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Tigers on the rise set to face another set of Tigers careening off a cliff

Mizzou Links for Wednesday, February 1: Time to pad that NCAA resume in late night MU-LSU matchup

By Karen Steger
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Battle of the Tigers in Late Night Basketball

We’ve got another late one tonight. The Better Tigers (ours) are set to take on The Lesser Tigers (LSU) at 8pm tonight. Brandon’s preview for the game will be out early this morning, so this will be brief.

Friends, the black and gold team you cheer for is doing quite well these days, and are a handful of wins from cementing a spot in the NCAA Tournament under first year coach Dennis Gates. They are winners of the last two by double digits — on the road at Ole Miss and at home vs Iowa State in the Big 12/SEC Challenge — and are sitting at 16-5, which is three win better than noted Mizzou “realist” Matt Harris said he thought they’d have at this point. Yay! They are also 4-4 in the SEC, a game back of Kentucky and Florida.

As for the Bayou Bengals, they are in a bit of free fall under new head coach Matt McMahon. In the past week, they lost by 7 to Texas Tech (11-10, 1-8 Big 12) in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and by 20 to Arkansas. In fact, they haven’t won a game since… I’m still scrolling… 12/28, when they beat Arkansas in their SEC opener. LSU is just 9-12 on the season and 1-7 in the SEC, and are tied for 12th place with Ole Miss.

Side Note: It’s still hard for me to hear about LSU MBB and not be filled with rage over their coach former coach, Will ‘Loves to Cheat’ Wade. But alas, he was sent packing (far too late), and so I will simply channel my rage into their WBB coach, who truly deserves the ire of everyone.

Moving on. Before we get onto to Bracket Watch, here’s a request from our favorite Mizzou coach, Dennis Gates, to show up tonight at Mizzou Arena. Only $5 for upper level and $10 for lower bowl!

And finally, Tuesday is Bracket Day, so it is my duty to share this info with you this morning.

After a 2-0 week the just-out-of-the-rankings Tigers find themselves now planted on the 7-seed line in Joey Brackets’ new edition. As a reminder, they’ve been as high as a 6-seed in his bracket (after the Illinois win), and in his post-Iowa State W bracket that evening, Missouri was an 8-seed and no. 30 overall. Movin’ on up!

Moving on up...

According to his seed list, Missouri finds itself as the overall no. 27 seed (their highest was 20, post-Illini).

Matthew J Harris took a look at Bracket Matrix, which shares all the brackets. Seriously, there are SO MANY. Here’s what he found (and the link to Jerry Palm’s probably-way-too-high prediction):

Not included in the matrix, but yes, another bracket, Bracketville updated their projections as of January 30. Same as Joe Lunardi, he’s got Mizzou as a 7-seed vs 10-seed Maryland, and they’re then faced with 2-seed Texas vs. 15-seed Youngstown State.

To wrap up the men’s news, Tuesday was also the normal MBB media day, and ABC 17’s Chanel Porter and other area reporters chatted with him and D’Moi Hodge.

On the importance of February basketball:

On the women’s side, Charlie Creme also released a new bracket. Looks like the continual throttling at the hands of their past six opponents have moved the Tigers further onto the outside of the tourney looking in, now in the Next 4 Out. They sit at 14-8 overall and 3-6 in the SEC. They’re 55 in the NET.

Uhh, Mizzou? You’re moving the wrong direction, honey.

Here’s their next 4 games, which features two teams currently included in Creme’s bracket:

Thur, 2/2 (H) vs. Vandy (10-12, 1-7 SEC, 3-5 on road, 104 NET)

Sun, 2/5 (H) vs Bama (16-6, 5-4 SEC, 6-2 on road, 23 NET, projected 8-seed)

Sun 2/12 (A) vs Arkansas (17-7, 4-5 SEC, 9-3 home, 36 NET, projected 9-seed)

Thur 2/16 (H) vs MS State (15-7, 4-5 SEC, 2-4 on road, 40 NET, projected 1st 4 out)

All hope is not lost, but they have some work to do.

On to the Links. MIZ!

Check out the pregame primer at MUTigers.com.

Yesterday at Rock M

“The Tigers, adorned in their fresh vintage uniforms, squared off with former conference foe, Iowa State. Though the names of the players had changed, and the venue was several hundred yards further south, the nostalgia was splitting at the seams.” —Matt Watkins, The Verdict

More Links:

Hoops

Football

Other Mizzou Sports

  • Your weekly reminder from Dennis Gates on what to watch out for this week:
  • Wrestling returns to the mats on Friday to take on Oklahoma.

Mizzou in the Pros

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