Mizzou center Jordan Butler enters transfer portal (2024)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The offseason roster churn continues for Missouri men's basketball. But this time, it's through the exit.

Mizzou center Jordan Butler has entered the transfer portal, a program spokesperson confirmed Friday night. The 7-footer played his freshman season with the Tigers but will now seek a change of scenery.

It's more of a surprising departure than the other MU players who have entered the portal so far this offseason, though Butler's limited production and the harsh reality that Missouri needs upgrades from its winless run through Southeastern Conference play are likely to assuage any significant concerns.

Butler appeared in 30 games during his first season college basketball, starting 13. He became Mizzou's starting center almost by default as Connor Vanover, Aidan Shaw and other big men struggled to hold down the role with any sort of consistency.

Butler averaged 2 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game, finishing 39.7% on field goal attempts.

He seemed to adjust gradually to the pace of college basketball, learning how to defend in the post without fouling. After fouling out in three consecutive appearances between March 10 and March 20, Butler managed to avoid significant foul trouble in the final six games of the season.

He played only two minutes in the Tigers' SEC tournament loss to Georgia after injuring his ankle in a practice.

Coach Dennis Gates has two centers entering the program as part of a highly ranked freshman class: Peyton Marshall and 7-2 Trent Burns. The Tigers are still contenders to add center Jevon Porter through the transfer portal yet this offseason.

That situation was likely to challenge Butler's hold on the starting center role.

Butler's departure may accelerate the timeframe for Marshall and Burns to be needed contributors, barring further unexpected portal activity. His exit could also be viewed as a check against the recruit-and-develop program-building philosophy leveraged by Gates, though the modern era of college sports also suggests transfer portal turnover is expected — and after last season's SEC play debacle, perhaps necessary.

Guard John Tonje, center Mabor Majak, forward Jesus Carralero Martin and guard Curt Lewis have also left Missouri this offseason. Between a five-player freshman class and four portal acquisitions to date, the Tigers are set to have nine newcomers on the roster next fall.

Years of political bickering have kept sports betting outlawed in Missouri while all but one of its eight bordering states have approved the activity, but it now seems likely that voters will decide its legality in November.

“Winning for Missouri Education,” a group that has received funding from sportsbook behemoths DraftKings and FanDuel, announced this week that more than 300,000 signatures have been collected in its initiative-petition campaign to put the issue before Missouri voters as a constitutional amendment. To put the measure on the ballot, approximately 180,000 valid signatures must be submitted to the Missouri Secretary of State by May 5.

Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the group, said signatures still are being collected and the goal is to have about 325,000 by the deadline.

“The tremendous support we’ve seen throughout the state is a testament to Missourians’ readiness to bring sports betting (tax) revenue home and support our local schools, students and teachers in the process,” he said in a statement. “As the campaign approaches our goal of putting this on the November ballot, Missouri is a step closer to allowing Missouri adults to bet on sports, while generating tens of millions in annual funding for our classrooms.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court nearly six years ago struck down a federal ban on sports betting in most locations, allowing states to determine if they want it, 38 have approved it and Oklahoma is the only Missouri neighbor where it remains illegal.

The drive to legalize sports betting in Missouri has been supported by its major pro sports teams, which would be eligible for a license to book bets if they play in a venue with at least 11,500 seats. If approved, they could take wagers either on site or online. Missouri’s 13 casinos also could offer such betting, as well as two additional online operators not physically in the state.

But not everyone agrees. Denny Hoskins, a Republican state senator from Warrensburg who has blocked the advancement of sports-betting bills in the past, was asked at a news conference about his feelings regarding the issue moving closer to a statewide vote.

“I’m not against putting that question on the ballot, but I’ve consistently said that the ballot language that they are using I believe does not best serve the people of Missouri,” he said, adding that he thinks the tax rate of 10% is too low and “there’s not enough money in there for problem compulsive gambling, which is going to be caused by the legalization of sports betting here in the state. This is definitely a golden ticket for all of the casinos and professional sports teams.”

He added that casinos would make “another $25 million in net profit going to their bottom line. ... I want to make sure that there is enough money in there to help any problems they cause with ... compulsive gambling.”

