Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning presented by Will Ga...
1) Mizzou should make the 2024 athletic department slogan "All in on Eli Drinkwitz." Since the end of the Cotton Bowl on December 29, here's what has happened:
A men's basketball win over Central Arkansas followed by 19 consecutive losses
Two wins in 17 games for the women's basketball team led by a coach with one year remaining on her contract who appears safe mainly because there is no one in place to make the decision to fire and replace her
A wrestling season seemingly derailed by illness and injury
A baseball season off to a borderline disastrous 9-11 start (at least they beat Kansas?)
The departure of an athletic director for an indisputably worse job due, by all appearances, mostly to her inability to get along with/tolerate the University's Board of Curators.
But, hey, at least gymnastics and softball (this weekend notwithstanding) are pretty good
2) It's the last part of point one that I want to talk about here. Because it's really the main reason for the first part of point one. Bad seasons happen. There's no reason men's basketball should have been this bad, but at this point, whatever. Women's basketball we all have kind of known where this was going since the "NCAA Tournament or else" directive 12 months ago. Even Brian Smith can't control health. Nobody should have been expecting Kerrick Jackson to be a miracle worker.
So the results on the field/court/etc obviously haven't been good. But they're not the big problem. The big problem is that this is all happening aboard what appears to be a rudderless ship right now.
Desiree Reed-Francois was named the Arizona athletic director exactly four weeks ago. Since then here's what we know has happened:
Missouri has hired TurnKeyZRG to assist an 11-person search committee.
That's it. That's what we know. And some people will say that's a good thing. The search should be silent. I won't even argue with you there. We don't have to know about the candidates. But it would be nice to know SOMETHING.
The Board of Curators has held two meetings since DRF left. We have no idea if they have had anything to do with ironing out her departure or finding a replacement because nobody from the Board of Curators ever speaks outside of prewritten releases in which every word is scrutinized and laundered. They did sent out a release about renaming a building for former Senator Roy Blunt. But that's it. System President Mun Choi? Don't know. Haven't heard a word out of him. Interim Director of Athletics Marcy Girton? I've been told she isn't supposed to do interviews.
There are a million questions to be answered. Reed-Francois wants half of her buyout forgiven. Is that going to happen? If so, why in the world would Missouri agree to that? (The logical answer, by the way, is to acknowledge that $1.5 million for what it would be: Hush money. Just forget about that cash, we'll both continue to be completely silent and hopefully all the talk will just go away eventually). Why would she leave for a worse job to lead an athletic department in what appears to be financial ruin? Was there irreparable conflict between her and the board? If so, why? Is Robin Pingeton safe simply because there's nobody to tell her she's not and find her replacement? Why does it take 11 people to hire one person? What's Choi's role in all of this? We know he's not part of the search committee, but is that normal? Who's actually going to hire the new athletic director? Should there be concern about who is going to want to take the job given the fact that Missouri has now had four people in that role in the last nine years and there's a lot of talk that the AD (no matter who it is) and the BOC can't seem to work together very well?
The University of Missouri athletic department is largely funded by donations from fans. More so now than ever because they're asking those same donors who help pay for scholarships and fancy buildings and salaries to also be responsible for paying the players. The way to be good? Open up those checkbooks and buy us some talent. Given that, don't you guys deserve some answers on exactly who the hell is in charge and what the hell is happening? Shouldn't SOMEONE answer a question now and again? Shouldn't there be some avenue through which there can be some accountability and transparency?
It sure doesn't seem like it. So we all wait. And hope Eli Drinkwitz can put together another magical football season. Because as long as he's winning, it causes most of us to pay very little attention to anything else. Maybe that's good enough. Put a winning football team out there and maybe we don't care why the AD left or who's in charge of hiring a new one or why they appear content to simply let Pingeton's contract run out. Seems unfair to Drinkwitz to me. But if you're only going to have one person doing his job at high level, at least it's the one the most people follow.
Charge on, Eli. All eyes are on you while everyone else operates in the shadows. No pressure.
By the way, if anybody's reading this (and I know some of you are), my email address is powermizzou@gmail.com and my Twitter DMs are open. There are people in the athletic department who can get you my cell phone number. If you want to talk, I'll listen. But I won't hold my breath.
3) Just because Missouri doesn't yet have an AD isn't necessarily a reason to panic. I don't want the above to indicate that nothing is happening on that front. Missouri is going to hire an AD.
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