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Many of you are not going to want to read all of this. I don't think that's the best way to tease a story, but I'm just being up front with you. There's going to be a lot of Chiefs stuff and Super Bowl stuff in here and some of you don't care about that but you can't please everybody all the time so hopefully some will enjoy it. Before that, though, you guys are here for the Mizzou stuff so let's do some of that.
1) Missouri basketball had the week we should expect this team to have. Everybody was ready to give up and they came back from a 20 point deficit with 13 minutes to play to beat Georgia and there was just a glimmer of hope and belief and everybody thought "You know, I know they're not going to the NCAA Tournament, but maybe they found a little something and there are some winnable games coming up and maybe they can string a few together and at least make things fun for a while." And then they more or less no-showed at South Carolina and got beat by 22 and it didn't even feel that close. That's just what this team is. It's inconsistent. Missouri is a game under .500 right now. I would expect they'll finish the year somewhere between a couple games under that mark and a couple games over it. On their best nights, they can do things like beat Florida. On their worst, they can get blown out by anyone on the schedule and can lose to Charleston Southern. Who knows what you're going to see on any given day?
2) The injuries can't be ignored but also shouldn't be put in a class with those from the last two years. The best player in America got hurt and contributed nothing in year one and Cuonzo Martin did one hell of a coaching job with his first team. Then the best player on the team and a probable all-SEC player got hurt two weeks before the season started and torpedoed year two and the roster wasn't as talented as it was the year before so the record dipped. Jeremiah Tilmon is important to this team, but even when he was in the lineup he hadn't made the leap everyone expected and Missouri wasn't pointed in the direction of the NCAA Tournament even with him. Mark Smith is important to this team, but he was pretty much the same player he was last year and Missouri wasn't pointed in the NCAA Tournament even with him. In other words, the injuries are maybe the difference between 13 wins and 17 wins. Does it matter? Not really. The goal this season was always the NCAA Tournament and even at full health this Missouri team has never looked like one that was good enough to get there. My point is basically whenever we get to the point where it's time to assess Martin's future and how long it should last (we aren't there yet) the injuries this season shouldn't really be much of a factor in that discussion. The first couple of seasons, yes, you have to look at the results through the lens of the coach being hamstrung. This year, not so much.
3) There's really nothing else to say about this season. Barring a miracle run of four (or five) wins at the SEC Tournament, this team isn't going anywhere meaningful. And so we're in the terrible spot of having 10 to 12 games left, but really having no compelling storylines for discussion. I mean, how many ways can you break down .500? It's not good enough to get anyone excited and it's not bad enough to get anyone fired. It's just there. Really good inspires passion. Really bad inspires passion. Seasons like this just kind of happen and we follow along until they are over and then we move on quickly.
4) Missouri's 2020 commit list sits at 17 now. We officially have it listed at 16, but that doesn't include grad transfer Damon Hazelton. The Tigers picked up Dylan Spencer on Sunday. We've updated the scholarship chart and Missouri currently sits at 81. That is the limit for this season. So, technically, Mizzou is full. But we know they would take a commitment from Ennis Rakestraw and I would expect some movement with transfers after signing day or after spring football so the class isn't finished. I would think they'd like to add Rakestraw and maybe another one or two in the early signing period and then see what happens in portal activity over the next few weeks and months. The class is currently ranked 55th. It might move up a little bit, but the ceiling is probably about 45. It's not going to look great on paper. But it has added a couple players (Hazelton and Ben Key) who will be expected to contribute from day one and it has rebuilt the depth at offensive line and wide receiver so it has addressed some important areas. I'd say the biggest remaining one is defensive end. The Tigers are going to have to add a piece or two there or we're going to have to see serious improvement from some of the guys on the roster.
5) In looking at recruiting, I think the 2020 season is very important for Eli Drinkwitz. I think there's enough talent here that the Tigers could have an eight-win type season this year. He needs that. He needs to build up a little equity. Because the 2019 class isn't looking like it was great. The 2020 class is going to be Missouri's lowest ranked in a while (that's not his fault, but it's a fact). So what that means is in two or three years when those classes are the backbone of the program, Missouri might struggle a bit. I know it's a long way off, but it's not hard to see Mizzou being down in the 2022 and 2023 seasons because of these couple of classes (The reason the team was down in 2015-17 had a lot to do with the 2013 and 2014 classes not being very good). If he starts out with eight wins in his first couple of years he's got some cushion if Missouri does struggle in those seasons. But if he goes, say 6-6 and 5-7 in those first two years and then Missouri's struggling in years three and four it gets tough. I know we're looking a long way down the road here and plenty of things can change, but I'm just giving you a little early warning that there could be a couple of lean years ahead based on what I'm seeing with the roster.
