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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Sixteen teams contain more than a few lessons to be learned.

Missouri men’s basketball is spending the Sweet 16 weekend on its collective, metaphorical couch, exactly where the Tigers have been for this weekend every March since 2009.

After 19 straight losses to close out the 2023-24 season, Mizzou feels a long way from the talent-laden programs battling their way into one of sports’ most iconic weekends. And yes, quite a bit separates MU from Duke, which has been to more Sweet 16s (nine) since Missouri’s last one than Mizzou has ever been to.

But there’s still something for the Tigers to take away from the teams that have made it to this point — less from the traditional powerhouses and more from the other teams that have grown in stature over the past few years.

There’s Iowa State, a No. 2 seed not far removed from a winless conference season of its own. There’s Clemson, which built an experienced, resilient roster. And there’s North Carolina State, the lowest remaining seed in the NCAA Tournament, which is working through a unique style of playmaker.

Each has a lesson Mizzou could learn, and roster-building is at the core of each.

Iowa State: Right combination of stars, style

The Cyclones won two games in the 2020-21 season, one of college basketball’s stranger seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and went on an 0-18 run against Big 12 opponents.

Three seasons later, they’re one of the nation’s best teams.

What changed? Start with defense.

Iowa State has the country’s best defense, according to KenPom’s adjusted efficiency rankings. It’s not just analytics that love the Cyclones either: In defensive counting stats, they’re the best among major programs in steals per game and fourth in points allowed.

Key to that success are guards Keshon Gilbert and Tamin Lipsey. Both have produced remarkably similar, well-rounded stat lines this season. They each score roughly 13 points per game, grab four or five rebounds, assist four or five teammates’ baskets, and come away with about two steals each game.

That’s valuable — and certainly makes the system go. And where did Iowa State find those twin engines?

Gilbert, who won a title with Vashon in his high school days, transferred from UNLV, where he was flashing a similar statistical style. Lipsey is a homegrown talent who broke out as a freshman and continued his rise this season.

The lesson: Identifying personnel who can combine to create a dominant style pays off.

Clemson: Experience matters

It’s not just that they’re the Tigers too. There are more parallels.

The 2021-22 season saw Clemson finish 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference, going 8-12 in league play. Out the door went point guard Nick Honor, who transferred to Mizzou. And in came a big four-member recruiting class.

Now, the orange-and-purple Tigers are relying on experience and development to hit their stride.

There’s PJ Hall, who’s spent his entire career at Clemson and evolved into a tournament team’s leading scorer. And there’s Joseph Girard III, who transferred from Syracuse, and is shooting 41% from 3-point range and an eye-popping 95% from the free-throw line.

Clemson’s offense and defense are fitting of an NCAA Tournament-caliber team, statistically, but don’t leap off the page. What’s interesting are some of the Tigers’ roster-building metrics.

According to KenPom, Clemson is 26th in the country in Division I experience and fifth among Sweet 16 teams in continuity. Being 20th in average height doesn’t hurt either.

The lesson: Getting a program to a point where developed recruits and timely portal adds can mesh through experience is a successful stage.

NC State: Meshing playmakers, role playersThe fun in watching NC State has been watching forward DJ Burns, the smooth-operating post player who has captured hearts during the 11th-seeded Wolfpack’s run to the second weekend of the tournament.

He’s not just a novelty, though — he’s the heartbeat of NC State’s offense.

When Burns was on the floor against ACC opponents, he took 31.2% of the Wolfpack’s shots, according to KenPom, the third-most of anyone in the conference. His assist rate of nearly 25% also means he helps NC State keep the ball moving, too.

He’s the focal point but not the only contributor. The Wolfpack has benefited from the addition of role players like former Missouri forward Mo Diarra who provide some niche help in smaller capacities.

Diarra has started roughly half of NC State’s games and averages 21.5 minutes per game. He’s attempting about twice as many shots as he did with the Tigers and making them at a slightly better clip. His biggest leap forward has been as a rebounder.

Diarra is grabbing 31% of available defensive rebounds when he’s on the floor this year, the third-best rate in the nation.

He plays well in tandem with Burns. When that duo is on the floor, NC State comes away with 74.6% of defensive rebounds, which falls into the 86th percentile according to CBB Analytics,

The lesson: Playmakers can be unique, but there’s value in defined role players.

Other lessons

A couple of other trends stand out about these three Sweet 16 teams:

All are at least close to the so-called a visualized analytics profile that captures which teams play well at varied tempos. NC State isn’t quite on par with Clemson and Iowa State in that regard, but all three programs have the ability to adjust style to their opponents, which is helpful in a tournament setting.

