Rock M Digest: Vol. 2, Issue 8

Oct 27, 2024 | Uncategorized

Written By

I’m no Photoshop wizard like Josh, but I think this looks pretty great | Karen Steger Designs

A weekly list of fantastic stories (and quotes) you may have missed this past week at Rock M Nation dot com

Welcome to Rock M Digest, a renewed weekly column where I, Madame Editor, share with you my must-read picks for the Rock M Nation content of the week. These stories made me think (sometimes too much), laugh, smile, cry… you get the picture. We’ve got a talented bunch of writers at this site, and since I have the distinct pleasure of reading all of it — I love reading it all, I swear — I want you, the readers, to know what you should be checking out if you don’t have time to read all the content. After all, we did put out 47 stories this week alone. And that’s not including podcasts (which I’ve linked to below) and Rock M+ content, which isn’t found on the main RMN page.

At the bottom, I’ve gathered up my favorite quotes of the week and presented them with no context. There is a link to the story included, and I highly recommend reading the stories that go along with them.

After a week off to celebrate Homecoming and finish up grading for my 8-week class, I’m back, babyyyyy. Let’s begin.

Rock M Recs

Five Takeaways from Mizzou Women’s Hoops Media Day

In the second of Dylan’s women’s basketball pieces this week — read the first one here — he shares some tidbits from media day and we learned that he (or me, really, as I thought the same thing) is not that great at the prediction business, ha! In this piece we learn of the Tigers’ center-pieces (get it?), an unlikely emergence at point guard, an increased focus on defense, a recommendation to get on board with the Laniah Randle hype train, and a reasoning behind the odd Vermont game to start the season. Well worth your time to check out both pieces, and I’m super excited to have both Dylan and Quentin on board to cover WBB this season.

The Legend of the Throwback – Brady the Uncommon

In Chad’s Wednesday Morning Commute, he discussed the Legend of Brady Cook, a phrase which he decided should be formally capitalized, “just like kansas should never be formally capitalized,” and how college football fans often romanticize their viewpoint of their team. We love our school, the kids that choose to come here, and we love how they fight for us and lay it on the line. But the transfer portal and NIL have changed things a bit, and players like Brady Cook don’t come around too often. Players who dreamed their whole lives of donning the black & gold.

Midterm Exams: How does the Corey Batoon defense grade

When Baker took off and five pieces left for the NFL draft, it was understandable that there would be questions about how cohesive a unit they would be under the new defensive man in charge, Corey Batoon. In this interesting piece by Nathan Hurst, he assigns grades to Corey Batoon in three areas— secondary performance, front seven performance and total defense.

Dennis Gates and the Missouri Tigers hope to have a big rebound season

Sam’s SEC previews have reached the Missouri Tigers, who were so unlucky last season that Ken Pomeroy (of KenPom.com) wrote a whole piece just on them. But that was last year, and now Dennis Gates has almost an entirely new team, made up what we hope will be some high-impact transfers like Iowa’s Tony Perkins, who averaged over 14ppg and Duke’s Mark Mitchell, a defensive menace and a “garbage man” offensively (per Sam), to go along with some high-upside freshmen. As a Mizzou Hoops fan, this is, of course, a MUST read.

Pregamin’ Alabama

Since no one really wants to read about the aftermath of that beatdown, let’s focus on the fun stuff, shall we? And Josh’s Pregamin’s are always fun. First he wonders if the Tigers have already blown their uniform reveal video budget, as we’ve now gone two weeks with no reveal, then goes down a rabbit hole of fun facts, like why Alabama is the only major university with a elephant mascot and what you cannot dress up as on Halloween in Tuscaloosa, In the questions portion, he asks the staff where the Auburn win ranks in the Mizzou 21st century pantheon, if the parallels of Mizzou-K State and how the season ended and Mizzou-Auburn are a thing and how Alabama’s doing without Mr Saban. (no need to read the pick em part, y’all)

Mizzou Hoops Player Previews

The season is right around the corner, and player previews continue. Since I missed a Digest last week, I’ll include those as well. Anthony Robinson II, who looks to lead the Tigers’ defensive renaissance, Marques Warrick, the active NCAA leader in points scored, and Aidan Shaw, who has reached an inflection point.

This week, the duo focused on Jacob Crews, the jump shooting specialist, Josh Gray, who brings the Tigers size on the interior and a strong rebounding presence (and a love of horses), and Caleb Grill, who will look for consistency in his sixth year.

