Woof.

The 6-0 and 12th ranked Missouri Tigers had a golden opportunity to make a statement on Wednesday night to open league play.

But it just didn’t happen, unfortunately. The first loss of the season was an expected one — and Tennessee showed absolutely why they were picked as favorites to win the league in the SEC preseason poll.

A 73-53 blowout loss certainly served as a reality check night for Mizzou, and their No. 12 ranking is a tad overrated. On KenPom, the Tigers dropped nine spots from 40th to 49th. It isn’t the worst thing in the world, though.

Mizzou is going to have plenty of more games to show why they’re better than the 10th best team in the league, but a quick turnaround is needed.

Up next is Saturday at Arkansas, an 11:00 a.m. CT tip-off on CBS! At 9-0 (1-0), the Razorbacks are now the other unbeaten team remaining in the SEC.

It doesn’t get any easier from here. Time to see what this team is truly made of.

Other SEC scores on Wednesday night:

• Mississippi State 83, Georgia 73
• Arkansas 97, Auburn 85
• Florida 91, Vanderbilt 72

Onto the links!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• PODCAST: Grading Mizzou Football, with Brandon Kiley and Aaron Dryden
• From Aaron Dryden, here are three keys to evaluating Missouri Football
• Hoops Preview from Josh Matejka: Tennessee and Missouri both look to state their case as SEC’s best
• From Kortay Vincent: MBB game Thread: No. 12 Tigers vs No. 7 Volunteers
• Volunteer defense too much for the Tigers, writes Jacob Giancola

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More Links:

(PowerMizzou)

• Mitchell Forde has the Tiger Tip-off Preview of Tennessee
• ($$) Here is the latest (and final) edition of Gabe DeArmond’s Macadoodles Mailbag in 2020
• LIVE: The Baseline View vs Tennessee, with Gabe DeArmond
• LIVE: Dance Class: Tennessee Post-Game, with Gabe DeArmond

(STLToday)

• Dave Matter has the preview of No. 12 Mizzou vs No. 7 Tennessee match up
• In his predicted order of finish, Dave Matter has a team-by-team look at SEC basketball based on non-conference results, and Mizzou comes in third
• Experience figures to matter most in unpredictable SEC basketball race, writes Dave Matter
• In his latest Ten Hochman video, Benjamin Hochman previews Mizzou-Tennessee and gives his prediction
• The STL P-D beat writers discussed the 2020 sports highlights, see what Dave Matter had to say about Mizzou’s year
• On Dave Matter’s Mizzou Gameday Blog: Can Tigers unlock Vols’ elite defense?
• Vols take down Tigers, hand Mizzou season’s first loss, writes Dave Matter
• From Bennett Durando: Tigers trounced: Tennessee waltzes in match up of previously unbeaten teams

(KC Star)

• From Souichi Terada: Missouri Tigers basketball vs Tennessee Volunteers: Prediction, TV, lineups, bet line
• Souichi Terada examines What we learned as Mizzou hoops go knocked down by Tennessee in the Tigers’ SEC opener

(The Athletic)

• ($$) Peter Baugh goes in-depth on how Mizzou hired Eli Drinkwitz

(Columbia Missourian)

• From Joel Lorenzi, Pons commands the defense in Missouri’s first loss of the season
• Shannon Belt has a preview of Mizzou Women’s Basketball’s SEC opening week

(Columbia Daily Tribune)

• From Eric Blum and Kevin Graeler, here are their Top 10 Columbia sports moments of 2020

(Miscellaneous/Tweets)

• Defensive tackle Akial Byers announces that he will be returning to Mizzou next season

• Here’s an awesome hype video to get you ready for SEC play. It’ll get better.

• On The Big 550 KTRS, here is a 2020 Mizzou Football Year in Review Show with Brendan Wiese, Ben Frederickson, and Howard Richards. Also joined by Athletic Director Jim Sterk.
• On Claibs Online’s This Day in History, Gary Pinkel won his first bowl game with Mizzou in 2005 as Brad Smith and Missouri beat South Carolina in the Independence Bowl
• According to the Football Writers Association of America, Nick Bolton was named a second-team All American!

• On MUTigers.com, Mizzou Women’s Basketball Opens SEC Slate Against Alabama
• Happy Birthday to Dru Smith!

• If you’re looking to sign up for ESPN+, Rock M Nation now has an affiliate link: click Here for ESPN+ Now!
• If you’re looking to sign up for a new streaming service, you can try FuboTV: click HERE for FuboTV access — FuboTV now has ESPN, CBS, FS1 and more sports channels.
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