Thanks to several blogs', including Big MO Sports, attempts to galvanize support for Norm Stewart in Rock M Nation's Mizzou 25 Coaches Tournament, Norm was able to make a remarkable comeback in the final days of the poll and actually accumulated more votes than wrestling coach Brian Smith.
But in a controversial decision, the writers at RMN ruled the contest a split decision. I gotta be honest, even though I wanted Norm to win this thing and he did technically get more votes, I think Smith was the rightful winner. I'd like to think that the efforts made by blogs like my own encouraged hundreds of people to head to the polls at RMN and vote for the Messiah of Mizzou hoops, but I suspect there was a good deal of ballot stuffing going on.
And although I felt Norm deserved to win, I admire the passion of the MU wrestling fans. For Brian Smith to get a considerably larger amount of votes than Norm Stewart on the most popular Mizzou blog on the web is really impressive. Even if I think their votes were off base, props to them and props to Rock M for an entertaining series. I thoroughly enjoyed both the Mizzou 25 players and coaches tournaments.
I have a plethora of baseball links to pass along to prep you for the NCAA Tournament, which begins tomorrow with the Tigers playing Ole Miss at 11 a.m. in Coral Gables, Fla.
- Aaron Crow is a 1st Team All-American. Shocker.
- There's gonna be some good arms down in Coral Gables this weekend.
- A pretty interesting Q&A with Tim Jamieson.
- And if you only read one of these, make it this in-depth profile of Jamieson by the Post-Dispatch's Vahe Gregorian. There's some fascinating stuff in there that I didn't know about Jamieson. My respect level really grew for the man after reading this story.
- And finally, the Tiger Team Store is now selling wine and cheese baskets. All I can say is it's about damn time. I've been waiting years to show my school spirit while toting around all of my wine and cheese. The team store also has 30 other new items for those that are interested.