The Missouri House of Representatives has sent sports gambling bills to the Senate in multiple recent sessions to no avail, and it seems unlikely that anything will pass in this year’s term that ends May 17. The bills have been tied to the controversial issue of attempting to legalize gambling machines in gas stations and other public places outside of casinos that has been pushed by Hoskins. If the initiative petition drive is successful, the ballot question only would be about legalizing sports betting. It would not address the unregulated machines that have infiltrated the state, which the Missouri Gaming Commission previously said were illegal.

Hoskins continues to support uniting the issues.

“I think that is the best plan if we combine those two together,” he said. “... I think a legislative plan would be better, but we’ve gone down that road and unfortunately the casinos kill any sort of compromise we try to come up with.”

Hoskins said there is an estimate that under the proposed sports betting amendment “Missouri will actually receive zero dollars going toward education, and already ... none of those additional funds can go to our veterans homes and veterans cemeteries — unlike video lottery terminals, which has a significant amount of fees that can send over $30 million to our veterans homes and cemeteries.”

“Winning for Missouri Education” counters by saying that legalized sports betting would “generate tens of millions of dollars for Missouri public education.”

Maryland, a state very similar in population size to Missouri, has legalized sports betting and its operators booked $536.7 million in wagers on athletics in March. After payouts to winners and other expenses, the sportsbooks there turned a profit of $32.4 million. With a tax rate of 15% on that final figure, the state took in $4.85 million in sports-betting revenue for the month.

ROLLA, Mo. — Eli Drinkwitz tried to avoid standing in the middle for the picture.

As he and several University of Missouri administrators were arranging themselves for a posed photo in front of splashy renderings showing the planned $250 million Memorial Stadium renovations, the football coach attempted to slide over to the side of the group. But UM System President and MU Chancellor Mun Choi shifted him to the center with the square technique of an offensive lineman.

Get in the spotlight, the moment seemed to say, but not as loudly as the project itself did.

With Drinkwitz involved in the design process and an invaluable asset that gave the Board of Curators reason to splash cash at this scale in the first place, a quarter of a billion dollars is the latest and most pressing investment in the fifth-year coach.

He knows it, too.

When Drinkwitz took to a lectern inside a Missouri S&T conference room to address UM System leaders and media, he brought handwritten notes with him, thoughts jotted onto lined notebook paper.

Glancing at those folded pages, he called the poster-size renderings lining the room a “big dream and bold investment.”

“I was hired in December of 2019 with the same mindset,” Drinkwitz said. “Our program wanted to deliver results worthy of the investment that the Board (of Curators) had for us. That’s the same mindset we have today: We want to be worthy of the investment.”

That’s his next challenge.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words the level of excitement that I have,” Drinkwitz said after Thursday’s meeting, “but also the level of responsibility that we have.”

And, as he later added: “Not only as a coach but as the staff and our players, we got to work really hard to make sure the shareholders get a return on that investment.”

To this point, returns on Drinkwitz have largely been measured in wins and losses. The jury was out through his first three seasons until a decisive fourth campaign — last year’s 11 wins and Cotton Bowl victory — significantly raised his standing within Mizzou.

After Drinkwitz was named the Southeastern Conference’s Coach of the Year for that performance, the Curators gave him a significant raise to jump his salary from $6 million to $9 million, a number that will rise annually through the duration of the new five-year deal.

That investment is tethered to on-field results, with the freshly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff looming in the minds of more than a few Mizzou folks. Drinkwitz isn’t calling that the bar for success, though.

“We haven’t even set those conversations in motion,” he said at an offseason caravan stop in Overland Park, Kansas, on Monday. “Until we finalize what our roster’s gonna be and who we are, we’ll figure out what the expectations for the upcoming season are then.”

To keep himself and his team grounded in that way, Drinkwitz has routinely turned to a very coach-like phrase: “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” You know, like the early morning weight room reps, the individual-focused spring practices, the nuances of technique work.

But on Thursday, that phrase wafted away from the field, through the north concourse targeted for renovations and into the past tense, capturing just how ingrained in Mizzou athletics Drinkwitz is.

“Little by little, little became a lot,” he said, referring to past financial investments in his program. “When we first got here, we needed lights on a practice field. We needed a new grass practice field. Then we asked to have a new indoor facility. Then we asked to redo the weight room. And now we’ve asked for a $250 million stadium renovation.”

Drinkwitz has gotten what he’s asked for and, to this point, seemingly provided the returns that university leadership would like to see. The MU administration is actively asking him to, well, ask for things.

It did so by involving Drinkwitz in the planning and design process for the north concourse project, which will include a recruiting-specific space to further one of Drinkwitz’s primary strengths as a coach.

“With Coach Drinkwitz, I mean, why wouldn’t you have the person who’s been in every SEC stadium, who’s had to recruit players in a stadium (on the committee)?” Curator Bob Blitz said. “We can lose players because they want to go play in Austin, Texas, in that stadium. Coach Drinkwitz added that element to it.”

And so the Board of Curators decided to make its biggest-ever bet on a Mizzou sport by making its biggest-ever investment in an athletic facility. Choi, during a presentation at the Curators’ annual retreat in March, listed Memorial Stadium improvements as one of the university’s three highest priorities.

That’s the importance of the project for the future of MU and the stakes of the investment. And for Drinkwitz, could someone go so far as to say that qualifies as pressure?

“It is the right word,” Drinkwitz said. “But pressure is a privilege and it’s an opportunity. You live up to expectations and standards. By raising the bar, it just raises the amount of energy and work ethic that we all have to put into it.”

ROLLA, Mo. — Future Mizzou athletics director, do yourself a favor and read this.

You’re not known yet. You may be one of the candidates who already interviewed. You may be among the candidates who will be interviewed soon.

We’ll learn your name soon enough. My guess is by May.

“Incredible applications,” curator Bob Blitz said Thursday. “It seems like everybody would like to be an athletic director in the SEC.”

If you are among those coming for the gig, and if you are motivated to become the first person since Mike Alden to turn what has become a turnstile job into a lasting legacy, then know that properly interpreting what just took place in a conference room on the campus of Missouri S&T will go a long way toward helping you thrive. Can’t do it? Maybe cancel your interview.

First and most important, understand that making Eli Drinkwitz’s Mizzou football program bigger, better and more lucrative than ever before is at the tip-top of the to-do list. This is not a job where you come in and decide how you feel about the football coach. This is a job where you come in and do your damnedest to help Drinkwitz crack the newly expanded College Football Playoff.

Second and perhaps just as important, you should realize the folks you answer to, the ones you want to hire you, are very motivated to help you both succeed and stick around. A big part of your job, and it can be a hard part, will be keeping it that way. But just see Drinkwitz for an example of how lucrative solving the riddle can become. He has been handed everything he’s asked for and more while proving himself and staying true to Mizzou. My advice? Help Drinkwitz help you.

The hurt feelings and differing views left over from the divorce between ex-Tigers athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois, UM system president and chancellor Mun Choi and the UM System Board of Curators is not the new hire’s baggage to carry. No need to sort through it. Leave it to the lawyers who are arguing about whether Mizzou should or should not give Arizona any relief from the Reed-Francois buyout owed. Choi said Thursday, pointedly, that answer is no.

Still, the new AD can and should learn from what went down before Reed-Francois bolted for what was, at best, a lateral move. Better yet, find a way to benefit from it. That’s the best way to succeed. The only way, really. Because while Mizzou’s decision-makers are nearing the hire of a new AD, they reminded here Thursday that not having one will not stop them from pursuing their shared goal of lifting Mizzou football to new heights because they believe everything else will rise with it.

Mizzou didn’t skip a beat in planning, producing and approving plans for a $250 million Memorial Stadium football facelift despite Reed-Francois’ surprising mid-February departure to Arizona. The first person to connect those dots Thursday after curators unanimously moved forward on the project during their previously scheduled trip to Rolla was, of course, Drinkwitz. He put on a tie and drove down to celebrate.

“You know, several weeks ago, we had what seemed like a disruption to our athletic department and our project,” Drinkwitz said while standing in front of glossy renderings he helped brainstorm. “But with strong leadership by the board and our president, we took the opportunity to improve our situation and deliver what I consider to be a big dream and a bold investment.”

“Desiree leaving did not affect this in any negative way,” added Blitz, the influential St. Louis attorney who has since April 2023 gone from a new curator to the one overseeing both the AD search and a new athletics oversight committee. “And if she was thinking of leaving, which nobody knew before she said it, it was probably good for her to leave so we could go on and get things done here.”

While not quite as spelled out as the “Why Stop Now” plastered across the stadium renderings, the underlying theme was clear: The group in power at Mizzou at this moment believes a football-first vision for Drinkwitz and his program will continue to produce positive returns and also move the entire athletics department toward requiring less financial support from the university side over time. Board of Curators chair Robin Wenneker called the stadium renovations a “momentum investment.” Drinkwitz’s 11-win 2023 season that ended with a Cotton Bowl win against Ohio State, Choi said, resulted in a 17% uptick in freshmen wanting to come to Mizzou. Members of the architect design team referred to the project as renovating the university’s front porch.

Reed-Francois’ hesitation at times about Drinkwitz and/or such a significant football-first focus — she was cooler than the curators toward the 2022 extension of Drinkwitz when he had a 15-17 record, for example — was not the only stress point that developed over time. But it was among them. That should offer valuable information to the next person in the role. Football and funding. Don’t forget it.

“No. 1 on the list is the ability to raise money and get donors,” Blitz said. “Athletics today is more expensive than it’s ever been. Someone who knows fundraising and knows how to recruit people to fundraise, things like that. Second, and I think the thing with this whole press conference has been, we want somebody who wants to build a championship. Somebody who wants to be in the CFP.”

I’d add another must to the list. The new hire must do something interim AD Marcy Girton has quietly excelled at since she stepped into the role. She’s kept multiple parties working together effectively. That’s not always an easy task at Mizzou, we’ve learned. While curators can bristle about that observation being made, the history is the history, and it’s outlasted any of the curators currently on the board. That doesn’t mean long-desired synergy is impossible to achieve. That doesn’t mean this is not an appealing job.

Mizzou is in the money-drenched SEC. Its most important program is thriving, and it’s led by a still-rising coach who is mastering the lost art of turning the job you have into the one you want. Drinkwitz has the roster and the 2024 schedule that says cracking the expanded College Football Playoff field is not a pipe dream. His spearheading of Mizzou’s aggressive approach to name, image and likeness is fueling a continued recruiting boom on the prep and transfer portal scenes.

And yes, there is a lot of good will available from Choi and the curators for the AD candidate who shares their vision and wants to stay put through thick and thin.

If you’re reading this and you are a person who excels at reading and uniting a room, maybe this is the job for you.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri men's basketball picked up its fourth transfer portal acquisition of the offseason in the form of a past recruiting miss.

Forward Mark Mitchell, who spent two seasons with Duke, will transfer to Mizzou, he announced Friday on Instagram.

Mitchell hails from Kansas City, Kansas, and was heavily recruited by the Tigers as a high school prospect who flirted with the idea of staying close to home. But the lure of the Blue Devils' famed program drew him farther away.

He played in 68 games through the first two years of his college career, starting all but one of them. Last season, he averaged 11.6 points and six rebounds per game.

That skillset and his 6-foot-9, 232-pound frame suggest Mitchell can be a physical post presence for the Tigers, who were one of the nation's worst high-major teams at rebounding.

Mitchell shot 62.2% on rim attempts last season, according to Synergy's shot-tracking stats. And while his statistical profile doesn't suggest he's much of a shooter, he can convert catch-and-shoot jumpers when left open.

He's the fourth member of MU's incoming transfer class, joining Iowa point guard Tony Perkins, Northern Kentucky guard Marques Warrick and UT-Martin wing Jacob Crews. Collectively, that group provides the mix of point guard, scoring-capable combo guard, sizable perimeter option and frontcourt upgrade that coach Dennis Gates has targeted in the portal.

They'll be four of nine newcomers — including five freshmen — who will join the Missouri program after its 0-18 run through Southeastern Conference play. That number could rise to 10 with the possible addition of Pepperdine forward Jevon Porter, who is in the portal and part of the MU-connected Porter family.

The St. Louis Tigers.

