Missouri

Played to watch in Kentucky at Missouri

Published

1 year ago

March 8, 2025

There is good news heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale at the Missouri Tigers. The Kentucky Wildcats will for sure have a bye in the SEC Tournament. The Wildcats can be no lower than the No. 8 seed next week in Nashville.

Still, though, Saturday’s game at Missouri is highly important. Win this game, and Kentucky can move up to as high as the No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament. More importantly, a win would guarantee Kentucky won’t have to see No. 1 Auburn until at least the Semifinals next week.

Missouri, though, is going to pose a big challenge. After going winless in SEC play last season, the Tigers have had an incredible turnaround this season. They have 21 wins coming into Saturday, including 10 in the SEC. The Tigers are an incredible offensive team, ranking fourth in the SEC in scoring (84.6 points per game) and being tied with Kentucky for the SEC lead in three-point field goal percentage (37.3%).

This Tigers team has depth. Eight players have at least five points per game, and nine players shoot at least 45 percent from the field. Four players shoot 40 percent or better from three-point range.

It is going to be a battle on Saturday, but that’s what March is full of; battles.

Let’s look at Players to Watch on the Missouri Tigers ahead of Saturday’s game.

Players to Watch

1. #31. Caleb Grill 6’3” 205 lbs. Gr. Guard Wichita, Kan. Iowa State Transfer
Stats: 14.4 pts, 3.8 rebs, 50% FG, 42.6 3-PT FG%, 85.7 FT%, 25.4 mpg

One of the top shooters in the SEC, Grill is in his second season with Missouri. He previously played at Iowa State for three seasons, with a season at UNLV sandwiched in between his two stints in Ames, Iowa.

Grill missed the final 23 games last season with an injury, but he still managed to finish as the Tigers leading rebounder at 5.8 per game. Keep in mind, that was a Missouri team that went 0-18 in SEC play.

This season, Grill is one of the conference’s best shooters on a top 15 Missouri team. The Tigers leading scorer, Grill has actually been increasing his scoring average throughout the course of the season. It started way back in mid-November with a 33-point performance against Eastern Washington, and those performances have continued into the gauntlet of SEC play.

Grill has six games in SEC play with 20+ points, including three in his last five. That stretch also includes a 25-point, 10-rebound double-double against Alabama on February 19th. In addition, Grill has five games in SEC play with four+ three-pointers including two with six.

Overall this season, Grill has four games with six+ three-pointers with a season-high eight against Eastern Washington.

Missouri is 7-1 in games where Grill has made at least four three-pointers.

2. #25. Mark Mitchell 6’9” 230 lbs. Jr. Guard/Forward Kansas City, Kan. Duke Transfer
Stats: 14.1 pts, 4.6 rebs, 25 blk, 50.5 FG%, 22.9 3-PT FG%, 66.8 FT%, 27.7 mpg

A key reason for Missouri’s impressive turnaround is the acquisition of Mitchell in the transfer portal this past offseason. Mitchell ranked as high as the nation’s No. 7 transfer according to CBS Sports, and that came after he started 67 games over two seasons at Duke.

Mitchell was a key part of Duke’s first two seasons, with Jon Scheyer taking over as head coach following Mike Krzyzewski retiring. The Blue Devils won 54 games over the last two seasons, including the ACC Tournament in 2023 and a run to the Elite Eight in 2024. Named to the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Watch List, Mitchell scored 700 points and averaged over 10 points per game in his two seasons in Durham.

This season, Mitchell has six games with multiple blocks. That includes three straight games in early-mid December with three blocks each, including against then-No. 1 Kansas on December 8th.

Mitchell has five 20-point games this season, including three in his past seven games. Against Alabama on Feb. 19th, Mitchell scored 31 points in 32 minutes on 11-15 shooting from the field. Talk about efficiency.

Don’t let his free-throw percentage make you think he’s a good player to send to the charity stripe in crucial situations. Over his last seven games, Mitchell is 48-64 from the free-throw line. That’s 75 percent, which is pretty good.

Mitchell has played 30+ minutes 11 times in SEC play, including 41 in an overtime win at Vanderbilt this past Saturday.

3. #2. Tamar Bates 6’5” 195 lbs. Sr. Guard Kansas City, Kan. Indiana Transfer
Stats: 13.1 pts, 2.7 rebs, 51.3 FG%, 40.7 3-PT FG%, 93.7 FT%, 25.5 mpg

Bates is in his second season with the Tigers after ranking second on the team with 13.5 points per game last season. He also set a Missouri record by hitting 92.6% of his free throws.

