Jason's Untimely Thoughts

Senior Day represents the best of collegiate athletics. It’s the culmination of four years of hard work, with various successes and failures mixed in along the way, resulting in young men and women of all backgrounds leaving Mizzou as Tigers, forever.

If fans have any duty in support of their team, it is to show up early on Senior Day and clap like crazy in honor of the efforts over the past four years.

On Sunday, Kevin Young and Jimmy McKinney will play their final regular season games in Mizzou Arena. These gentlemen have represented the University with the utmost of class and have given fabulous effort throughout their four years.

#1 Jimmy McKinney
Starting for the 114th time as a Tiger.
One of 37 Tigers to score 1,000 or more points.
One of 5 Tigers to have more than 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, and 300 assists.

#14 Kevin Young
Leading Big XII in Offensive Rebounds (3.8).
Fifth in Big XII in Total Rebounds (7.2).
Developed into legitimate scoring threat, going for double-digits 9 times as a senior.

Come Cheer for the Seniors!

Not quite a week ago, Mizzou basketball coach Quin Snyder resigned from his position. The only thing mildly surprising was the timing, but even that wasn’t too big a deal considering he had to answer numerous questions less than 24 hours previous about whether he would resign.

However, MU is never an institution willing to let the inane pass by when we have a chance to turn the opportunity into an embarrassment. Despite their denials, part of the problem is MU’s nationally renowned journalism school and the would be investigative reporters it creates. However, their over-zealousness would be for naught if MU would quit giving them opportunities.

To recap, Athletics Director Mike Alden allegedly sent his Special Assistant Gary Link — more commonly known as the radio color guy for Tiger basketball broadcasts — to talk to Coach Snyder. From there, Link either asked how Quin was doing, told him he should resign, or told him he had to resign or be fired and Mike Alden, Chancellor Brady Deaton, UM President Elson Floyd, and a member of the Board of Curators were behind this decision. As a result of that conversation, Coach Snyder resigned the following day, although it took another 48 hours to agree on the terms and 48 more hours to sign the document.

Regardless of which version of that is true, from the moment it was reported someone in the University administration should have stepped forward and said “I did it, I am in the position to make those decisions and here’s what happened. We’re still working on the contractual details but the decision has been made.”

In an ideal world, Link would have never been sent to have that conversation. We don’t live in an ideal world, however, so that may have very well been the best decision for the circumstances. Once Link’s role was public, though, Alden should have stepped forward to protect his employee. If needed, Chancellor Deaton should have stepped forward to protect both Alden and Link, and President Floyd should have stepped forward to protect them all. “The buck stops here” would have been a great thing to hear. They could have then handled their own personnel (or perhaps personal) conflicts internally and confidentially.

Instead, non-denials and grandstanding flow from all directions for days, convincing no one of anything except that there must be more to find. What is the purpose of the President announcing that he’s asked the Chancellor to investigate? Doesn’t everyone involved live in Columbia? Two of them work about 400 yards from his house. Perhaps give them a call asking them to stick around for a few minutes, you’re stopping by on the way home?

If you’re the Chancellor, how long does that investigation take, again given the fact that everyone works about 5 minutes from one another and there are a maximum of 3 people to question? Why would either the President or the Chancellor feel the need to release public statement’s on the matter while they’re still supposedly (and slowly) investigating it?

If you’re on the Board of Curators, do you really need to be involved in personnel decisions? How many coaches work for the UM System and how many of those would you like to be involved in evaluating? Maybe just say “no comment” or “I fully trust the administration of the University to handle personnel matters.” I’d suggest “no comment” as it also discourages people from asking you questions in the future.

This should have been the simplest matter ever. Unfortunate, but simple. The only legitimate questions raised have been whether Alden or Link misrepresented the support he/they had from the University administration and Curators. Again, when it starts to raise questions, someone step forward and say “It was me” and answer every question in 10 words or less and it’s over. By all means don’t leave the lowest ranking employee in the entire situation (Link) as the only one unable to speak.

on a side note, screw ku.

I don’t understand home fans booing the home team in college (or heaven forbid younger) sports. I simply don’t get it. However, if you’re going to do it, have the courage and conviction to stick to it when things are going well.

If you insist on booing during the bad times, have enough self-pride to stay opposed to the team when things are going well. Unhappiness, I get. Booing, I don’t.

