Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
Got back from Sacramento last night and for the first time in nine months, there's no season to cover (yes, there are other Mizzou sports going on and we'll monitor those, I just mean day to day on the two major sports). So this would largely be a look back and a look ahead this week.
1) The last day of the season sucks for nearly every team and every fan. And Missouri is no different. The Missouri players, staff and admin was disappointed. I did not get the feeling they were devastated. And I don't want that to be taken to mean they didn't care. But I think they viewed it as a missed opportunity, not a failure or a devastation. I've been at season-enders where there was devastation. I was in the locker room after the kicked ball game against Nebraska and the Norfolk State game in Omaha. Those are the ones that stand out for me as situations where you felt bad even being there and asking questions. That wasn't the feeling on Saturday. Again, I need to stress, it's not that they didn't care and weren't upset. There were some tears. But overall, I think this team and the people around it were able to appreciate pretty quickly what they'd done this year. I don't know if that makes it easier or harder for fans to accept. Because, don't get me wrong, facing a 15 seed in the second round sets you up to think you should still be playing. But it didn't happen and now we move on.
2) Most of this will be focused on the future for the basketball program, but I think it's important to point out exactly what this team did accomplish: They made you care again.
There was plenty of anger during and after the game on Saturday. And that's a good thing. You know when there wasn't anger? The vast majority of the last eight or nine seasons. When you have no expectations, you don't get angry. Missouri basketball fans had become full on apathetic. Even the 2020-21 season, there wasn't a feeling of investment from the fanbase. They beat Alabama and they got to No. 10 and people were excited...but it still didn't strike me as full-in buy-in. That happened this year. You guys were talking about matchups and seedings and breaking down games days in advance. Game threads were going 10 pages. You knew when the games were. And you were watching other games because they had an effect on Missouri's season.
This team brought the passion of this fanbase back. I was talking with some Mizzou staffers before the game on Saturday. They told me that they'd been blown away by the passion of this basketball fanbase. Most of the staff is new in the last couple of years. What they told me was they'd heard Missouri had a good basketball fanbase, but you know, it had been a while and they hadn't actually seen it. They saw it this year. And they were overwhelmed by it. Kentucky is at a different level in the SEC (and college hoops in general). But other than that, Missouri cares about this sport as much as anyone in the league. Which means Missouri can be as good as anyone in the league. The passion and the belief in the program is back. Anger is always better than apathy. It means you still care.
3) That caring may be the biggest key for the basketball program this offseason.
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