In his second season this year, Bates has four games with 20+ points. Those games have come against then-No. 1 Kansas and SEC opponents. Bates also has nine games with three or more three-pointers, with two games making four three-pointers.

Prior to Missouri, Bates played two seasons at Indiana and helped lead the Hoosiers to two NCAA Tournaments and 44 combined wins. Bates scored over 330 points and hit 54 three-pointers over those two seasons.

4. #0. Anthony Robinson II 6’3” 180 lbs. So. Guard Tallahassee, Fla.
Stats: 9.4 pts, 3.1 rebs, 102 ast.-48 TO, 60 stl, 50.3 FG%, 43.5 3-PT FG%, 77% FT, 23.1 mpg

Robinson is Missouri’s leader in assists and steals in just his second season with the team. He has started all but two games this season and has scored in double figures in five of his last seven games.

Robinson has 10 games with five+ assists and 17 games with multiple steals, including 13 with three+ steals. He’s also a solid shooter from beyond the arc, with multiple three-pointers in five SEC games.

5. #12. Tony Perkins 6’4” 200 lbs. Gr. Guard Indianapolis, Ind.
Stats: 8.1 pts, 2.4 rebs, 46.5 FG%, 30% 3-PT FG, 74.7 FT%, 23 mpg

Perkins comes to Missouri after playing at Iowa four four seasons, where he was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team in 2024 and Honorable Mention in 2023. This is another key piece to Missouri’s revival this season, as Perkins was ranked as high as the nation’s No. 13 transfer by CBS Sports. In his four seasons at Iowa, Perkins scored nearly 1,200 points and pulled down nearly 400 rebounds with over 300+ assists, one of just three Hawkeyes in history to have 1,100+ points, 375+ rebounds, 300+ assists and 130+ steals.

This season, Perkins has started each of the last 22 games he’s played in and has scored in double figures six times in SEC play. Perkins has played 30+ minutes six times this season.

6. #11. Trent Pierce 6’10” 220 lbs. So. Guard/Forward Tulsa, Okla.
Stats: 7.1 pts, 3.4 rebs, 46.7 FG%, 32.3 3-PT FG%, 59.3 FT%, 17.7 mpg

Although Pierce hasn’t scored in double figures in each of his last 12 games, he does have seven games this season with double-digit points. That includes 24 points and five three-pointers against LIU back in mid-December.

Pierce can impact the game in multiple ways. Over a stretch where he has started 16 straight games, Pierce has five+ rebounds in seven of those games and seven times has played 20+ minutes. He’s a good depth piece for a Missouri team that has a lot of it.

7. #1. Marques Warrick 6’3” 190 lbs. Gr. Guard Lexington, Ky. Northern Kentucky Transfer
Stats: 6.5 pts, 0.9 rebs, 48.2 FG%, 43.5 3-PT FG%, 80.6 FT%, 13.7 mpg

A Lexington, Kentucky native, Warrick has been, perhaps, the biggest key to Missouri’s bounce-back season. Warrick entered this season as the country’s active leader in points with 2,246. He was one of just 10 players the last two seasons to score 600+ points in both seasons, and he’s the all-time leading scorer in Norse history while also ranking seventh in Horizon League history. Warrick is also Henry Clay High School’s all-time leader with 1,909 career points.

Warrick has eight games with double-digit points this season, including four in SEC play. He also has five games with three+ three-pointers, including three games with four three-pointers.

8. #35. Jacob Crews 6’8” 210 lbs. Gr. Guard/Forward Hilliard, Fla. UT Martin Transfer
Stats: 5.4 pts, 2 rebs/gm., 37.8 FG%, 34.7 3-PT FG%, 14-18 FT, 12.4 mpg

One of just two players in the nation last year, along with Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman with 600+ points, 250+ rebounds and 85+ three-pointers, Crews brings an excellent shooting pedigree to a Missouri team that is a really good shooting team themselves.

Crews averaged 19.1 points per game at UT Martin last season, and he was named to the All-Ohio Valley Conference First-Team. He also has 8.2 rebounds per game last season.

Crews has four games with three+ three-pointers and five games scoring double-digits. He’s also played 20+ minutes twice on the season. Three of his games with double-digit points are in his last eight overall.