Don’t scream and boo at Coach Pinkel, for example, when you’re wanting Brad Smith to take a snap under center, then scream and cheer 5 seconds later as #16 is running 50 yards for a touchdown (I’m looking at you, KC Tiger club president).

Don’t boo and yell idiotic statements at Coach Snyder, then cheer like crazy for the last 30 seconds of regulation and during OT of the KU game, only to go back to immediately being idiot boy during the next game (I’m looking at you, top row of Section 108 in Mizzou Arena).

The kids are kids. 18-22 years old, in most cases. How many stupid things did I do or say when I was 20 years old? There aren’t enough words and I’d be too embarrassed to type them if there were. I wouldn’t want 5 people to sit around and watch me work for an hour, much less 10-60,000 fanatics.

The kids are playing the game and the coaches are coaching. Give them credit for the effort and respect for their time. Losing sucks, but not as bad as booing your own team.

I work with several people who go to a lot of basketball games, but are relatively new to Columbia. Their history with MU athletics basically consists of 1-2 games in Hearnes, a few football games in one of the suites, and the past 2 years in Mizzou Arena.

Amazing to talk with them today, the day after the first time they sat in the middle of a great college basketball environment. Couldn’t believe it was so loud, never understood why the buzzer was so loud before, etc.

Games like last night’s victory over KU are why the Arena was built. (And a $20 M donation.) I arrived 45 minutes prior to tip-off and saw the student section already almost full. First-come first-served seating at it’s finest. Late in the game, the tower of students clearly impacted the game. Students, that’s what the games are supposed to be like. Keep coming, keep coming early, keep being loud and you can impact our win total.

I know this isn’t all that insightful, but I couldn’t stand to have a post about not hating KU enough remain at the top any longer.

Great game, great outcome, screw ku.

Normally, when Mizzou plays KU in anything, but especially football or basketball, I experience a happy combination of hatred, disrespect, gleeful anticipation, and more hatred.

However, here we are a mere 4 hours away from tipoff against the mythical shoe-wearing birds, and I can barely muster a profanity. Maybe it’s because they’re not all that good this year or the game is too early in the Big 12 season to have much animosity or importance built up. Perhaps because I like their coach better than they like their coach.

Regardless, here are some reasons I do hate KU.

• Their fans, particularly females and little kids, will scream at you about how much classier KU fans are than MU fans. The females will likely be wearing a “Muck Fizzou” shirt while doing the screaming.
• Because Roy Williams used to be their coach and they loved him.
• During this timeframe, several male students proudly dressed up as “Roy’s Boys” and were paraded on TV every game.
• They are the only school in the history of NCAA to be placed on probation immediately after winning a national championship, yet are still held up as an idyllic institution.
• Their recent admitted NCAA violations are enough to make Jerry Tarkanian blush and should make the NCAA and KC media embarrassed to have reported on MU’s violations, yet almost nothing on KU’s admitted wrong-doings have been reported in k@~$@$ or KC media, much less the supposed ongoing NCAA investigation into the prairie chickens.
• Their mascot is a bird that wears shoes. Not sufficient, this evidently flightless bird also has a shoe-wearing wife and offspring.
• This mascot was named, proudly I’d imagine, after a group of marauding, pillaging scumbags.
• They played an ineligible player against MU in football, thereby costing Mizzou a #1 ranking that season.
• Their band plays an off-key awful version of the Tiger Fight Song prior to home games against Mizzou. Again, while some kid or female is screaming at you about how classy they are.
• If you happen to wear a red shirt around a beaker fan, they’ll say “Hey, that looks like #!$hawk crimson you’re wearing.” A blue shirt will prompt a similar response. Hey morons, you don’t own Red & Blue. US flag look familiar to you? KC Royals? St L Blues? StL Rams? KC Chiefs? St L Cardinals? If you can’t decide between either of the two most popular colors in the world for your mascot, and then also work Black & Gold into your uniforms, get over the fact that someone else might occasionally wear one of your colors.
• They pretend K-State is their most bitter rival, then cheer for KSU when playing Mizzou. Morons. Or as a KU grad recently called me with no apparent clue even after I pointed it out to her, “Moran.”

Rock chalk chickenhawk, screw ku.