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1) Let's start with a heck of a weekend on the diamond for Mizzou. Both baseball and softball fattened up on South Carolina this weekend. After starting SEC play with Vanderbilt and Arkansas, both of whom were ranked in the top five, Steve Bieser's crew welcomed the Gamecocks, who came to CoMo with a 2-4 record in the first two weeks of league play. Mizzou lost Friday night, but won on a walk-off sac fly by Tre Morris (son of former Mizzou offensive lineman Mike Morris) on Saturday and then trounced Carolina 10-3 in the rubber game on Sunday. The series win put Mizzou 3-6 in league play, tied with Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina in the SEC East standings. The Tigers have the best overall winning percentage of those four teams at 17-8. They'll host Kansas on Wednesday night and then jump right back into the fire with a trip to top-ranked Tennessee over the weekend. The Vols are 9-0 fresh off a sweep of Vandy.
Across the road, Larissa Anderson's team was led by Lauren Krings and Kim Wert in a sweep of the last-place Gamecocks. It's a series Mizzou should win as South Carolina is now 2-10 in league play, but beggars can't be choosers and the Tigers were begging. They'd lost seven of eight coming into this series. The sweep at least put them back within shouting distance of the top half of the league. They'll host Kansas City on Tuesday and then travel to Starkville for three with Mississippi State. It's another series the Tigers have to win--and almost have to sweep. The Bulldogs are 5-4 in league play, a couple spots ahead of Mizzou in the standings.
2) The biggest news of the week came from a sport I'm not sure we've talked about here before. The Tiger gymnastics program made the NCAA championships by finishing second to defending national champion Michigan in the regionals. Mizzou topped UCLA by .025 thanks to this floor routine from Amari Celestine.
It's just the second time Mizzou has made it this far. Eight teams remain. Missouri is in a regional with Florida, Auburn and Michigan on April 14 in Fort Worth, TX. The top two teams advance to the final. The Tigers lost to both Florida and Auburn during the regular season. The Gators are ranked 2nd, the Wolverines 3rd and Auburn 7th. At No. 11, Missouri is the underdog here, but Shannon Welker deserves serious recognition for what he's done with the program. It's the one sport on campus that has clearly risen to the challenge of joining the SEC in the last few years.
3) We're anticipating it will be a newsy week for Dennis Gates and the basketball program. The dead period in recruiting ends on Friday. The staff will be hosting visitors and potentially going out on the road to watch prospects. And, yes, we are assuming there will be a staff by that time. We believe Gates spent a good amount of time talking to candidates at the Final Four over the weekend. At least one or two assistants is almost certain to be named this week. Honestly, it will be a surprise to me if all three aren't named. There's no reason that wouldn't happen unless Gates is having to move relatively far down his list. Everybody is done playing. He's been on the job for 13 days. That's not an inordinate amount of time not to have the staff finalized, but if at least a majority of it isn't in place by Friday it will be a reason to have at least significant curiosity and maybe even a little bit of concern. We're still feeling positive that John A Logan coach Kyle Smithpeters is a strong candidate. Beyond that, to be honest, we're not sure where Gates is looking, but we do think we'll have some clarity this week.
4) We know of at least one player who will be in town this weekend. Northern Iowa transfer Noah Carter is visiting this weekend, the first weekend on which players can take visits. Carter is also visiting Virginia Tech and plans to see Marquette, Arkansas and Florida before a decision is made. Bradley guard Terry Roberts put the Tigers in his top ten with some stiff competition (Texas, Kansas State, Wichita State, Oregon, Memphis, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi State and Georgia). Roberts is one of the most coveted guards in the portal. The good news for Missouri is that while his list consists of some good programs, there aren't any traditional powerhouses there.
You can see all the latest information we have on the transfer targets in our Transfer Tracker, which we are updating daily.
5) The AAU circuit also gets going this weekend. Nike teams are in Orlando while Adidas and UnderArmour are both in Indianapolis. We are going to be attending a good number of AAU events this year as Gates and his staff get going. We considered going to Orlando this weekend, but the truth is, without a staff yet in place we have no idea where Mizzou will be or who it will be targeting just yet. We can't commit to going somewhere we don't even know the coaches for sure will be (or who the coaches are). But interviews are being allowed for the first time in three years on the AAU circuit and we have definite coverage planned from events in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Louisville later in the spring/summer. Peach Jam is also a possibility as it coincides with SEC Media Days. So for the hoops recruiting fans who feel like the coverage has been lax the last couple of years (and you're right--there are some reasons for that, but you're right), we plan to change that in the coming months.
6) Since all was quiet on the football front this week, let's stick with hoops as we transition to some non-Mizzou stuff. We'll start on the women's side where there was at least a Mizzou tie to last night's national title game. South Carolina avenged last year's title game loss with a 64-49 drubbing of Connecticut. It was the Huskies' first loss in 12 title game appearances. The Gamecocks finished the year 35-2 with the only losses coming to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament and Mizzou in the regular season. So, it wasn't a good year, it ended rough, but, hey, at least the Tigers have that going for them.
7) On the men's side, there is a rumor going around there is a national championship game tonight. I'm not going to watch it because a few years ago I decided sports should be fun and if they are not fun, I'm not going to watch them. Nothing about watching the two teams playing tonight would be fun for me, especially because I'm relatively certain I know which one is going to win. I summed up my feelings on Twitter this weekend (every now and then, I have to jump back into the fray and poke the bear)
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