This is the latest in a series of stories highlighting the top 30 Mizzou athletes Dave Matter has covered in his time writing about the Tigers since the late 1990s. The series will run every day Monday through Friday.
Shortly after Mizzou hired a 32-year-old head coach, the basketball program’s youth movement paid off with the kind of refreshing recruiting news that wasn’t happening under Norm Stewart. Kareem Rush and his three straight state championships, his 31 points per game and his Mr. Show-Me Basketball title weren’t coming to Columbia under the old guard. But he was the first official addition of the Quin Snyder regime in 1999.