(MIZZGONE)—We saw this kind of Missouri Tigers a lot in the last part of the season, especially in the last four games—all losses. Inconsistent offense, turnovers, comebacks, brief leads but couldn’t get the dagger basket or keep the other team from hitting it. They had Miami down by a handful late and lost by fourteen.
Missouri lost six of its last nine games to finish 20-13.
It took a 9-0 run at the end of a struggling first half to draw the Tigers to a mere 27-26 deficit at halftime. But all-to-familiar scoring droughts in the second half doomed the Tigers. In one stretch they missed ten straight shots. While Missouri was going without a basket for more than two minutes near the end, Miami ran off 12 straight points.
Miami kept Mark Mitchell bottled up in the first half and held him to only four points while dominating the offensive boards throughout the game. Mitchell finished with 19 points. Trent Pierce and T. O. Barrett, who were the third and fourth top scorers for the team this year, were two for 15 shooting, and combined for only seven points.
“We just couldn’t keep those guys off the boards,” Coach Dennis Gates said afterward (Miami outrebounded the Tigers 42-29).
Four or five guys suited up for the last time Saturday night: Mark Mitchell, who became the first since Albert White in the 1998-99 season to lead the team in scoring, rebounds, and assists; Shawn Philips, who came from Arizona for his last season of college ball in Missouri; Jayden Stone, who had 21 points in the Miami game, sixth year senior and who played the second-most minutes this year; and Jacob Crews, a transfer from UT-Martin.
The fifth player might or might not be Javon Porter, who joins the family tradition of physical brittleness at Mizzou. He is on the bubble for a medical redshirt. His last game was December 14 and he’s been on the bench with a “lower leg injury.” To get the redshirt, a player must be hurt before the halfway point of the season which he was. But the rule also says the player must appear in less than 30 percent of the team’s total games. He was in 12 of 33, which work out to 36%, two games beyond the limit.
(LADY TIGERS)—The Missouri women’s team topped Seton Hall 67-57 in the first round of the National Women’s Invitational Basketball Tournament. They ran into the top-seeded Brigham Young aggregation late last night and never led on the way to a season-ending 93-75 loss to finish 17-17. BYU advances at 24-11
(BILLIKENS)—The St. Louis University Billikens left Georgia coach Mike White stunned in their first-round game, demolishing the Bulldogs 102-77, leading by as much as forty points at one time. Georgia was an 8 seed; St. Louis a 9. “We weren’t very prepared to compete at the level that I thought we would. Did not see this coming…Didn’t give St. Louis much of a game.”
Georgia, from the mighty SEC, never led in the game, was outscored by an astounding 66-28 in the paint and out-rebounded 47-36. SLU also had 27 assists, three times more than Georgia.
The win was the first in the NCAA tournament for St. Louis since 2014, and a record-setting 29 for the year. But the win just set the Bills up for a game against Michigan, which pulled away from St. Louis Saturday to a 90-75 win.
(MOSTATEWMN)—The Missouri State Lady Bears played their way into the NCAA tournament with an 85-75 win over Stephen F. Austin to get a 16th seed and an immediate game against top-seeded Texas that did not turn out well. Texas steamrollered Missouri State 87-45.
(COLCOL)—We need to recognize Columbia College in, well, Columbia. The Lions, 15th in the country, finished 29-4, including a game against Central Christian Bible in which they scored 134 points, second most in school history. They were 13-1 in the American Midwest Conference and winning the conference championship for the sixteenth time. They won the conference tournament for the thirteenth time. They won their first round game in the NAIA Tournament against McPherson College of Kansas in overtime 74-72 before losing to Faulkner University in the second round.
(BASEBALL)—Next week well be reporting on the first weekend of games that aren’t in Arizona or Florida.
(CARDINALS)—One of the biggest questions of Cardinals spring training was whether J. J. Wetherholt would come north for opening day.
The announcement game in a video yesterday morning:
Okay, we’ll save you the trouble—the video shows the Cardinals making Wetherholt’s jersey, swapping his spring training number 77 for his preferred 26. He is considered the number five prospect in all of baseball. He was the seventh pick in the first round of the 2024 draft and had a solid spring—fifteen games, nine walks, two homers and seven RBIs, OBP of .780. He jumps to the bigs after only 138 games in the minors in which he hit a combined .304 with 19 home runs, 79 runs batted in and 100 runs scored, 25 stolen bases, 33 doubles and a couple of triples.
The Cardinals will give the ball to Matthew Liberatore for opening day against the Tampa Bay Rays, the team that drafted him in 2018. He came to St. Louis in the 2020 Randy Arozarena trade. Liberatore is considered the ace of the rotation with the departure of Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas. He was named the starter after giving up only one walk in 13.1 innings in Florida.
(ROYALS)—The opening day starter for the Royals was Cole Ragans for the third year in a row.
Ragans missed much of last year (only 13 starts) but hopes he returns to his 2024 form this year. Two years ago, he led all American League pitchers with 10.77 strikeouts per nine innings, was second in total Ks with 223. “I’m more motivated than ever,” he said after being named the starter for game one. He leads a seemingly sold starting pitching corps for the Royals with Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Krus Bubic and Noah Cameron coming back from sold 2025 seasons.
