Missouri

Alabama couldn’t stop Missouri basketball’s offense. When MU plays like that, can anyone?

Published

1 year ago

February 20, 2025

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Alabama couldn’t stop Missouri basketball’s offense. When MU plays like that, can anyone?

The symbolism was a little on the nose.

Shortly after Missouri basketball’s game against Alabama on Wednesday night, a fire was reported in a suite in Section 112 of Mizzou Arena. It was quickly extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire? Currently undisclosed.

But it’s surely not a coincidence that it started less than an hour after No. 16/15-ranked Missouri’s offense burned No. 4/4 Alabama for a 110-98 win, right?

The Tigers were hot to the touch, sizzling at a rate the Crimson Tide tried, and failed, mightily to contain.

The fire alarm started ringing about two minutes into Alabama coach Nate Oats’ postgame press conference — ‘‘a fire has been reported,”’” the automated messaging system relayed on repeat around Mizzou Arena’s halls. Oats recognized the immediate irony.

“Yeah,” he said. “They were on fire tonight.”

Sure were.

Missouri (20-6, 9-4) shot 60.3% from the field. The Tigers clipped nine triples, led by three from Caleb Grill, who scored 25 points in the win. Mizzou scored 40 points in the paint, led by Mark Mitchell’s magnificent night working the inside for a career-high 31-point performance.

Grill and Mitchell combined for an 18 of 23 mark from the free throw line, part of 47 total free throw attempts. Eighteen of Mizzou’s 35 field goals were assisted. The Tigers turned 14 turnovers directly into 21 points.

If there’s an offensive stat to keep, Mizzou likely put up a gaudy total.

The gaudiest of them all? Missouri scored 1.45 points per possession.

When it looks like it did Wednesday — when Missouri’s offense is operating at its very best — there looked to be exceptionally little Alabama could do to stop the Tigers.

The Tigers did that by making Alabama pick its poison.

The Crimson Tide sagged off Mitchell and Anthony Robinson II at the 3-point line to protect driving lanes on two separate occasions in the first half. They aren’t MU’s best deep-ball shooters, but they punished the Tide for having the gall, knocking down their open looks for triples.

When Alabama adjusted and started getting bodies to the perimeter, Mitchell came alive inside, working the paint and drawing and-1 opportunities nearly every time the ball came his way.

That was the to-and-fro the Tigers kept pushing. Alabama was forced to abandon one — inside or outside — to try and stop the other.

Missouri’s offensive adjustments were quicker.

“We just have a lot of weapons,” Mitchell said. “I think we can beat you inside. We can obviously beat you outside, and I think that’s probably a hard thing for teams to game plan. We knew some coverages that they might show us and some different looks that they might give us, and we never panicked, just because the coach prepared us so well.”

Missouri needed every swish.

Alabama was the nation’s No. 3-ranked offense entering the evening, and it sure looked like that. As much as Mizzou did to separate, the game wasn’t out of sight until there was less than a minute on the court.

The Crimson Tide shot 53.8% from the field. They were 13-for-31 (41.9%) from 3-point range. Elite point guard Mark Sears scored 35 points. On two occasions in the second half, Alabama got within six points of MU’s lead.

And still … that wasn’t nearly enough to fully track down Gates’ Tigers.

“I credit Alabama. They did some great things. They gave us their best punch, I just thought our guys were counter-punchers,” Gates said. “And, you know, we were sort of in a in a defensive mode, and were able to punch back. And, again, there were several plays that allowed us to re-spark or reignite our momentum, and these guys just continue to make plays on both ends of the court. And they played the game unselfishly.”

How about some of those moments?

After Sears tallied six straight points to make it a two-score game with 10 minutes to play, the game was more in the balance than it had been since the first minute of play.

The answer? Trent Pierce fought off traffic after hauling in an offensive board and delicately put a shot back up and in. Mitchell drew an and-1 underneath the rim and scored the free throw. Grill went 2-for-2 at the line and then nailed a 20-footer on an inbounds pass.

Crisis averted with a 9-0 run in 1 minute, 27 seconds; 15-point lead restored.

The difference in the game, ultimately, was the 12-0 run with which Mizzou opened the game. Everything that was to come was contained within those electric 2:28 of game time.

Pierce and Robinson knocked down 3s within a minute of tipoff. The duo took fastbreaks straight to the rim for layups. Tamar Bates pump-faked a shot from the corner and took it inside for a couple more paint points.

Dotted throughout, Grill converted some signature who-needs-separation 3s; Tony Perkins made the Tide pay at the line and in the mid-range; Mitchell drew and-1 after and-1; and the Tigers turned 12 steals into instant offense.

Mizzou caught fire and rode that into a win that takes the Tigers into a tie for fourth place in the SEC. With a third top-five victory on the résumé and a sixth Quad 1 win, Gates’ team will likely soon receive projections for a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama didn’t have answers.

And when it looks like that, who could?

“When everybody’s playing like that, I just think it’s a tough matchup for anybody,” Grill said. “We’ve just got to keep continuing, as coach said, to keep moving forward and keep getting better each day.”

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Missouri

Missouri Farm Bureau to host agritourism conference in Hermann | Fulton Sun

Published

6 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

Missouri Farm Bureau to host agritourism conference in Hermann | Fulton Sun

Missouri Farm Bureau’s 2026 Agritourism Conference will be held Sunday through Tuesday in Hermann, bringing together agritourism stakeholders to explore opportunities in Missouri’s growing agritourism sector.

The conference usually draws 60-70 attendees annually, said Janet Adkison, director of public affairs and advocacy with Missouri Farm Bureau. This includes farmers, agribusiness leaders, tourism professionals and local economic development partners.

