The Jordan Geist who Missouri basketball fans see now — a bit brash, plenty confident and living inside his opponents’ heads — first emerged through plenty of tears.
It was 2005, and Geist, then just a third-grader, had just faced off against Vijay Blackmon, currently a redshirt sophomore at Indiana. They were just boys, but Blackmon had an advanced vocabulary for their age, and he cussed at Geist throughout the game, until finally, when the contest was over, Geist started to cry.
After the game, Geist’s father, Scott, saw his son’s tears as they were leaving the gym, and he didn’t feel bad for his son when he found out why he was so down.