9. #33. Josh Gray 7’0” 260 lbs. Gr. Center Brooklyn, N.Y. South Carolina Transfer
Stats: 3.3 pts, 5.1 rebs, 57.1 FG%, 1-3 3-PT FG, 56.6 FT%, 15.6 mpg

Gray comes over after three seasons in South Carolina, where he played in 88 games with 375 rebounds, over 300 points and 62 blocks. He also led the Gamecocks in rebounding in 2022 and 2023.

Gray has five games this season with double-digit rebounds, including a double-double at Mississippi State back on February 1st.

Gray started the first 14 games of the season for Missouri, including the SEC opener at Auburn, and has played 20+ minutes seven times this season.

Head Coach: Dennis Gates (3rd season)

Gates has done an unbelievable job this season with the Missouri Tigers. Missouri finished 0-18 in the SEC last season. Just one season removed from that, Gates his Missouri at 21-9 and 10-7 in the best SEC conference of all time.

Missouri went to the NCAA Tournament in 2023, Gates’s first season with the Tigers. They advanced to the Round of 32 before falling to Cinderella Princeton.

Prior to Missouri, Gates led Cleveland State for three seasons and took the Vikings to the NCAA Tournament in 2021. The Vikings won two Horizon League regular-season titles, and Gates was a two-time Horizon League Coach of the Year.

Gates had extensive experience as an assistant, including an eight-season run at Florida State on Leonard Hamilton’s staff. The Seminoles went to seven NCAA Tournaments in those eight seasons, going to the Elite Eight in 2018 and the Sweet 16 in 2019. The Seminoles also won the ACC Tournament Championship in 2012. Gates also served as a graduate assistant at Florida State in 2004-2005.

In addition to Florida State, Gates was also an assistant at Nevada, Northern Illinois, California, and Marquette. Gates also served as a skill development coach for the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2002-2003 Season.

Gates played at California for four seasons and was on the Bears 2002 NCAA Tournament team.

Keys to the Game

1. Whatever worked on Tuesday, keep doing that Saturday: It’s so simple, right? Kentucky dominated LSU on Tuesday night and looked really good in doing so. If they simply carry that performance over into Saturday afternoon, they can win this game against a really good Missouri team.

2. Pressure the ball: Missouri is a really good three-point shooting team. One way to stymie that is to pressure the ball and prevent the Tigers from moving it to create open looks. Lamont Butler holds the key to Kentucky’s defense in this game. We saw him stymie Tennessee’s Zagai Ziegler back in mid-February, and he’ll have to do that again against Anthony Robinson II on Saturday. Do that, and that will prevent Robinson from getting Caleb Grill, Mark Mitchell, Tamar Bates, and others from getting into a rhythm.

3. Take care of the ball: We saw on Tuesday that good things happen when the Wildcats take care of the ball. The starting five on Tuesday- Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr, and Amari Williams- moved the ball really well. That freed up Brea for multiple open looks from three-point range while also creating great looks from three-point range for multiple other players. Taking care of the ball can lead to open looks on Saturday, and the Wildcats may have to knock down a lot of them to match Missouri’s high-octane three-point offense.

Score Prediction: Wildcats 94 – Tigers 91

Mark Pope said after the game on Tuesday that having the same starting five carry over in consecutive games finally allows them the opportunity again to get better heading into Postseason play. I think that leads to a massive win on Saturday and gives the Wildcats momentum heading into the SEC Tournament.

The Wildcats played with a vengeance on Tuesday against LSU. If they carry that vengeance mentality into Saturday, they can beat this Missouri team and be a team nobody will want to play in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.

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Missouri

Missouri pushes for more nuclear energy to power the future

Published

6 hours ago

July 11, 2026

Press Room

Missouri pushes for more nuclear energy to power the future

Jana Rose Schleis
| Missouri News Network

Driving through the winding roads of Callaway County, often visible in the distance is a massive, 553-foot-tall concrete structure emitting what looks like white clouds.

“A lot of people think that’s smoke coming out of the top; it is not. That is water vapor,” said Travis Hart, manager of the Callaway nuclear power plant that produces 15% of Missouri’s electricity.

“The next structure that you see, this big rounded dome … that is the reactor building itself,” Hart said.

The single nuclear reactor near Fulton was built in the late 1970s and began generating electricity in 1984. Initially, the site was designed with two reactors in mind. But Hart said plans for a second unit came to a halt in the early ’80s due to decreasing electricity demand and rising costs.

