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Live Thread: Missouri Tigers at Arkansas Razorbacks

TV: ESPN2, Tom Hart, Sean Farnham
Radio: Tiger Radio Network // Sirius/XM -119/199

The Hogs are reeling and Mizzou could use a nice road win for its resume.

By Matthew Harris@MattJHarris85 Jan 13, 2018, 4:00pm CST

On Friday, Sam Snelling published detailed scout on this lab-produced rivalry, saving me the trouble of finding a pithy way to start this thread.

The stakes of this visit to Bud Walton Arena, where Mizzou hasn’t won in four years, require extrapolating into the future. The Tigers, as we’ve said repeatedly, are in needs of quality wins. This week, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi plugged the Tigers in as a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament, among the last teams to avoid a trip eastward on I-70 to Dayton for a play-in game.

Now, MU’s profile isn’t bad. It’s just bland. And, sure, Arkansas sits at 1-3 in the SEC standings, but the Razorbacks entered the day at No. 36 in KenPom and 26th in the Ratings Percentage Index. Recent slump aside, a win in Fayetteville would easily qualify as Missouri’s best to date.

Tonight’s meeting also kicks off a vital four-game stretch for Cuonzo Martin’s crew. A split against Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Auburn would be acceptable, but anything better eases some anxiety.

And you’ll hear me say this a bunch: tiebreakers matter. In a tightly bunched pack, seedings for the SEC tournament in St. Louis may require some thorough calculations, and a win or a loss could cost you a couple spots.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s turn our attention the KenPom preview: