both pretty funny. It might bore a lot of you, but I like it. They also talk about alcohol a lot.
This week's show is "Seven Seconds" on Netflix. It's about a cop who runs over a kid on his bicycle and covers it up. It's only ten episodes long. I watched it in about a week.
Like I said, I'll post these every Monday. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you'll quickly decide you don't care what I think about anything other than Mizzou sports (and some of you don't even care about that) and you'll skip over it. If enough people like it, I'll keep doing it. If not, maybe I'll just start a blog.
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