Quotables

“Beard’s rise as one of the nation’s top coaches was a lot like the tale of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, and his wax wings melted. Maybe Beard didn’t fall into the sea and drown, but ending up as the coach for Ole Miss might be the closest thing. Okay, that’s an unnecessary shot, but perhaps there’s still a little sting for the program that did Andy Kennedy dirty.” —Sam Snelling (noted AK apologist), Ole Miss preview

Comparing this part of the season to the 2023/2024 season, the Tigers improved from #79 nationally to #57. Additionally, their two top three finishes coming in the fall campaign is HUGE for the morale of the team. The last time Missouri notched more than two top three finishes in an entire season was 2015-16. They have a prime opportunity to break this record when they co-host the MountainView Collegiate tournament in Tucson, Arizona to kick off the 2025 spring season.” —Rory Whetstone, Women’s Golf Fall Recap

I think this team is going to be just fine at 165lbs after Keegan O’Toole moved up. Cam Steed looked the part of a young wrestler with plenty of upside ready to break through, quickly getting a 21-6 tech fall over freshman Kolten Oborny with seven takedowns. He was able to score at will and stayed aggressive through the entire match (ending early in the second period), letting Oborny up after takedowns to immediately go after more points.’ —Matthew Gustafson, Black & Gold Wrestling recap

Continuing on the theme of, “what’s in that needle, again?” I’m not sure what it is that MU Health Care put into Brady Cook’s ankle, but his injury and improbable return had me thinking. Do you ever wonder what it would be like to bust your ankle in pre-human days? Like when a Cro-Magnon twisted his ankle chasing a Paleolithic Wild Boar? That was pretty much just a death sentence, right? No getting up and dusting it off. No alternating heat and cold treatments to protect the structure of the ligaments. Just the sweet release of death as you cry out in pain and another predator immediately jumps you and your busted ankle.” —Josh Matejka, The Revue

(Because it’s so ridiculous I had to pick two):Best Prospective NIL Deal— Forget Sugarfire. Forget Imo’s. The National Department of Health and Human Services needs Brady Cook to endorse whatever medicine it is they shot him up with. “Hi I’m Brady Cook, Mizzou Football starting quarterback. Have you ever been in a bad accident at work? In your car? Working around the house? Try [censored medicine] for fast-acting relief, a mild sense of euphoria, and the temporary power of the Grecian Titans.” —The Revue

Hot Shots

In this week’s Hot Shots, we’ve got shots from T-Town from Cal (and a special cover photo from Quentin), men’s hoops from Mike, and volleyball photos from Cal.

Listen Up!

Here’s what you may have missed podcast-wise on the Olympic Sports and football fronts.

Another episode of my podcast Majority Rules recorded, where Matthew, Dylan, Rory and I chatting about the continued awesomeness of women’s sports teams. Soccer is coming off a big win vs. Oklahoma and has just two matches left (one now) to qualify for their first NCAA Tourney since 2018, Volleyball continues to KILL it, Softball’s fall ball offensive explosion continues, women’s golf shows massive improvement, women’s swim & dive re-enters the rankings for the first time in over a year, and so much more. Oh, and hear from Abigail, who chimes in remotely with some fun cross country updates, too!

Last week, Matthew recorded a new episode of Over the Net with Mizzou Director of Volleyball Operations, Emily Garrett.

In perhaps the greatest Beyond the Box Score episode ever recorded, the Nates (Edwards & Hurst) are on a h-e-a-t-e-r in the aftermath of Mizzou’s Homecoming win.

In a new preview episode of Before the Box Score, the Nates reconvene to preview Mizzou-Alabama.

Mizzou Sports this Week:

Sun, Oct 27: VB AT OU, 2pm | SOC v. LSU, 7pm

Mon, Oct 28: M-GOLF AT The Clerico (Tulsa)

Tues, Oct 29: WBB exh v. Truman, 6pm | M-GOLF AT The Clerico (Day 2) |

Wed, Oct 30: SB v. Central Methodist, 6pm

Thur, Oct 31: Tennis AT TCU Invite

Fri, Nov 1: S&D v. A&M, 11am | XC AT SEC Champs | VB AT TX, 8pm | WR AT N. COL, 7pm

Sat, Nov 2: Gym intrasquad (donor)

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