We’ve just come off the third best Mizzou season of my lifetime, so I find myself thinking about the past ones (‘07, ‘13) and the seasons immediately following and what they meant long-term for the program. It’s obvious that those seasons were huge for the program — ‘23 is highly unlikely without them, e.g. — but it’s also the case that we had losing seasons shortly after both and that the program has not sustained a high level despite them. There’re lots of reasons for that, but I want to focus on one here: expectations.
What’s common for all three seasons is that, from a national perspective, they came out of nowhere. Suddenly, we went from irrelevant to top 10. Then, expectations were high for the next season — in ‘08, we were no. 3 early — and we disappointed, finishing 19th and 14th in ‘08 and ‘14 respectively. That disappointment dimmed the long-term lift from each season: we ceased to be the hot program among recruits and fell out of national media attention.
We’ll face the same elevated expectations in ‘24 — it’s the nature of the preseason poll: it predicts last season better than it predicts the post-season rankings. In the past, Pinkel had to rely on his previous high school recruiting to replace the departed stars from 07 and 13. That led to lesser teams following. What’s different this year is the portal. Drinks can and has reload(ed). Pinkel couldn’t get Green, Pride, Young, McClellan etc.
This is why it’s going to be different this time. Mizzou will meet elevated expectations this season and that will help us keep building. I think this lift lasts more than previous. Not that we’ll be an annual playoff team, but we’ll be one more often and the valleys will have higher floors in between, finally.
What’s common for all three seasons is that, from a national perspective, they came out of nowhere. Suddenly, we went from irrelevant to top 10. Then, expectations were high for the next season — in ‘08, we were no. 3 early — and we disappointed, finishing 19th and 14th in ‘08 and ‘14 respectively. That disappointment dimmed the long-term lift from each season: we ceased to be the hot program among recruits and fell out of national media attention.
We’ll face the same elevated expectations in ‘24 — it’s the nature of the preseason poll: it predicts last season better than it predicts the post-season rankings. In the past, Pinkel had to rely on his previous high school recruiting to replace the departed stars from 07 and 13. That led to lesser teams following. What’s different this year is the portal. Drinks can and has reload(ed). Pinkel couldn’t get Green, Pride, Young, McClellan etc.
This is why it’s going to be different this time. Mizzou will meet elevated expectations this season and that will help us keep building. I think this lift lasts more than previous. Not that we’ll be an annual playoff team, but we’ll be one more often and the valleys will have higher floors in between, finally.