Yes, led by locals Brady Cook, Luther Burden III and Cody Schrader (and Mookie Cooper and Brett Norfleet and more), Mizzou’s offense was No. 5 last year in the Southeastern Conference (434.3 yards per game).

Tigers offensive coordinator Kirby Moore was in St. Louis this week to speak at the National Football Foundation monthly luncheon. Afterward, I sat down and did a one-on-one interview with Moore.

Q: Running back Cody Schrader finished eighth in the Heisman voting, so it’s hard to duplicate that. But can you share what’s next at running back for 2024?

A: There are a number of guys— I would start with Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll coming in, one-year guys who have had a ton of production where they're at, (Noel at) Appalachian state, (Carroll at) Georgia State. Different running styles. Marcus Carroll is probably a little bit more in the inside zone between the tackles, Nate Noel has been a little bit more outside zone, a little bit more of a perimeter run scheme. And so that's been an adjustment for both those guys, just figuring out our scheme and how we're going to operate. And then Jamal Roberts (from St. Mary’s in St. Louis), Tavorus Jones are pushing those guys. We’ll add Kewan Lacy in the summer, and he's got a ton of juice. So we’ve got to figure that out in the fall— I think it's too early to determine that.

We don't necessarily go live in the spring, so you don't know who can break tackles. But I think that's better for our guys from a health standpoint. But you only learn by doing, right? So we'll kind of get a feel (in camp). We’ll get a feel if it’s: ‘Hey, this guy's our 1. If it’s a 1A, 1B? Or will we sprinkle in another guy on third down?’ We're going to work through those things in the fall.

Q: With receiver Luther Burden III, can you describe his style of play by comparing him to certain players you’ve coached or seen?

A: I like to probably use a comparison if I've seen someone live. I've seen CeeDee Lamb live with my brother working with the Cowboys. From a slot perspective, a guy who can catch the ball at five yards and take it 50. You look at some of the things he did at Oklahoma, obviously that's why he's at where he's at.

(Burden) is just very unique in college football. I have not coached anyone who has that skill set. I’ve been able to be with John Ross, Dante Pettis, who were first second and round picks from Washington. But Luther is very different in terms of his ability to make guys miss. And he has a little bit of that scorer’s mentality. He's almost a running back when he catches the ball— the play’s just getting started.

Q: Mizzou fans, especially in St. Louis, are so fascinated by quarterback Brady Cook. His leadership and connections with teammates remind me of Drew Lock— how would you describe it?

A: I think he is the epitome of being a real genuine person, first of all. How he communicates, he is very sincere with what he says. He cares about people and he shows it— it's not just words. Even with my own family, my daughter's got her second 4-year-old soccer game on Saturday and he asked me for the time. He wants to come and help support.

Just from a football standpoint, just like any young quarterback, he went through some games that didn't go his way. And I think people saw him go through those— and there was no (feeling sorry for himself). He continued to work and overcome. In the Kansas State game, he made some huge plays down the stretch -- that carried over into the season. Florida game, (the now-famous play on) fourth and 17. But just from a relationship standpoint and a work-ethic standpoint, he leads from the front. And he's very, very genuine.

Q: What’s the story about the 15 plays you asked Cook to share with you?

A: Sometimes (during research), I see this play, I love it, I think it's great. Well, if the quarterback doesn't see it, or doesn't necessarily like it, I probably shouldn't call it, right? Sometimes as coaches we get caught up in that. So (with Cook), it’s: ‘Hey, give me the stuff that you love that we ran, whether it's in the fall, whether it's in spring ball.’ And it's my job to find more ways to do that. So we're not stagnant, we're kind of maybe changing the pictures a little bit, but still for the quarterback, from a consistency (situation), that is very comfortable with that call. You know, settings get big in college football, but still he's going to go back to what he knows— and play fast.

I just asked him for 15 favorite concepts that we run on offense. Brady's a true student of the game— he emailed it to me and had his notes on the side of it. And I literally have it in my notebook, every day. And it's my job and our offense’s job to find more ways to do that.

Q: With you as a coach, can you describe the journey of growing— you're almost like a coach and also a student of the game.

