(MIZBB)—The Missouri Tigers limp into the SEC tournament, salvaging a bye for the first round and likely to face a bottom-half opponent in the second round. But with this team, there is no guarantee that Missouri will be playing in the third round.
But then again, there’s no guarantee with this bunch that they won’t.
The Tigers’ last two regular season game, both considered winnable, became losses. They took a two-game winning streak, including a win over then 22nd ranked Tennessee, into their game in Norman and let the Sooners run up an 80-64 win. In their last game at home, against an Arkansas team that had beaten them in Fayetteville by eight points, Missouri again made crucial mistakes at crucial times and lost in overtime.
Mark Mitchell set a new game high for himself with 32 points and along the way became the eighth Tiger to top 1,000 points in two years. He scored 700 more in his first two years at Duke. He has at least two more games to add to his 1713 total collegiate sports.
He joined two of last year’s players, Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates on the list of two-year thousand point players.
Arkansas Coach John Calipari also reached a milestone—his 900th win.
Missouri got a first-round bye and will play Thursday morning in the second round against the winner of Wednesday’s first round game between Kentucky, the 9 seed, and LSU, the 16th seed. Kentucky matched Missouri’s 10-8 conference record and went 19-12 in the regular season. LSU finished last in the conference at 3-15.
Kentucky, the expected Thursday opponent, closed out the season the same way Missouri did—with two straight losses. Missouri beat Kentucky 73-68 in Lexington earlier this year.
If Missouri gets past Kentucky it runs into Florida, the top seed. Kentucky went 25-6 in the season and was 16-2 in the conference with one of those losses to Missouri, in Lexington—the only time the two teams played this season.
(OUT)—Former Missouri Tiger star Kim English will not be back to coach the Providence Friars next year. He’s been at Providence for three years. With a team he inherited from coach Ed Cooley, English took the Friars to a 21-14 record and an NIT appearance. But his teams went 12-20 and then 14-16. They were 7-12 in the Big East this year. Before going to Providence, English led George Mason to a 20-13 record in his only season there. English played all four years of his college ball at MU, winning the MVP award in the Big 12 Tournament in his last year, 2012. He scored 1570 points in his Tiger career.
He played a few games for the Detroit Pistons in a short NBA career.
(BILLIKENS)—The St. Louis University Billikens took a bad tumble in their last game of the regular season, falling to George Mason 86-57. St. Louis finishes 27-4 but still have the number one seed in the Atlantic Ten conference.
Team leader, center Robbie Avila got into immediate foul trouble in the first half and was benched five minutes in, scoreless. He finished with two points and one rebound in the two minutes he was in the game in the second half.
St. Louis U gets a bye in the A-10 tournament and will play the winner of a game between Fordham and George Washington on Friday.
(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to the 2026 NFL draft as a way to shake off “Super Bowl Fatigue,” a condition in which a championship team has been saddled with generally low draft choices year after year.
The Chiefs continued their dealings in the last week with a major trade sending cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams for a flock of draft picks—in the first, fifth, and sixth rounds this year and a third-round pick next year.
Some speculation has Kansas City and Tennessee doing some swapping that could bring Notre Dame running back Jeremiya Love or edge rusher Rueben Bain from the Miami Hurricanes.
Chiefs GM Brett Veach told reporters at the Combine a few days ago, “Every year when we were picking 31 and 32, I’d always say, ‘Man, if we were just at (pick) 24 or 25, we’d be exactly where we want to be.’ Now, we’re at nine and I’m like, ‘Man, if we were just at four, five, we’d be exactly where we want to be.”
—Meaning that he’s probably not done.
As for the recently-traded cornerback Trent McDuffie, whose trade to the Rams brought the Chiefs those draft picks: The Rams have made him the highest paid cornerback in NFL history with a four-year, $124 million dollar contract, $100 million of it guaranteed.
McDuffie had been in line for $13.6 million if he had stayed with the Chiefs this year.
The deal is especially sweet for McDuffie, who played his high school ball in California with two guys who are Rams this year. Last August, at a charity event, he was asked if there was another team he would like to play for. “That’ll probably be the LA Rams, so that my family can come see every single game,” he replied.
(BATTLEHAWKS, ETC)—Spring football, the UFL, starts in a couple of weeks. Several players from Missouri schools are on the rosters for seven of the eight teams in the league.
The St. Louis Battlehawks open the season with two Missourians on their roster. Former Tiger kicker Tyler McCann, who hopes to follow of the LA Rams into the NFL, and Kevon Latulas from Missouri State.
The Birmingham Barons have Missouri running back Nate Noel.
The Columbus Aviators have former Tigers WR Keke Chisum, a wide receiver, and DT Walter Palmore.
Three Missourians are on the roster for the DC Defenders—former Tiger center Michael Maieti, Missouri State WR Tyrone Scott, and Missouri Southern OT Lacolby Tucker from Missouri Southern.
The Louisville Kings have OL Keith Russell from Missouri Western.
Moving along to a spring sports with a round ball—
(CARDINALS)—Word from Jupiter is that outfielder Jordan Walker has been doing a lot of work on the back fields on his hitting, looking for better swing rhythm. Results of that part of his training aren’t impressive. He’s 4 for 19 (.211) after hitting .215 last year. and his fielding. Manager Oliver Marmol says his outfield work is better than last year. Former Cardinals and Royals outfielder Jon Jay is getting credit for that.
Lars Nootbar’s heels still not being counted on for opening day. The Cardinals have used thirteen left fielders in spring training so far. One possible prospect is Joshua Baez, who is hitting .333 in 18 at-bats.
