Mizzou (21-9, 8-8) will face off with BYU (26-6), Saturday March 19th at 5:30 CT on ESPN2 in Austin, Texas. The Tigers were awarded one of the last four at-large bids for the big dance along with St. Bonaventure, Purdue and Princeton.
Here's the team's reaction:
For the first time in a decade, we're going dancing! #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/4sZCiFx0WD
— Mizzou Basketball (@MizzouWBB) March 14, 2016
Saturday marks the 6th meeting between Mizzou and BYU. Mizzou has won each of the previous meetings, though to be fair the two teams haven’t faced off since 1997. According to 538, Mizzou has a 64% chance of advancing past BYU.
In 2001 Missouri WBB was a #10 seed, beat #7 Wisconsin & #2 Georgia
— Tom Orf (@MU4124) March 15, 2016
Mizzou’s upcoming appearance in the NCAA tournament, puts an end to what had been a 10 year drought. This is the fourth consecutive winning season for Robin Pingeton, as the head coach of the Missouri Tigers.
Mizzou started off the season with an historic 13-0 start, but limped through SEC play and ultimately finished with a 21-9 record. A record nine SEC teams will be competing in March Madness this year. This marks just the second time in NCAA history that one conference has sent nine teams to the tournament.
Heading into the NCAA Tournament
Junior forward Jordan Frericks represented Mizzou well this season, by making an all SEC team for the second consecutive season.
Cierra Porter made the SEC All-Freshman team along with former McDonald’s All-American, and freshman phenom Sophie Cunningham. Cunningham was named SEC freshman of the year and is one of eight finalists for the USBWA freshman of the year award.
Even our coaches couldn't resist cause .... WE DANCIN YALL pic.twitter.com/UE61sAxEa7
— Sophie Cunningham (@sophaller) March 15, 2016
Cunningham set an SEC record by being named, SEC freshman of the year six times. The highlight of Cunningham’s season came on the road against Wake Forest, when she poured in 42 points, which broke MU's single-game scoring record.
The Tiger faithful showed their gratitude through out the season, as Mizzou had the sixth highest per game attendance in school history with an average of 3,669 attendants. Mizzou ranked 26th in the nation in overall attendance. 7,989 fans packed Mizzou Arena to see the Tigers battle the Tennessee Volunteers.
These are my people! pic.twitter.com/geeVUO9ohs
— Sierra Michaelis (@SierraMichaelis) March 15, 2016
See and hear from @MizzouWBB mins after they found out they're going dancing in the NCAA tourney!! #marchmadnesshttps://t.co/UY1q0EyiNA
— Mizzou Network (@MizzouNetwork) March 15, 2016