The assist-to-turnover ratio — a key stat of interest to MU coach Dennis Gates — of all three teams is solidly positive. Iowa State ranks 31st in the nation with a ratio of 1.52 assists to every turnover, Clemson is 39th with a 1.45 and NC State is 62nd at 1.37.

That’s a significant jump from Mizzou, which finished with an assist-to-turnover ratio of just 1.05, good for 215th.

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Bring your Tigers football, basketball and recruiting questions, and talk to Eli Hoff in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Live transcript

Eli Hoff:ÌýMorning all! Happy baseball opening day to those of you partaking today... unless you're a Cardinals fan? But hey, today's the day to remain optimistic. Let's get to your questions.

²ú¾±²µ°ù´Ç²Ô:ÌýEli, anything new on the portal either coming or going?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThere haven't been any big developments on the transfer portal front this week. Jacob Crews has officially signed, so that deal is done. Mabor Majak and Curt Lewis are in the portal. I've seen reports that Jesus Carralero Martin was planning to enter, but the last I'd checked, he hadn't done that and it seemed like there was a chance he wouldn't. So I'd say there's still a TBD on the exit front. The coaching staff has been in contact with plenty of players, but there's a lot of tape to go through, a lot of calls to make and the season isn't even over yet for everyone. It seems like the churn of entries into the portal is yielding to a slower matching process this year. The coaching carousel was the more dominant bit of movement this week. That slowing down and the NCAA Tournament spitting out more teams should bring around more portal commitments soon.

³Ù³ó±ð²Ñ¾±³¦°ì:ÌýGood morning Eli, The Drink recently said Mizzou will be active in the spring portal, which opens soon. Perhaps there will be multiple subtractions followed by additions. I look at the current roster and foresee depth issues on the O-line and at linebacker. What do you think? Are there other positions that need a bolster for experience and/or depth?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýYes, Mizzou will be active in the portal, as Drinkwitz said. I think offensive line is the most interesting spot to consider for a possible add. After he told reporters that MU would be active, I asked him whether he felt the fifth O-line starter could be on the roster now. "I think we could — and I think we could have one come out of the portal, too," he told me. So that's certainly a spot to watch.

Depth in the trenches in general is always valuable. Given the injuries at linebacker last year, you're right to pinpoint that area as well. Maybe the staff wants to get a bit more competition at cornerback. Overall, though, it will probably be a "best available" portal window, where Drinkwitz et al are looking for a couple spots and open to anyone of a certain caliber who wants to come compete at Mizzou.

I wrote this piece about the portal and the offensive line that is probably of interest.

senior scramble:ÌýSo I sent an email to an administrator at Mizzou and asked them is coach P is still the coach. They said as of now. That is crazy either keep her 100% so she can hit the portal or go after a new coach. The program is stuck and can't move forward. How incompetent is this situation. If you're going to compete in the SEC you must have a solid direction and in this case, there is no direction. I feel so bad for those good young players. So far as I know none of them have entered the portal. I can safely say the mens program wouldn't been treated like this.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýIt's nearing the point where any move made on the coaching front is too late to be able to do anything of value in the transfer portal. It seems like the interim administration is not going to dismiss Pingeton. There's still the chance that the new AD makes a quick call and does that. But let's say the new AD starts on Monday (that won't happen)... how much of the portal would be salvageable even at that point? It seems like the path forward will have to be using the last year of Pingeton's contract, barring any striking action. Hayley Frank is done. Mama Dembele is opting to play her last year at South Florida. There haven't been any other exits yet, but it looks like the current trajectory will set a step back even from last season's last-place finish.

°­±ð±¹¾±²Ô:ÌýDoes Dennis Gates have to have a bounce back season in order to keep his job? If things go south early, how hot does his seat get?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýThat's a question I'll be asking of the new AD, since that's who will set the expectation. Really, any sort of season will be a bounce back from this one. Even just one win in SEC play would, in a purely literal sense, be an upgrade.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — He’s back in the state and the business.

Former Mizzou men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin was hired Wednesday to the same post at Missouri State, one of his previous head coaching stops.

It’s Martin’s first coaching gig since MU parted ways with him in March 2022 following five years in Columbia.

His return to Springfield is an interesting one, given that he’d started his head coaching career with the Bears back in 2008. He’d won a Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title with Missouri State during the 2010-2011 season, his last there before stops at Tennessee and California.

Martin replaces Dana Ford, who went 106-82 in six seasons. He was fired earlier this month following a season marked by poor attendance and a swift conference tournament exit to top-seeded Indiana State.

Missouri State gave Martin a five-year deal with a base salary of $600,000, per a news release, and incentives for tournament appearances and conference championships.

