ESPN College Hoops GameDay is Coming to Columbia!

Hello, two or three faithful readers! I’m finally back to writing about the MIssouri Tigers after a very nice end of summer vacation out in New Mexico. Another big thanks to Jack for keeping things going while I was away, and great work on the Big 12 opponent previews. I’m patiently biding my time until the basketball season rolls around, because as of now I don’t find much interest in practice reports and the constant rabble over where Sheldon Richardson is, although today is his first day of practice, meaning I addressed our long national nightmare a little bit too late.

So, while the real news of today will be about Sheldon Richardson finally putting in some work on the football field for all to see, the pumpkin sport recently has been informed of media mega-giant ESPN’s schedule for their basketball edition of College GameDay, and Columbia will be representing on February 4, when the Tigers will be hosting a certain fictional bird that apparently hails from the cornfield state and favors uncomfortable shoes with buckles on them.

"“What an honor to have GameDay come to Columbia,” Mizzou Head Coach Frank Haith said. “We are obviously proud of what we have to showcase here. We are incredibly excited about our current team and the future of this program. We have the finest on-campus basketball facility in America and we have an incredible fan base that will create great excitement around this event and this rivalry. This is a great opportunity for the nation to see what the Mizzou experience is all about.”Columbia will be one of eight stops for the College GameDay crew this season and five of those eight (Mizzou, Arizona, Florida State, Michigan and Vanderbilt) are first-time hosts.[MUTigers.com]"

Last time an ESPN Gameday crew came to the University of MIssouri, records were broken, loud noises were made, and eventually a good chunk of fans stormed the field after the Tigers took down number one Oklahoma for the first time in over a decade. Before that, Missouri was representing half of the GameDay crowd for the MU/KU Armageddon in 2007, which the Tigers always emerged from victorious. Now I’m not saying GameDay makes the Tigers invincible (Chase Daniel and Co. were rocked by the Texas Longhorns in 2008, albeit at Texas), but their recent history, especially in the state of Missouri, at least makes it clear that the fans are ready to cheer for the cameras and the players usually show up when the lights are the brightest. This clearly can’t be mutual to different years, different players, or different sports, but hopefully our Tigers can make the most of their primetime game. The Jayhawks have crushed the Tigers in every game since Zaire Taylor hit the game-winning shot in February of 2009. The closest loss came at home last year, when CBS decided to move on to a new game.

Personally, I’m looking forward to attending both College GameDay and the game itself next year (it will be my first ever MU/KU game that I’ve seen live and in person), despite the constant nags that I have towards Kansas, who always manages to reload no matter how much talent they lose from year to year. Hopefully, in the very least, Missouri can give the Jayhawks a run for their money this coming February, and hopefully pull out a win as well. And hey, a blowout win would be perfectly acceptable as well.