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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Practices have looked different, looked like the difference, for the Missouri men’s basketball team lately.

The most obvious thing about the 2025-26 Tigers, when walking into a gym with them, is the continuity — the lack of differentiation from last season. Power forward Mark Mitchell and point guard Anthony Robinson II are back as the stars. They’ve got returners like wings Trent Pierce and Jacob Crews around them. For all the turnover and movement of modern college sports, there are a lot of familiar faces within Mizzou Arena.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz just might be a popular invite to this season’s coaching carousel, but he has a lot of reasons not to accept a ticket to ride.

The 2025 college football season is only halfway gone, and nine Football Bowl Subdivision programs have fired their coaches. In a post-House settlement financial landscape that looks a little bit more stable for university athletic departments, there are likely to be a good handful more openings.

On Sunday, one of the preseason mileposts college basketball diehards have been anxiously awaiting finally arrived: Ken Pomeroy released his preseason rankings of all 365 Division I men's basketball teams.

KenPom is considered the gold standard of college basketball analytics.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Make that two Monday recruiting flips for Missouri football.

Two defensive backs who'd been committed to other programs switched their verbal pledges to the Tigers on Monday.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — After all the ups and downs of Missouri’s Saturday showdown with Alabama, from a breezy touchdown drive to open the game to a brutal interception to end it, what changed in the big picture for the Tigers?

As far as this season is concerned, not much.

On Alabama’s second play of the day, Mizzou’s Daylan Carnell knocked the daylights out of a Crimson Tide receiver — oh, on a screen pass behind the line of scrimmage, too. Should’ve been third-and-15 on Bama’s 17.

But ...

The number that matters most from Missouri's Saturday test against Alabama: 27-24, which was the score in favor of the Crimson Tide. The statistics, however, paint a more nuanced portrait.

There's some ugliness, like uncharacteristic patterns within the Tigers' run game and the quarterbacking numbers. There are some positives, like edge rusher production and some marathon performances on defense.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Connor Tollison knew where it went wrong for Missouri.

The center is in his fifth year with the Tigers, so he’s been around the program’s other brushes with Southeastern Conference blue bloods. Georgia in 2022. Louisiana State and Georgia in 2023. Alabama in 2024.

COLUMBIA — When Alabama needed a play to change the trajectory of the game, particularly in the second half, it put the ball in the hands of its best player and quarterback Ty Simpson. When Mizzou desperately needed a play to tilt momentum and ignite its offense in the fourth quarter of a tight game, its best player and running back Ahmad Hardy didn’t get the ball.

That’ll be one of the lasting painful memories from Saturday’s loss in the biggest game for Mizzou so far this season.