(KCWBC)—The Baseball Hall of Fame is getting a lot of gear from Kansas City Royals players who had major roles in the World Baseball Congress tournament—the winning team’s captain and the tournament’s MVP particularly. But the Hall also is getting a bat from a Royals hitter.
The USA team drew some boos at the start of the last game of tournament from a Miami crowd that had a lot of Venezuelans in it—who are not fond of President Trump’s actions in their home country. The Venezuelan team won the tournament with a 3-2 win over Team USA.
After the game, team captain and catcher Salvador Perez told reporters, “I’m gonna be honest with you guys, and there’s nothing that I can hide, you know? All you guys see, what happened, all that … and … I know people are super happy right now in my country …“Where I come from, all my family, it’s hard to get to see me play in the big league. I got some family that never had that opportunity. So now they’ve seen me play. I know they’re super happy and me as well, for my family and for other people from Venezuela.”
Royals third baseman Mikel Garcia was the tournament Most Valuable Player. “I’m proud to be part of this group, and I’m proud to be representing 30 million Venezuelans back in my country,” he told interviewers.
The USA team had tied the game before Garcia got the game-winning RBI in the top of the ninth. In that final half inning?
“I only was thinking what was going to happen after we win the game. I had full confidence in our closer and I knew that we were going to win this game,” Garcia said.
Garcia He hit .385 for the tournament with seven runs batted in and a home run. He’s sending his helmet to Cooperstown. Perez is sending his Venezuelan colors catching gear
Among other items from the series going to the Hall of Fame is the bat that Royals first basement, Vinnie Pasquantino, used to become the first player in WBC history to hit three home runs in a game. Pasquantino played for Italy.
(CHIEFS)—Travis Kelce is not only coming back for the 2026-27 season—–he could be coming back for two more years after that. Word came out yesterday that his new contract is not for one, but for three years and $54 million dollars and maybe more.
The deal is set up for him to still walk away after this coming season in which he’ll be paid $12 million with another three million dollars in bonuses.
The restructuring of the otherwise continues with the exit of Hollywood Brown after two seasons. Brown was signed as a fast big-play threat who could replace the departed Tyreek Hill. But he missed almost all of 2024 with an injury and his numbers in 2025 were not game-breaking impressive (49 catches, 587 yards and five touchdowns. He’s gone now, to the Eagles, reflecting, “In this league, the margin for error is so small,” Brown said on “Speakeasy.” “I feel like the group of guys and the staff we had with coach Reid, I wouldn’t be able to handle that adversity anywhere else … It wasn’t the season we wanted to have, but it was a season that we all learned from.”
The Chiefs hope James Worthy and Rashee Rice can return to their previous forms and the retention of Tyquann Thornton provides some depth.
Plus, there’s the draft…….
On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs have re-signed popular special teams leader Jack Cochrane, who’s been with the team since signing as an undrafted free agent in ’22. He’s missed only four of 68 games in his career.
UFL)—The St. Louis Battlehawks start the new UFL season next Saturday against the Washington Defenders in the dome.
Now: V8 is not just a drink
(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick says he’s in an “incredible” position after picking up his fourth win in six races this year, this time at Darlington despite early electrical problems that buried him deep in the field. He rallied back to pass Brad Keslowski with 27 laps left.
It’s Keselowski’s best finish of the year, even as he continues to recover from a leg broke in an off-season incident.
Reddick started from the pole despite brushing the wall during qualifications.
(INDYCAR)—-Two races left before The Month.
IndyCar is back on track next weekend with the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park with the GP of Long Beach on April 19.
The Month of kicks off on the 9th with a run on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
After that, it’s all about Memorial Day weekend and the 110th Indianapolis 500, when 33 cars line up and less than three hours later one driver will achieve an adjective that will stay with him the rest of his life: Indianapolis 500 winner.
Several drivers will make their only run in IndyCar this year. Helio Castroneves continues his quest to be the first five-time winner. Two-time winner Takuma Sato also is lined up to run. Others signed for just this race are Conor Daley, Jack Harvey, former winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ed Carpenter, who owns the car he’ll drive.
It’s expected Andretti Global will provide a car for Colton Herta who has dropped off the IndyCar circuit to seek his fortune in Europe, hoping to pick up a Formula 1 ride next year. He’s a reserve driver for the Cadillac team that’s making its first season in F1.
Notably absent so far is Prema Racing, the team that put rookie Robert Schwartzman on the pole last year. The team has some internal ownership problems that have kept it from fielding a car in the early seasons races.
It has been 79 years since the race started with fewer than 33 cars.
Practice for the 500 starts on May 12, a Tuesday, with qualifying the next weekend and the race on Sunday, May 4.
(Photo credits: Kelce—Kansas City Chiefs; Ragans—Royals; WBC—Getty Images—Cochrane; Indy Car driver banners, Indianapolis—Bob Priddy)