Every week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag. This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post. Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries.
MoDude21 asks: How much control will HCRP have where young Mz. Levy lands ? I mean how much gas would be thrown on the fire if she ends up in the other Columbia?
GD: Schools can no longer block a transfer to any school. Which is exactly what she should be able to do. The NCAA changed that rule last year, which came with the introduction of the transfer portal. A player just has to say "I want to transfer" and enter the portal. The prior school then has no control over where he or she goes.
If Akira Levy were to transfer in conference, she not only has to sit out a year (barring some sort of a waiver), but I believe she also still would lose that year of eligibility. In other words, she couldn't use the transfer year as a redshirt season, so she would essentially end up only having three years of college eligibility.
I'm going to use this as a jumping off point to stand on my soapbox. Kids get crushed for transferring. People call them soft and say they aren't willing to stick it out through adversity and they turn and run and all of that. But then I read things like I've read non-stop for the past 48 hours from Mizzou fans like, "You take a chance on a kid and if it doesn't work out, you just move on next year."
Let me say, not only no, but HELL NO. You cannot have it both ways. If you're for processing kids out whose biggest sin is not being good enough to play, then you absolutely have to be for transfers without restrictions. There's no in between. Personally, I understand telling a kid he's not going to have a scholarship because you have to use it on a player who has a better chance to play the following year. I don't love it, but I understand it. But I will never degrade a kid for looking to transfer. Whatever his or her reasons are, fine. Coaches like to talk about how it makes things so much harder, how you have to re-recruit your current players every year, and on and on. Well, you know what? You make millions of dollars. I do not care if your job is hard.
/rant
MIZ25! asks: Who is the most important player to stay healthy in Football and Bball this year? (Excluding Kelly Bryant)
GD: That's like saying who is the most important member of a band but you can't say the lead singer. But I get it. In football, I'd go with Yasir Durant. The left tackle is the most important member of the offensive line and the offensive line is the unit that makes everything else go. In basketball, it's Jeremiah Tilmon. I don't know if he's the best player, but he's clearly the most important player. He's the only guy over 6-5 that has proven he's capable of being big-time SEC player. When he's good, he's one of the best in the league and Missouri can compete with anybody. When he's not, they're one of the worst teams in the league.
Jami9700 asks: Do yourself a favor and google Siberian face slap, watch the guy with the beard. 1. Shouldn't this be automatically in the next Olympics. 2, is this how you resolve disagreements in the office. 3. Will PowerMizzou host the first annual COMO face slapping contest. 4, who, among current or former Tigers athlete, would be crazy enough to do this?
GD: I've seen this, but for those who haven't
GD: First, yes, I would support this being a competition anywhere. In America, you could have state qualifiers, then regionals, then a national championship. I would 100% watch a much of it as I could.
As far as doing this for PowerMizzou, I'm not in favor of it because I would not fare well. Mitchell Forde has an insane reach advantage on me and I would get the worse end of this deal without question.
I could answer the question in relation to Mizzou athletes, but I would rather have a PowerMizzou contest. At the next spring tailgate, this should be a thing. We could draw up a bracket, charge a small entry fee and have the proceeds donated to charity. However, there are two problems with this:
1) The posters who most would want to nominate to participate generally do not show up at these group events. They prefer to get their shots in anonymously on the message board without you being able to put a face to their screen names
2) Somebody would end up getting hurt and suing me
So I like the idea. But it's not going to happen.
