Beginning of the Week Links

A few links I ran across this afternoon:

• In Bryan Burwell's Sunday column he mentions that Justin Safford has been raising eyebrows of a few NBA scouts who think he might have some potential as a late round draft pick in a few years. If you would have asked me in December what the chances were of that happening I'd have told you Jason Horton had a better chance of averaging in double figures. Safford has suddenly become the brightest spot in an otherwise gloomy season for MU.

• Burwell also wrote a superb piece in today's edition of the Post-Dispatch on the past of Stefhon Hannah. I never understood why so many Tiger fans bash Burwell so often. I've always loved him. At any rate, he's much better than "Jaba the Miklasz." But really great reporting here by Burwell. You can tell he put a lot of work into this article. Hannah's reputation sure has taken a hit in the past year. Everyone I've talked to that has covered the team has told me he's rude to the media and coach Anderson has publicly questioned his leadership and character in the past. I don't like labeling a player a thug just for trying to stay true to the people that have been with him from the start but I think Anderson's quote at the end of this article might reveal a lot about the kind of person Stefhon is: 
  "Sometimes it ain't the place or the culture. Sometime's it's just the person."

• Nice blog post by Graham Watson. MU's underclassmen could learn a lot by looking at what the seniors on the football team did in their four years to change the culture of the football program.

• This is late but Dave Matter's breakdown of signing day last week was excellent. You gotta love Matter. His coverage of the football team this season was probably about as good as it could have possibly been and it's continued into the offseason. I found Gary Pinkel's quote about how his staff evaluates players particularly interesting: 
  "I believe in how we evaluate. I can’t express that more clearly. I believe in our evaluation system, my staff and how hard we work at this. We go through 18 tough questions to find out everything internally about that player. We get a physical rating, a height-weight-speed rating, a high school coach’s rating, a Missouri position coach’s rating … an athletic ability rating. We get all these things to present all this information to each coach, and we vote whether we’re going to go with it. One thing we never do is ask if he’s all-state, all-county, all-conference or if he’s a nine-star or one-star. It never comes up. We do what we do and believe in.”

• Another Matter piece, this one on Tiger's five-star QB signee Blaine Gabbert. I've been hesitant to buy into the hype surrounding this guy because of his lack of success in actual games but the more I read about him the more I believe he's got what it takes to succeed at the next level.