Martin was 61–41 in his first stint with the Bears and holds a 264-198 career record across 14 seasons, with four NCAA Tournament appearances.

He led the Bears to their most recent Missouri Valley Conference title in 2011 and an NIT berth. Missouri State has not made the NCAA Tournament since 1999.

He joined accomplished company by taking Mizzou to the tournament in the 2017-2018 season, his first leading the Tigers. That season was defined in large part by the unavailability of top recruit Michael Porter Jr., who committed to MU shortly after Martin’s hire.

Martin finished one game above .500 with the Tigers. Then-athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois fired Martin after a 2022 campaign that saw decreased attendance and struggles to break through in the Southeastern Conference.

Raised in East ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Martin played for Purdue during his college days. While out of the coaching realm, he recorded the “It All Countsâ€� podcast, where he spoke with guests about leadership and personal development.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — There’s a narrow, winding stretch of asphalt situated between Missouri’s new indoor practice facility and the southwest corner of Memorial Stadium.

Before home games, Marching Mizzou and fans line its curbs, forming a brassy gauntlet for the players and coaches who shuffle their feet down the steep hill on their way inside the stadium. On other days, cars make a double-axled clang-clang as they pass over a drain cut into the surface.

During the Friday pro day workouts for former Tigers hoping to land with NFL teams, there was a steady stream of business cutting across this glorified driveway. Off the indoor practice field, through the throng of agents, reporters and family in the facility lobby, across the pavement, and into Faurot Field’s South End Zone headquarters they went: prospects and pro teams’ representatives, sometimes already engaged in conversation.

The NFL draft process is a multifaceted one for these budding professionals. Their game film has long been established. So are their stats. The workouts and drills emblematic of the skill combine are still happening, sometimes in public, sometimes in private.

But just as important — if not more important — are the interviews, the meetings, the conversations that take place between prospects and the 32 potential employers within the NFL. That’s where pitches and promises flow in a more personal fashion.

Some of Mizzou’s prospects have likened the broader ordeal to one really big, really important job interview. These meetings are certainly that.

Players and teams could duck away for those chats during pro day, with groups finding quiet areas of the program’s facility to talk. Leaving the stadium after some of these meetings, for example, cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine said he’d sat down with at least five teams just around that workout.

Teams could be looking for any number of things during those conversations. Abrams-Draine has concluded that “they know everything about you, but they just want to see if you tell the truth or not.� There could be explanation of injuries, in the case of cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr.

And for seemingly every player, there’s a chance to deliver the big pitch.

The Post-Dispatch asked some Missouri pro day participants that deceptively difficult question that’s apropos of any job interview: Why should an NFL team draft or sign you?

“I’m highly productive,� running back Cody Schrader said. “From high school to Truman, Division II, Division I, I’ve been nothing but productive. I help build cultures. I’m a great locker room, teammate guy, so I’m not just a football player. I can help build an organization and help be a part of something special.�

The Lutheran South product who won the Burlsworth Trophy last season while setting a new MU single-season rushing record rattled that off easily — it was clearly not the first time he’d thought out his case for landing in the NFL.

And he’s a player who needs a good elevator pitch. Because he spent six years at the college level — four at Truman State, two with the Tigers — his age and mileage are knocks, even in a running back class seen as weak by NFL draft analysts.

The impacts of that are up to front offices to decide. But the production he cites is undeniable. Across all levels of college football, Schrader finished his career third among active running backs in all-purpose yards. He’d racked up more than 6,700 yards in high school, with 99 touchdowns. The volume and numbers are there.

In terms of a locker room presence, Schrader’s journey — underrecruited Division II player to walk on at the bottom of the depth chart to the Southeastern Conference’s leading back — is still held up as an example by Mizzou coaches as a testament of what hard work and buy-in can yield.

Rakestraw, who’s gotten some first-round buzz, is in a different situation. A groin injury that required offseason surgery has also limited what he’s shown in workouts and tests. His pitch, then, is a little more of a redirection.

“Film speaks for itself,� Rakestraw said. “I’ve been here four years; I got a lot of film to show them I’m fast, show them I’m quick, twitchy. They’re going off that. Obviously, they know my situation. A lot of them are just proud that I decided to come here and try to compete and more amazed that I’ve been dealing with this the whole season last year.�

And he’s not the only one who’s pointing to game performances. Offensive lineman Xavier Delgado, who had a lengthy run as a starter, hasn’t received the combine invites or draft hype of others. With his experience, he’s marketing himself as “someone that’s consistent, reliable.�

“I feel like my tape speaks for that,� he said. “This whole season, I was consistent in my play — never really wavered.�

Abrams-Draine is a player with a unique pitch. He played mostly wide receiver in high school, where he switched positions to be a dual-threat-but-run-heavy quarterback during his senior year. He enrolled at MU as a wide receiver but switched sides of the ball to cornerback after his freshman season.