A: I like to use the phrase: ‘If there's ever a time when we think we all got it figured out, we're probably getting passed up.’ And so, for me, I’ve got to live that. I've been able to be around a lot of really good people and learn from them. Been able to be around guys who win— at different levels, different conferences, different offenses— and I kind of find what fits, what I believe in. And pick and plug in. So it's been very cool, you're always evolving your offense from a personnel standpoint, what our guys do well.

Like, this was the first time I've ever been in an offense where the quarterback had the attributes of running the football. So I kind of had to evolve, because I'd never done that. So you start calling people or watching things or finding ways to use the quarterback in the run game. We’ve got a great offensive staff -- it's our offense, it's not my offense. Coach (Jacob) Peeler, he's been around round a bunch of tremendous offensive minds. (Line coach)Brandon Jones worked for Kliff Kingsbury. Our running back coach (Curtis Luper) worked at TCU for a long time. They've had a lot of success. And so, we all got ideas. It's more making sure— there's a lot of right ways to do things, let's just pick one of them and all believe in it.

Q: Cody Schrader was so good. That had to be so much fun for you as a coach. Looking back, how would you describe all he did for Mizzou?

A: Cody Schrader is just a testament to determination and work ethic. Very unique. I was not here in 2022, obviously got here in 2023. For him to stay healthy with the workload that he had each and every week, playing in this conference, that’s very rare. Cody Schrader (is an example of) -- it is easy to do things and it's easy not to do things, right?

So, we just beat Florida, let's say he has 25 carries on a Saturday night game. Night game. Cody Schrader's in the training room on Sunday at 8 am. Not everyone's doing that. Naturally, guys go out, do different things. He's in the facility, training room. I go down to grab a snack and he’s there. He's a quarterback playing running back, that's how he sees it.

We're at the bowl game. Another example. There's a bunch of activities. Guys are supposed to have fun. We're (on the bus) from practice to an event, and the film very quickly gets uploaded onto their iPads and their phones. And Cody Schrader is watching film on his phone. And not everyone's doing that. He's tapping me on the shoulder. ‘Hey, Coach, is this right, right here?’ Just a perfectionist. And that's who he is— he wants to reach his personal best so bad in everything that he's doing. It's inspiring, it makes you want to work harder. And I think that gravitated towards everyone on the team. Everyone felt that. I’m just pulling for him for next week (in the NFL Draft), just him finding the right situation. I know he'll hit the ground running.

ROLLA, Mo. — The push to create an administration-level university committee focused on the oversight of Mizzou athletics stemmed from concern over athletics department spending and broader trends within college sports, two of the group’s members said Thursday.

The UM System Board of Curators’ Mizzou Intercollegiate Athletics Special Committee has generated more questions than answers since its February inception, which came just days before the abrupt departure of former athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois.

The committee’s charter suggests it can oversee a wide range of athletics department matters, from finances and facilities renovations — including the $250 million redevelopment of Memorial Stadium’s north concourse that was approved Thursday — to emerging issues affecting college sports.

Speaking publicly about the committee for the first time since its creation, committee Chairman Bob Blitz confirmed that a desire to lend heightened attention to finances and stay informed regarding the continued college sports landscape’s complexity were behind the decision.

“With the statistics that we saw, we felt in filling our fiduciary duty that it was a must to step in and find out more about what was going on in the athletic department,” Blitz said. “We’re not trying to pick coaches; we’re not trying to do those kind of things. We’re trying to make sure that the athletic department is running in a financially responsible way and doing the best they can, that they have the best methods to raise money. This stadium’s going to cost a lot of money. That’s the reason.”

In the 2023 fiscal year, which ran from July 2022 to June 2023 and was Reed-Francois’ last full fiscal period in the big chair, Mizzou’s athletics department emerged in the black by a single dollar.

That narrow surplus stemmed, in part, from roughly $23 million in direct institutional support from the academic and administrative side of MU, up from approximately $12 million in the prior year.

Missouri athletics brought in record revenues while spending record amounts under Reed-Francois. The need for loans from the university to cover athletics expenses has drawn scrutiny from some.

In creating the oversight committee, the Board of Curators also felt it was keeping in line with administrative trends around other high-profile athletics programs, Blitz said.