Many of you are not going to want to read all of this. I don't think that's the best way to tease a story, but I'm just being up front with you. There's going to be a lot of Chiefs stuff and Super Bowl stuff in here and some of you don't care about that but you can't please everybody all the time so hopefully some will enjoy it. Before that, though, you guys are here for the Mizzou stuff so let's do some of that.
1) Missouri basketball had the week we should expect this team to have. Everybody was ready to give up and they came back from a 20 point deficit with 13 minutes to play to beat Georgia and there was just a glimmer of hope and belief and everybody thought "You know, I know they're not going to the NCAA Tournament, but maybe they found a little something and there are some winnable games coming up and maybe they can string a few together and at least make things fun for a while." And then they more or less no-showed at South Carolina and got beat by 22 and it didn't even feel that close. That's just what this team is. It's inconsistent. Missouri is a game under .500 right now. I would expect they'll finish the year somewhere between a couple games under that mark and a couple games over it. On their best nights, they can do things like beat Florida. On their worst, they can get blown out by anyone on the schedule and can lose to Charleston Southern. Who knows what you're going to see on any given day?
2) The injuries can't be ignored but also shouldn't be put in a class with those from the last two years. The best player in America got hurt and contributed nothing in year one and Cuonzo Martin did one hell of a coaching job with his first team. Then the best player on the team and a probable all-SEC player got hurt two weeks before the season started and torpedoed year two and the roster wasn't as talented as it was the year before so the record dipped. Jeremiah Tilmon is important to this team, but even when he was in the lineup he hadn't made the leap everyone expected and Missouri wasn't pointed in the direction of the NCAA Tournament even with him. Mark Smith is important to this team, but he was pretty much the same player he was last year and Missouri wasn't pointed in the NCAA Tournament even with him. In other words, the injuries are maybe the difference between 13 wins and 17 wins. Does it matter? Not really. The goal this season was always the NCAA Tournament and even at full health this Missouri team has never looked like one that was good enough to get there. My point is basically whenever we get to the point where it's time to assess Martin's future and how long it should last (we aren't there yet) the injuries this season shouldn't really be much of a factor in that discussion. The first couple of seasons, yes, you have to look at the results through the lens of the coach being hamstrung. This year, not so much.
3) There's really nothing else to say about this season. Barring a miracle run of four (or five) wins at the SEC Tournament, this team isn't going anywhere meaningful. And so we're in the terrible spot of having 10 to 12 games left, but really having no compelling storylines for discussion. I mean, how many ways can you break down .500? It's not good enough to get anyone excited and it's not bad enough to get anyone fired. It's just there. Really good inspires passion. Really bad inspires passion. Seasons like this just kind of happen and we follow along until they are over and then we move on quickly.
4) Missouri's 2020 commit list sits at 17 now. We officially have it listed at 16, but that doesn't include grad transfer Damon Hazelton. The Tigers picked up Dylan Spencer on Sunday. We've updated the scholarship chart and Missouri currently sits at 81. That is the limit for this season. So, technically, Mizzou is full. But we know they would take a commitment from Ennis Rakestraw and I would expect some movement with transfers after signing day or after spring football so the class isn't finished. I would think they'd like to add Rakestraw and maybe another one or two in the early signing period and then see what happens in portal activity over the next few weeks and months. The class is currently ranked 55th. It might move up a little bit, but the ceiling is probably about 45. It's not going to look great on paper. But it has added a couple players (Hazelton and Ben Key) who will be expected to contribute from day one and it has rebuilt the depth at offensive line and wide receiver so it has addressed some important areas. I'd say the biggest remaining one is defensive end. The Tigers are going to have to add a piece or two there or we're going to have to see serious improvement from some of the guys on the roster.
5) In looking at recruiting, I think the 2020 season is very important for Eli Drinkwitz. I think there's enough talent here that the Tigers could have an eight-win type season this year. He needs that. He needs to build up a little equity. Because the 2019 class isn't looking like it was great. The 2020 class is going to be Missouri's lowest ranked in a while (that's not his fault, but it's a fact). So what that means is in two or three years when those classes are the backbone of the program, Missouri might struggle a bit. I know it's a long way off, but it's not hard to see Mizzou being down in the 2022 and 2023 seasons because of these couple of classes (The reason the team was down in 2015-17 had a lot to do with the 2013 and 2014 classes not being very good). If he starts out with eight wins in his first couple of years he's got some cushion if Missouri does struggle in those seasons. But if he goes, say 6-6 and 5-7 in those first two years and then Missouri's struggling in years three and four it gets tough. I know we're looking a long way down the road here and plenty of things can change, but I'm just giving you a little early warning that there could be a couple of lean years ahead based on what I'm seeing with the roster.