That centers his pitch around novelty.

“I feel like a team should be interested in me because — I don’t want to say I’m new to the position now, but I just started playing defense three years ago, and I feel like I was one of the cornerbacks in the nation this year,� Abrams-Draine said.

The NFL draft begins April 25. Players will continue meeting with teams before the event.

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For generations, the Southeastern Conference has led the way in athletics excellence while showcasing an over-the-top steadfastness to defy competitors.

For generations, the Southeastern Conference has trailed in racial progress while showcasing an over-the-top steadfastness to defy change.

Consider that until this season, the SEC never had a Black head baseball coach.

“It’s the good and the bad of it, right?� asked Kerrick Jackson, a historic hire as head baseball coach for Mizzou, set to play Illinois on Tuesday at Grizzlies Ballpark in Sauget. “It’s the good that we’re breaking glass ceilings in that there are more opportunities for minority coaches at higher levels. It’s the bad that it’s 2024 and we’re talking about firsts.

“For me, what I do understand is it’s my responsibility to have success so that more opportunities come for other coaches that are minority coaches down the road.�

Of course, Mizzou hired Jackson because he’s an elite coach. The 1992 Kirkwood High graduate has grown a resplendent resume over the decades. But because he’s also Black, the hiring is a statement to the SEC: The status quo is not acceptable, regardless of how much money these baseball programs rake in as their sluggers rake home runs.

Mizzou alumni and fans should be proud that their school is the one that made the history.

And the hiring should have positive reverberations across the South.

In fact, it literally could change the game.

“I think there are now going to be more minority players playing in the league,� said Jackson, 50. “From a recruiting standpoint, teams in our league will recognize the idea of me being a minority coach — and that being something that more minority players may be attracted to — so now I think you’ll see more growth in some of our teams across the board because they don’t want me to have the advantage. ‘Don’t go there just because he’s a minority coach. We have minority players, too.’ So I think that’s a positive. I think you’re going to see more minority kids playing in our league at a high level, not just here but other places.

“And then, just to create more opportunities. Our staff is very diverse. ... We’re not getting them just because they’re minorities but because they’re the right folks for the position and happen to be minorities. So for me to see that growth across the league? I think we will see that take place.�

The SEC can be a cruel ecosystem, even from a fans standpoint. There was the infamous time in 1987, at the SEC tournament, when a Mississippi State fan viciously taunted Black LSU star Albert Belle from a small hill behind the outfield fence. Belle lost his cool and actually went after the fan.

When Jackson got the gig with Mizzou, he told his wife to “stay off social media.� He knew there would be negativity spewed there by people who didn’t even know him — but did know his ethnicity.

“And I think about my sons,� the coach said. “They’re 12 and 11. I think about the impact (social media) could have on them — and in this society, where we are now, people can make comments in anonymity and not have to own their comments. They just say hateful things and try and degrade people.�

I asked Jackson on Monday if he hoped to change the narrative in the SEC by coaching baseball with dignity and winning a bunch of ballgames. His candid answer stuck with me all day.

“The idea of creating a new narrative is there, (but) people that are racist and have negative views, you’re not going to change that,� Jackson said. “They are who they are; they believe what they believe. What I do recognize and have recognized in the past is: Regardless of how successful you are, if someone has something against you there, it’s going to be held against you. And so, for me, it’s more the idea of going out and having success and doing things at a high level of representing from a professional standpoint — (and doing so) for those who aspire to be in this position.

“Like, if I can be inspiring to any young minority kids that want to coach or young minority kids that are wanting to play this game — (it’s important) that they see there’s a passage, there’s a way that you can go about it, there’s a way that you handle yourself in those situations. My motivation is more for them than it is for the naysayers.�

It’s way too early to know if Jackson will be a winner at Mizzou. So far in his first year, the club is 10-14. But Jackson yearned for the job, always wanted the Mizzou job specifically. This was his desired destination (he had been a Mizzou assistant from 2010 to 2015). Being the first Black coach in the SEC is special to him, but he wanted to be at Mizzou, regardless of Mizzou’s conference.

“This is a special place,� he said. “That’s why it’s always been my dream job to represent the state at the flagship institution — and do it at a very high level.�

There are hurdles. Former coach Steve Bieser once told the Post-Dispatch that the 2022 operations budget ($700,600) was 46% of the SEC average. And there are just some juggernauts across the South.

But Jackson seems like the right man to change things at Mizzou. And in doing so, also in the SEC.

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