Pitcher Andre Pallante is impressing the coaches in Florida after an awful second half last year. He went four innings and struck out two Sunday in a 2-2 tie with the Marlins. Marmol said afterwards he looked to be throwing his five pitches “in midseason form.” Marmol says his attitude is better, that he’s more relaxed than when he was going 1-10 after last year’s All-Star break with a 6.64 ERA.
Several players and coaches in the Cardinals system, including some on the major league roster, are involved in the World Baseball Classic that goes for another week. Some are pitching for other nations’ teams. A player musts be a citizen of the country they represent or have been born in that country or have permanent residency or have at least one parent who was born of a citizen of the nation.
Leonardo Bernal, a strong catcher prospect in the system, is playing for Panama. Mexico has one of the team’s most recent international signings, Luis Gastelum. Gordon Graceffo, who was and down from the minors last year and is considered a likely bullpen member this year, is playing for Italy, as is Thomas Saggese, a “super-utility man in the making,” according to the Cardinals..
Great Britain has outfielder Matt Koperniak. Some think he might come up to the bigs later in the year. A member of the Israel team is Zach Levenson, an outfielder and Noah Mendlinger, a third basemen.
Outfielder Brian Torres, who has hit .328 in his last two minor league seasons, is an outfielder for Puerto Rico.
Four Cardinal coaches are involved in the tournament: Yadier Molina is managing Puerto Rico’s team for the second tournament. His team reached the quarterfinals in the last tournament, in 2023. Coach Stubby Clapp is the third base coach for Canada; Julio Rangel is with the Panamanian team; Chris Conroy is Puerto Rico assistant trainer.
(ROYALS)—Some of the big name major leaguers and some littler names from the Royals system are in the World Baseball Classic: Bobby Witt Jr. and Michael Wacha represent the United States: Salvador Perez, Maikel Garcia, and Luinder Avila are with the Venezuelan team. Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone are with Italy; Seth Lugo is pitching for Puerto Rico; Carlos Estevez is with the Dominican Republic. Israel has Eli Morgan; Nicaragua has Oscar Rayo; and Jorge Alfaro is with Colombia.
Back in Kansas City, the Royals have welcomed Eric Hosmer home.
He’ll join the Royals TV broadcast crew as a part-time analyst, one-third of a rotation that includes Jeremy Guthrie and Rex Hudler. Regular play-by-play guys Ryan Lefebvre and Jake Eisenberg will be in their usual slots. Jeff Goldberg and Jeff Montgomery will be the pregame and postgame hosts. New to the broadcasts will be host and sideline reporter Bridget Howard.
Hosmer’s first show will be March 13 when the Royals play the Diamondbacks.
Hosmer retired after the 2023 season after 13 years in the big leagues, half of those years with the Royals. He was a member of the 2025 World Series championship club before signing a big deal with the San Diego Padres. He was there for five years before wrapping up things with the Red Sox and the Cubs. He was a lifetime .276 hitter
Motoring on—-
(INDYCAR)—-Phoenix became a great place during the weekend to celebrate Roger Penske’s sixtieth year in auto racing. His drivers won both of the major races, the IndyCar race on Saturday and the NASCAR race Sunday.
Penske’s first race as a team owner was the 1966 Daytona 24 Hour endurance race. His cars have raced in several major racing series—with his first IndyCar entry in 1968 and his first NASCAR entry in 1972.
Penske driver Josef Newgarden tracked down race leader Kyle Kirkwood and got past him in the closing laps to go on Saturday for his 32nd career win. Newgarden admitted he was surprised to win, given his mediocre performance in the middle of the race. But adjustments by his pit crew gave him “a rocket ship” after his last stop that let him get past pole-sitter and teammate David Malukis and then Kirkwood.
It’s the second win in a row for Newgarden and Penske on the one-mile oval at Phoenix—-although it took eight years go to it. IndyCar had not raced there since 2918.
It was a highly-competitive race with a record 565 on-track passes but none was as important as Newgarden’s power move past Kirkwood. Newgarden had pitted for new tires under the last yellow of the race, caused when former teammate Will Power cut a tire in close racing with another car. Kirkwood was among the drivers who gambled they could go the rest of the way with what they had.
Kirkwood took the lead on lap 242 of the 250 laps but his tires gave up and he faded to 11th while Newgarden started eating into Kirkwood’s six-tenths of a second lead and flew past him with six laps left.
The win puts Newgarden on top of the point standings, ending a long string of races at the top for defending series champion Alex Palou, who had not been out of first place since June 2024. Palou was the victim of an early crash and finished 24th.
IndyCar moves on to a new venue next weekend in Arlington, Texas on a course that winds its way around the baseball and football stadiums of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys.
(NASCAR)—Ryan Blaney finished the Penske-first weekend on Sunday. He clawed his way back from 24th after a poor pit stop and took the lead in a fiercely contested race with ten laps left and then held off Christopher Bell the rest of the way. The race featured 23 lead changes and a record dozen cautions. Bell had dominated the latter part of the race until the last restart gave Blaney the break he needed to pull in front.
Blaney twice had problems with loose wheels that forced him to drive from the back to the front. Bell’s car was the 49th car he passed during the race, a record.
Penske driver Joey Logano started from the pole but was eliminated in a crash early.
Tyler Reddick, who had won the first three races of the year, a NASCAR record, finished eighth.
NASCAR heads to Las Vegas for next week’s race.
(Photo Credits: McDuffie–YouTube; Pallante—STL Cardinals; Hosmer—MLB; Newgarden –Rick Gevers, in Phoenix; Blaney—Sean Gardner, Getty Images)