6/5/2023 basketball Edit

Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning (afternoon) presented by Will Garrett

Gabe DeArmond • PowerMizzou

Publisher

Gabe has covered the Tigers for PowerMizzou.com since August of 2003 and been the site's publisher since 2006.

1) Missouri hired a new baseball coach on Saturday night and introduced him on Monday morning (hence the delayed thoughts). Kerrick Jackson is not a clear home run of a hire. There's reason to hope. There's always reason to hope with a new guy. He might be great. He might not be. I have no idea. The truth is, anybody that would have wowed fans on day one probably wasn't attainable for Missouri. I don't know enough about college baseball to say where Missouri's job ranks nationally. But I know where it ranks in the SEC. The question for Mizzou really is whether it has value by association. Mizzou is in the SEC...but it's also the 14th (soon to be 16th) best job in the SEC. Does simply being in the SEC make it a top 30-40 job? Or is a job like, say, Indiana or Nebraska or pick pretty much any other Power Five program better because even though it might not be part of the best conference in the country, it's better in relation to the teams it's actually competing against? I don't know the answer to that question. It probably depends on the person you're asking.

2) There is one pretty clear advantage in the SEC and it's really good news for Missouri. You don't have to win the league (good for Mizzou because it is unlikely Mizzou will ever win this league). All you have to be in this league is middle of the road. Ole Miss was 14-16 in SEC play in 2022. It finished fifth...in the SEC West. And then it won the national title. Mississippi State was better than that in 2021, but still finished second in its division and third in the conference before winning the national title. The point is, Jackson's task isn't make Missouri into one of the top teams in the SEC. His task is simply make Missouri average in the SEC and then take your chances after that. Amazingly, it will be easier for Missouri to win a national championship in baseball than it will to win a conference title.

3) My main question going into Jackson's introduction on Monday morning was the same question I had walking out of it: What's the plan here?

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