Now, more than 40 years later, energy demand is growing due to increased manufacturing, adoption of electric vehicles and the development of AI data centers.

In a scramble for more power, tech companies and utilities are restarting formerly shuttered nuclear power plants, such as Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. In states like Missouri, politicians are eager to find ways to build new ones and expand existing plants like the one in Callaway County.

Debates about how to pay for the multibillion dollar projects resurfaced in the Missouri legislature this spring. While cost is the first hurdle to creating a new fleet of nuclear power plants in America, the actual construction of the facilities is the second.

Early this year, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed an executive order that creates the Advanced Nuclear Energy Task Force to “evaluate and guide” the state’s “strategic approach to nuclear energy development.”

Lost skills

The majority of the nuclear power plants in America were built between the 1960s and 1980s. Construction slowed in response to energy demand leveling out, increased safety regulations and public perception of nuclear power souring after the Three Mile Island accident.

Speaking at the University of Missouri in May, Director-General of the federal Nuclear Energy Agency William Magwood said building nuclear power plants is a skill, and America has gotten rusty.

“We used to be really good at building plants back in the ’60s and ’70s. How do we reconstruct that? That’s going to be a real challenge,” Magwood said.

The only new nuclear power facilities built in America in recent decades are the third and fourth reactors at the Vogtle electric plant near Waynesboro, Georgia. While the reactors came online in 2023 and 2024 and produce more than 1,000 megawatts of power each, the project was billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.

Magwood said a lot of what boggled the Vogtle construction was the lack of institutional knowledge about building nuclear power plants.

“We just didn’t know what we were doing,” he said. “We hadn’t built a nuclear plant in a generation. We didn’t have people who knew how to do it. We didn’t have the infrastructure. We didn’t have the supply chain. The regulator didn’t know what the hell they were doing. I was there, so I know.”

In South Carolina, efforts to construct a new nuclear power plant were abandoned after billions were spent and the company behind the project went bankrupt.

Kurt Schaefer is tasked with ensuring Missouri can avoid similar blunders.

The longtime politician and public servant has been dubbed “the leader of Missouri’s nuclear power renaissance” by UM System President Mun Choi, who has been enthusiastic about advancing nuclear power by hosting national energy leaders on campus in recent years.

In May, Kehoe appointed Schaefer as head of the state’s new nuclear power task force, a group of representatives from utility companies, higher education institutions, politicians, state utility regulators and trades workers all charged with finding a way to make new nuclear power a reality.

Schaefer said the first step to establishing more nuclear power in the state is finding the cash.

“It’s all about money,” he said. “It is expensive up front to build a plant and unless the federal government steps up, I just don’t see it happening.”

In June, the federal Department of Energy announced $17.5 billion in loans for utilities and energy companies to build 10 large-scale commercial nuclear reactors.

Schaefer wants one of those reactors to be in Missouri, ideally near the existing nuclear plant in Callaway County.

“We are really behind the eight ball here in the United States on nuclear power, but you’re seeing a big effort, particularly from the federal government, to move us in that direction,” he said.

As electricity demand continues to climb, Schaefer believes nuclear power is the best way for Missouri to meet that demand. The zero-carbon plants can generate energy around the clock, unlike solar and wind power that need the right conditions to produce power.

Plus, given the longevity of nuclear power facilities, Schafer sees them as a good investment. To him, a robust power supply means a booming economy.

“This is our future, this is what we have to do to keep Missouri economically viable and that’s what we’re gonna do,” Schaefer said.

Who goes first?

The ballooning costs of nuclear power plants isn’t a new issue.

“Any project that big takes years to complete and things may change in the meantime,” said Victor McFarland, University of Missouri energy historian. “The costs of your supplies might go up, the cost of labor might go up.”

Decades ago, when many of America’s atomic energy centers were built, inflation was high and budgets stretched beyond initial figures.

“So the original estimates for the construction of these plants that were true, say, in 1970, they weren’t true anymore in 1975 or 1980,” McFarland said. “There were big cost overruns.”

Now, as the world turns away from fossil fuels, Magwood said nuclear capacity needs to triple to meet the net zero by 2050 goals. Currently, the nuclear power industry does not benefit from economies of scale. Because new nuclear projects are rare, costs are high and supply chains aren’t fully developed, adding to the overall risk of the endeavor.

