Usually, news around the SEC this time of year is about the upcoming football season. Especially in the SEC, which is the big bear when it comes to college football.
But as spring football draws to an end this week, the whole country is still watching what is going on with Missouri basketball and about to learn a new phrase: "None and Done."
Everything about Missouri has been in a tailspin the past couple of years, especially the men's basketball program that has fought back from the sudden desertion of Coach Frank Haith, who took a step down to go to Tulsa and get out of the way of the NCAA investigation he caused.
To make a long story short, former Tigers player Kim Anderson was brought in, not given enough time to fix the problems and was fired.
That put into motion the hiring of Cuonzo Martin by Mizzou.
Another firing, way out in Washington, was Lorenzo Romar getting released despite signing the nation's No. 1 player, plus a four-star point guard.
Martin first gained some repute at Missouri State, which got him the Tennessee job. Then he surprised everyone by leaving for California.
Martin has stayed exactly three seasons at every school where he has been the head coach.
Martin is a resilient guy who played for Gene Keady at Purdue and was playing professionally overseas when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which brought him home for treatment and eight years as an assistant under Keady.
Martin is also a smart guy. He heard the nation's No. 1 player, Michael Porter Jr., was interested in decommitting from Washington. Porter's dad was an assistant for Romar and was also fired.
The elder Porter had worked as an assistant coach for the Missouri women's team from 2010-2016, and Martin reached out to him and apparently the call also became a job interview.
Porter Sr. was hired and Porter Jr., who has two younger siblings who are outstanding basketball players as well, committed to Missouri.
He's the first No. 1 basketball recruit to ever sign with Mizzou.
Porter Jr. then reached out to his friend Blake Harris, a four-star point guard who had also decommitted from Washington, and after a flurry of recruiting calls from other schools, Harris announced he, too, would be a Tiger.
No doubt, Porter Sr. had a hand in recruiting them to Washington and then Missouri, but it is very common in college athletics for a coach to leave a school for another school and go after the same recruits.
Suddenly, last week, Missouri joined Kentucky, Florida State, North Carolina and Duke on the finalist list for Kevin Knox II, who like Porter is a swingman, and the No. 8-ranked player in the 2017 recruiting class.
Knox is 17 and still growing. He has not committed to the Tigers and said he will make a decision in early May, but his father played football on a national championship Florida State team and his mom played volleyball there.
Meanwhile, Kentucky, which could lose out on Knox, had its sixth player announce for the NBA Draft, although he is not signing with an agent.
Hamidou Diallo is projected as the 22nd player in the next draft. If he goes, he will be the Wildcats' first "None and Done." He practiced with the team this season but didn't play, yet he turns 19 in July and is eligible for the draft.
And, in closing, former LSU great Shaquille O'Neal's son, Shareef, said he intends to play basketball at Arizona. Missouri was not mentioned in his recruitment.
Sports on 04/25/2017