Missouri fans don't get cautiously optimistic; they get minimally pessimistic.
The nation's No. 1 basketball player said he's considering playing for the Tigers?
Here's the fans' fear: They'll enter their home one night, turn on the light, and there's Tyus Edney, Nebraska receiver Matt Davison, the 2012 Norfolk State basketball team and a guy holding a fifth-down marker, all simultaneously screaming: "Gotcha!"
Things like Michael Porter Jr. don't happen to Mizzou often. Things like this happen to (dare I say) Kansas. But on Wednesday, the mythical figure spoke, and no, he didn't announce he's coming to Mizzou _ but darn if it he didn't sound like he's serious about doing so.
"To be able to go back (to Columbia), I know those Mizzou fans are hungry _ and I've been shown a lot of love from Mizzou fans," Porter Jr. said on a conference call upon winning Gatorade's award for national player of the year, which Jayson Tatum won last year. "It could be something real, real special just to come home and do my thing there, it would special."
MPJ confirmed that his father, Michael Porter Sr., has been offered a job as a Cuonzo Martin assistant at Missouri.
MPJ affirmed that he's getting out of his national letter of intent with Washington, which fired Lorenzo Romar.
MPJ shared that he met Martin in the past week, and that "I've heard all great things about him."
To think _ what Porter Jr. could do to the Mizzou way of thinking.
It could reprogram the Mizzou psyche.
And it could reignite the Mizzou imagination.
If Porter Jr. and his brother, Jontay, both play for the Tigers next season, is an eight-win team an Elite Eight team? How about this _ the Tigers are, at least, a tournament team. When your best player becomes, arguably, your third-best player, that's elevation. And to think, point guard Terrance Phillips cut down on the turnovers significantly in the final six games. And Jordan Barnett had some standout performances. And Kevin Puryear is my favorite current Tiger to watch play basketball _ he's forever voracious.
On Wednesday, Porter Jr. mentioned these fellows. It was almost surreal _ wait, the best high school player in the whole country can even name some Mizzou players?
He did, of course, live in Columbia from elementary school through his junior year in high school. And two sisters play for Mizzou's heralded women's team, coached by Porter Jr.'s aunt.
"It would be amazing to back there with them," he said. "Family is important to me, so that's a big consideration."
Wednesday was an important day, I say. He spoke! And the kid didn't shy away from questions about Mizzou. He said the right things about "weighing my options" and all that. But he gave clarity to questions that loom, notably: Will he play wherever his dad accepts a coaching gig?
"It's not a for-sure thing that I would follow him but, it does make sense if he goes to a big school," Porter Jr. said. "I do want to play under my dad. It's not him forcing me or anything, I just trust my dad, love my dad and I just want to be close to family. And that would be a great situation for me."
And, despite all the adorable Columbia ties, why would the best player in the whole country go to a team that won only eight games?
"I've always been the type of kid who wants to go make a difference at a school," said Porter Jr., whose prep team won three games the year before he and Jontay arrived. "Coming out here to Seattle, that being who I am, I decided to go to Nathan Hale (High School) even before I knew Brandon (Roy) would be the coach. I went there knowing I could make a big difference at a school that didn't have anything like that before. So with college, I don't want it to be any different. I want to go somewhere where I feel like I can help change the program and do something special."
This all just sounds too good to be true.
How will this situation get "Mizzou'd?"
Is it possible to believe that it won't?
The kid hinted that he won't make a decision for a couple of weeks. He's got the McDonald's All-American Game on March 29. Martin will want to get his staff acclimated and activated as soon as possible _ and Porter Sr. will want to get his next phase going, too. And they'll have to figure out if Jontay indeed can go to college ahead of schedule.
Here's thinking that Jontay, who should play two to four years of college basketball, wouldn't alter his whole career path just to play one year with his brother at, say, Oklahoma.
Jontay is supposed to graduate high school in 2018, and he's currently the 26th-best player in that class, per ESPN.com.
I'll leave you with this. Take it for what it's worth. Porter Jr. said he'd never even heard of Cuonzo Martin until Martin got the Mizzou gig. But, Porter Jr. said, "It turns out coach Romar knew him really well, and my dad knows who he was, and my dad went to meet with him. And I trust my dad. He said Cuonzo's a great guy, he's a winner, he has a competitiveness to him, so I've heard all great things about him."
So MPJ trusts his dad. MPJ said playing for dad would be a "great situation." MPJ's dad was offered a job by Mizzou. MPJ's brother wants to play college ball with MPJ. And at Mizzou, in the city where MPJ was raised, are two sisters and an aunt.
To make a reference to another famed Mizzou hoops recruit, let's hope Mizzou doesn't shoot itself in the foot.
Mizzou Arena should become Porter's House. Or, well, Porters' House.
But, yeah, until it's official, Mizzou fans will be nervous, for it's a time-honored school tradition.