“One of the big problems is nobody wants to be first … everybody wants to go fourth,” Magwood said. “Believe it or not, that doesn’t work very well. Somebody has to bite the bullet. Somebody has to take the risk. And what I think the industry would really like would be if the government somehow put a safety net under the first projects.”

Ameren Missouri has been clear about its goals to develop additional nuclear power. The company is planning to add 1,500 megawatts of atomic energy to its portfolio by 2045.

Callaway nuclear plant manager Travis Hart is an electrician by trade and first set foot at the facility 25 years ago when he was hired to work on the refueling crew. He said that’s when he fell in love with the place.

“When I walked in here and saw the equipment, how it fits together, how it works, how the design was, it was just extremely interesting to me,” Hart said.

There are a number of reasons the Callaway site is suited for expansion, Hart said. The location has access to the power grid, water from the nearby Missouri River, and a largely supportive local community that fills the plant’s roughly 750 permanent jobs while the company pays $9.8 million in annual property taxes to Callaway County.

The Callaway Energy Center’s current operating license extends through 2044, and Hart is confident the company will receive approval to operate beyond that date.

“I tell my people here all the time, … ‘this is important, so we got to get it right, and we got to do a good job of it, and it’s okay to be proud of it, because it makes a difference,’” Hart said.

In the coming years, the state’s new nuclear power task force will assess Missouri’s readiness to provide the workforce, policies and supply chain needed to create the “nuclear power renaissance.”

This story was originally published by KBIA and shared through the Missouri News Network.

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Missouri

Flash flooding traps hundreds of people in rural Missouri

Published

17 hours ago

July 11, 2026

Press Room

Flash flooding traps hundreds of people in rural Missouri

Flash flooding unleashed by torrential downpours from a wave of thunderstorms struck the Ozark Mountains in rural southeastern Missouri on Friday, trapping hundreds of people in high water along the rain-swollen Black River, ‌officials said.

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Missouri

SEMA sets info sessions for FEMA Public Assistance for late-April storms

Published

1 day ago

July 10, 2026

Press Room

SEMA sets info sessions for FEMA Public Assistance for late-April storms

The Missouri State Emergency Management Agency will conduct applicant briefings for local governments and nonprofit agencies applying for Public Assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

President Donald Trump approved Missouri’s request for a major disaster declaration for storms that hit the state between April 23-28.

The following counties are included in the federal disaster declaration: Carroll, Chariton, Greene, Holt, Howard, Monroe, Randolph, Saline and St. Francois, according to the news release.

The five mid-Missouri counties included in the Public Assistance request experienced tornadoes on April 27 that damaged homes, businesses, farms and infrastructure, according to previous KOMU 8 reporting.

FEMA’s Public Assistance program provides financial assistance to local governments and qualifying nonprofits for the repair of damaged roads, bridges and other public infrastructure as well as reimbursement of associated emergency response and recovery costs.

Five counties in mid-Missouri hit by severe weather in late April will get assistance from FEMA for impacts to infrastructure.

SEMA strongly encourages all eligible agencies that plan to apply for assistance in the 10 declared counties following the federal disaster declaration to attend one of the briefings, according to a Missouri State Emergency Management Agency news release.

Briefing information

The briefings will take place July 14-16 and explain program changes, eligibility information, the federal reimbursement processes and documentation requirements, according to the news release.

Applicant briefings are not for the general public; they are for FEMA’s Public Assistance program only, according to the news release.

Two applicant briefings will be held in mid-Missouri: one in Marshall and one in Moberly.

The briefing in Marshall will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 15 at Marshall City Hall, 214 North Lafayette Ave.

The briefing in Moberly will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 16 at Moberly Area Community College – Activity Center, 101 College Ave.

In-person applicant briefings can last up to four hours and provide an opportunity to meet with FEMA personnel, begin the required paperwork and ask questions, according to the news release.

Any government agency, including special districts such as road, water or sewer districts, or nonprofits in the declared counties that incurred disaster-related expenses should attend, including those that are unsure of their eligibility status, according to the news release.

Attendees should bring their organization’s Unique Entity Identifier and federal Employer Identification Number, to register in a timely manner, according to the news release.

All requests for Public Assistance must be submitted to FEMA within 30 days of the June 30 disaster declaration date, or July 30, according to the news release.

Applicants should plan accordingly as Public Assistance must first be received by SEMA before being submitted to FEMA by the August deadline, according to the news release.

Those who are unable to attend the briefing may watch a recorded informational video on SEMA’s website.

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