Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about Mizzou Hoops and Mark Mitchell
Missouri Basketball begins their NCAA Tournament run on Friday night vs Miami (FL). The Tigers received a favorable draw by the selection committee by being placed in the St. Louis region as a No. 10 seed.
I think it’s fair to say that Mizzou deserved a No. 10 seed, but they certainly were extremely fortunate to draw STL. This is an opportunity Dennis Gates must capitalize on — especially how last season ended in Wichita vs Drake.
Miami (FL) is
still a slight favorite for a reason as they’re the No. 7 seed and were 25-8 (13-5 ACC). While Mizzou has lost three games in a row coming in — the Tigers will arguably have the best player on the court on Friday night at the Enterprise Center in Mark Mitchell.
According to Sports Illustrated, Mitchell ranks 28th among their 68 best players in the NCAA Tournament.
Mitchell started his career as a role player at Duke but has turned into a star at Mizzou, emerging as a point forward of sorts who leads the Tigers in points, rebounds and assists. He lives at the free throw line, attempting eight shots from the charity stripe per game, and is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses with his strength and physicality.
Mitchell is playing at an extremely high level to end his college career — becoming the first Mizzou player since Derrick Chievous to score 32+ points in back-to-back games.
He deserves an NCAA Tournament win as a Missouri Tiger.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
And while he won’t be there on the court, another old friend will be cheering on the Hurricanes: Marcus Allen, former Mizzou Tiger, will watch from the sidelines. Allen transferred to Miami after last season, but was ruled out for the rest of the season in December after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. As a reminder, you can donate here to his GoFundMe to support his cancer treatments.
Win or lose on Friday night — this is the most important thing to keep in mind. We’re wishing the best of luck to Marcus. Go beat cancer.
I wouldn’t expect that same kind of game this time. These two teams are much more evenly matched. So I would expect a close affair, provided one teams offense doesn’t just completely abandon them.
Expect a close game on Friday night as Miami comes in as 1.5-point favorites.
This week, we’re doing another non-traditional format of Photos of the Week and taking a look at some more photos from the semester so far! The photos featured in this column were all uploaded to the website to be used but were not included in the column for that week. They’re still good photos, but not quite to the level of what makes it in for a variety of reasons. Enjoy!
Plenty of great pics featuring diamond sports, track, MBB and WBB. Great stuff as always.
For the second week in a row, the Missouri Tigers put up solid numbers on the road, earning yet another season-high (a 197.325) to take down the Auburn Tigers (196.700) for their first ever win in Auburn, Alabama. With some lineup shuffling, I was intrigued to see how this one would turn out. Turns out it was pretty, pretty good, and should the Tigers get their landings in order they are going to do quite well in the postseason.
Mizzou Gymnastics heads to the SEC Championships as the No. 7 seed riding plenty of momentum. The Tigers also come in at No. 9 in the Road to Nationals rankings.
- Over at Rock M+: We’ve got everything covered on basketball, football, and Olympic Sports.
Rock M Radio’s Dive Cuts: Mizzou Basketball is dancing! NCAA Tournament preview
Subscribe to Rock M Radio on Apple Podcasts. Or stream episodes through Megaphone or Spotify. Have a question for us? Leave a 5-star review with your question and that show just might answer it in an upcoming episode!
If you like Rock M Radio drop us a Review and be sure to subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform. Follow @RockMRadio on Twitter and if you haven’t already head over to our YouTube channel and click that subscribe button!
(** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)