“The boards across the nation, in every university, are taking more interest and more activity in the athletic performance,” he said, “because athletics are becoming so complex with money and (name, image and likeness rights) and the (transfer) portal and the ticket prices and the whole branding of the university. So (across) all boards, it is not unusual that either a special committee is formed or that a liaison is directed to the athletic committee from the board or that the board itself takes it.”

The curators intentionally designated four of their nine members to be part of the athletics oversight committee: Blitz, Chairwoman Robin Wenneker, Todd Graves and Jeff Layman. Those four members tend to be more interested in topics that affect Mizzou athletics than some other board members.

Within the structure of the oversight committee, they can specialize on those issues more — like how the board handles its control of MU Health Care.

“We’ve talked about athletics and how we can elevate that. That’s been a clear goal for us for the last two years,” Wenneker said. “I think we all understand that. But nine of us trying to work on this is, even routinely, is cumbersome, so we took it to four. That allows the committee to be more targeted and monitor — which was a key part of that — how we can move athletics forward. So that coupled with accountability to the state of Missouri, we consider that an important responsibility.”

To date, the oversight committee has met almost entirely in closed-session meetings — two of which are scheduled for Friday and Monday. The topics of those gatherings have not been publicly disclosed.

It’s not clear whether the creation of the oversight committee played a role in Reed-Francois’ decision to leave MU for the same role at Arizona.

In explaining the creation of the committee, Blitz emphasized that it was a heavily deliberated decision that fell in line with normal board practices.

“We don’t do anything on a whim,” he said. “A board is just a policy-making organization. We don’t have specific knowledge. We don’t know how to run an athletic department. We don’t know how to run a hospital. So what we do is we get experts — experts in those fields. We hire them and they give us data so we don’t do anything on a whim. We rely on data.”

Mizzou to enforce buyout

Mizzou has been quiet on the status of Reed-Francois’ contract buyout following her February departure. But the MU administration’s attitude showed itself slightly Thursday.

Shortly after Reed-Francois’ hiring at Arizona, that school said it expected her to “undertake best efforts to reduce or eliminate any financial buyout (she) may owe to the University of Missouri.”

Based on the terms of her contract, she’s likely to owe Missouri roughly $3 million for leaving her deal early.

It’s not clear whether Reed-Francois has submitted a request to lower or drop her buyout or whether Mizzou would even entertain that idea. But UM System President and MU Chancellor Mun Choi, when asked about the matter, suggested the school would hold firm.

“Nothing to share,” Choi said, “but we do have a contract, and we do expect the contract terms to be honored.”

Tanner Houck, a Collinsville native who attended Mizzou, was part of history Wednesday.

The right-handed Houck pitched a shutout on 94 pitches, a feat otherwise known as a Maddux. The statistic named after Hall of Famer Greg Maddux happens when a pitcher throws a shutout of nine or more innings with fewer than 100 pitches.

“I love it. It’s definitely a compliment. Obviously everyone knows Maddux and what he did for the game and how special he was,” Houck said after the game. “To have that terminology used is definitely fun.”

The game took just 1:49, the fastest nine-inning MLB game since 2010. For reference, the Cardinals haven't played a game that fast since 2002.

Houck allowed three hits and struck out nine while walking none, becoming the first pitcher to strike out nine in a Maddux that took 1:50 or less since Greg himself did it against the Cardinals in 1995 at Busch Stadium.

"Very rarely would I say you have all your pitches working," Houck told team broadcaster NESN. "Tonight was one of those where it just felt good out of the hand no matter what I was throwing. Definitely a special night."

Houck, 27, was selected 24th overall by the Red Sox in the 2017 draft. He's in his fourth full year in what's been an up-and-down career including missing time last year after being struck in the face with a line drive.

As he tries to solidify his spot in Boston's rotation, Houck has put his focus on command over velocity.

“I think it goes back to just not trying to overdo it, not trying to overthrow,” Houck said to The Athletic. “Everyone gets caught up now on velo, and ultimately, sometimes I just got to check myself and realize that I know if I’m throwing 91 to 95 miles per hour, it’s probably more beneficial because I get the same amount of movement, but I also command it better.”