At the conference, participants will see firsthand how farms, wineries, orchards and other value-added agriculture business and rural destinations are connecting tourists and consumers with the state’s agriculture scene, while diversifying revenue streams for farm families and rural communities.

“Whenever folks think of agritourism, they think of a pumpkin patch or a flower farm,” Adkison said. “But agritourism is really anything that gets folks to connect with the agriculture industry. So from your Airbnbs that are out in rural Missouri to the wineries that you see across the countryside, to even a tree farm or just a simple orchard, those are all part of Missouri’s agritourism industry.”

The conference kicks off Sunday with welcome remarks by Missouri Farm Bureau president Garrett Hawkins and a dinner at Hermann Farm Store Barn. Participants will spend the nights at The Inn at Hermannhof.

Monday will include an agritourism bus tour, with stops at Thierbach Orchard, Heritage Valley Tree Farm, White Mule Winery & BNB and Cool Cow Cheese, where participants have the opportunity to speak to business owners.

It will be followed by a farm-to-table, wine-pairing dinner at Hermannhof Winery Court with the Missouri Wine & Grape Board.

“If you are somebody who’s interested in agritourism, you get to hear from somebody who’s been there and done that, and some of the hurdles that they may have experienced along the way,” Adkison said. “You’ll have that exposure both on the tour and also during the programs that they’ll provide on Tuesday.”

On the final day of the conference, participants will attend educational workshops and network with other vendors at Hermannhof Festhalle. Topics discussed in the workshops include marketing, risk management, USDA Rural Development resources for agricultural businesses.

“You’ll hear from some folks as far as the missteps or wins that they had while trying to market and get those crowds to come to the farm, and sometimes something might work, (or) something surprises you and it doesn’t work,” Adkison said.

The conference location rotates around the state each year — past stops have included northeast and west central Missouri, which Adkison said gives the conference a chance to showcase how agritourism looks based on the terrain and agricultural strength of each region.

Find out more about the event or register for it at mofb.org/event/2026-agritourism.

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Missouri

Missouri politicians champion unity, diversity on America’s 250th

Published

17 hours ago

July 8, 2026

Press Room

Missouri politicians champion unity, diversity on America’s 250th

Former Missouri Gov. Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon followed in his ancestor’s footsteps, 250 years to the day.

On July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon was the first person to publicly read the Declaration of Independence from the steps of the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall.

Jay Nixon, along with other Missouri officials from local, state and national offices, participated in a semiquincentennial celebration at the Historical Greene County Courthouse on July 8, 2026.

“As we commemorate 250 years of American independence, may we remember not only the courage of those who signed the declaration, but also our responsibility to preserve the freedoms they declare,” said Connie Yen, director of the Greene County Archives and Records Center.

While the reading of the Declaration of Independence was the main event, patriotic music from the Salvation Army Band, Springfield Sound, the Patriotic Chorale — as well as the national anthem sung by former U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft and former judge and representative Max Bacon — rang throughout the courthouse’s rotunda, which was packed with people. The music itself, Ashcroft said, was a metaphor for the nation.

“There is something charming about America that doesn’t require that we be uniform. There’s a difference between unity and uniformity. As a matter of fact, you can’t have harmony if you only have one note. You have to sing different notes for things to be harmonic and it’s much more beautiful,” he said. “Maybe America is America not because of uniformity or everybody being in unison, but America may be America because we have disparity, but we’re in harmony. We believe in unity, not uniformity.”

Before reading the Declaration of Independence, Nixon shared part of a speech he gave at Fulton’s Westminster College in August 2025, where he encouraged people to “resist apathy with action” through involvement with civic and faith organizations, and by voting. Like others, he emphasized diversity as the strength of America.

“(We’re) a nation of immigrants. Many of our ancestors fled poverty, injustice and tyranny to build something better. We are the great-great-great-grandchildren of slaves, and those who enslaved them; the first families who inhabited these lands, and those who drove them from it,” Nixon said. “A nation of scrappy strivers stitched together by our ideals, marked by original sins, but redeemed by the courage and sacrifice that saved us from fascism and unleashed freedom and prosperity — the envy of the world. That is the true story we all need to tell, the promise we made to each other that we work every day to keep.”

The reading was followed by an ice cream social, co-hosted by the Greene County Democratic and Republican women’s clubs.

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Missouri

UPDATE: Suspect wanted in Kansas captured near Columbia; Missouri State Highway Patrol aircraft plays key role | 93.9 The Eagle

Published

1 day ago

July 8, 2026

Press Room

UPDATE: Suspect wanted in Kansas captured near Columbia; Missouri State Highway Patrol aircraft plays key role | 93.9 The Eagle

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says one of its planes played a key role in Tuesday morning’s capture on I-70 near Columbia of a Kansas suspect wanted for child endangerment.

Missouri state troopers say they were on patrol near a rest area on eastbound I-70 in Cooper County, when they located a Dodge Durango wanted for an alleged incident in Topeka. Troopers say the suspect drove off after seeing troopers and that the Patrol plane was used to avoid a pursuit.

Troopers say they were able to get in position after the plane’s pilot located the vehicle and that the Patrol deployed stop sticks and safely deflated the suspect’s tires.

hmqqi61wwaa0bs7 — A Missouri State Highway Patrol aircraft played a key role in Tuesday morning’s capture in mid-Missouri (July 2026 graphic courtesy of Highway Patrol Twitter)

The Highway Patrol says the suspect was captured without incident and that the two-year-old child, who was unharmed, has been reunited with their mother.

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