Yep.

I think their plan is '**** it - keep scoring...'

Seems to be working so far.

Newell is a problem but he got away with a foul on that offensive board.

Second half going much better. From down 3 to up 17.

Yeah - I really don't know why this shouldn't have been expected.

We were clearly better than Georgia in the first half and they obviously weren't gonna keep shooting 60%.

Second time we knocked a rebound out of our own guys hands. Oh well finish this out.

Needed that win, doubt they can beat Bama even at home.

Damn, this team is fun to watch.

This team is legit ****ing good. It's easily the best team since they joined the SEC. Is it better than those Mike Anderson teams?

We can beat Bama

I am enjoying this team and this season. I really like how deep they are this year. LFG!

Better average point differential than all of the Anderson teams aside from 2009. In the end the team will be judged by what they do in March

The fact they can play so well on the road easily makes it our best SEC team ever

Looks like Ant is getting back into form at the most important time of year.

We can beat anyone at home or a neutral site.

Absolutely.

They can beat Auburn. They can literally beat any team in the country.

The stat from the broadcast was pretty amazing - something like they're the first power 5 team to average 8 made threes and 12 made FTs/gm.

That's amazing. Teams that shoot 3s don't usually get to the line. Teams that get to the line don't usually hit 3s. This team does both really well AND can function in a half-court.

They can absolutely beat anyone.

Yeah, with only Alabama and Kentucky as remaining ranked teams, I would think that 4-2 is the floor. Win or lose against Alabama, a win against currently 15 ranked Kentucky should give a nice boost as the last game of the regular season. A 3 or 4 seed seems like a reasonable seed to hope for. ESPN bracketology is currently pegging Mizzou as a 6 seed. But the 2 wins this week should improve that

Projected 6 seed is a joke. We should be at least 4 or 5 seed. Beat Alabama and the sky is the limit. This is the most fun I’ve had watching a mizzou team in a while.

4 or 6 doesn't really matter a ton to me.

You should beat whoever you play in the 1st round and should be playing the same quality of opponent either way in the 2nd.

If you can't get into the top 3, the only thing that REALLY matters is staying out of the 7-8-9-10 range.

Because if this team gets to the Sweet 16, that puts them 2 wins away from the vaunted Final 4 appearance we've been waiting decades for. And this squad CAN get those 2 wins.

But I'd really prefer they not have to power through a 1 or 2 seed to that position. Give me a reasonable run to the Sweet 16 and the rest is pretty irrelevant.

Say we go 5-1 and beat Alabama and Kentucky, but lose one of the other 4 games, then get to the semifinals of the SEC tourney what seed do we end up with then? 2? That has to put us in the top 10 right?

Probably 3.

We've just been fighting uphill all season. I don't see that changing now.

I could see us sneaking up to that 9-12 range in your scenario and that'll just be enough to keep us off a 2 line.

But really, your matchups from the 3 line aren't likely to be any better/worse than the 2 line. Oh sure, upsets mess with stuff, but can't be predicted.

In terms of 'path' I think there are some pretty clear breaks.

1
2-3
4-5-6-11-12-13
7-8-9-10

Chances are that we'll end up in that 3rd section somewhere but this team can do a LOT of damage from there.

Great call, as usual! :thumb:

That's the point sir.

How far do we move up this week? At 21 now, think we can take kU’s spot at 17 since they lost again?
How do we match up against Alabama? Admittedly I haven’t watched them this year so I don’t know what their strength is. I do know they’re the only team that gets to the free throw line more than we do so we have to limit the fouls. Sears is their best player 6’1” guard, does Ant guard him or Perkins?

Well, last week, after 2 close losses to top ten teams, they only fell 5 spots. This week, they bounced back with a blowout against a 16 win Oklahoma and a double digits win against a 16 win Georgia. They may not make it back up to 16 with those wins but we saw Arizona lose 2 this week. Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis and Ole Miss each lost a game. So I could see 16-18 as realistic.

This one is kinda long. But a good read

No. 21 Mizzou's Journey to NCAA Tournament Reaches 'Lock' Status
A road win over the Georgia Bulldogs has the Missouri Tiger's NCAA Tournament chances looking as sure as ever.

After improving its record to 19-6 and 8-4 in conference play, it looks like the Missouri Tigers are destined to find themselves playing in the NCAA tournament.

All things considered, that's pretty impressive, given how the Tigers ended their season in Southeastern Conference play last year. That's in the past and now, with six games remaining on its schedule, Missouri should be expecting to hear its name called on Selection Sunday.



The build up to that has been impressive. After beating the Georgia Bulldogs, Missouri has a 4-6 quadrant one record, according to the NET rankings. Those wins are against Kansas, Florida, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The losses the Tigers hold on its record are heavily outweighed by those wins, among others not in quadrant one.

Securing a victory over the then-No. 1-ranked Kansas Jayhawks was the first step in that process. Missouri won 76-67 at home in stunning fashion over the Jayhawks on Dec. 8, marking the start of an incredible run of play.

Despite the month of December for Missouri also including losses to Illinois and Auburn, the win over the Jayhawks proved to the country that Missouri could compete with the best teams in the country.


If that wasn't the case before, Missouri made its national presence felt by winning in Gainesville, Florida, against the fifth-ranked Gators. That win couldn't have been more surprising, especially with it coming on the road. Regardless of the perception of the victory, the Tigers pulled it off and earned some respect.

The next step of the journey to lock status was wins over No. 16 Ole Miss and No. 14 Mississippi State back-to-back. The taking down of Ole Miss came at home and Mississippi State on the road, simply adding more to a quickly growing resume of impressive wins. Those wins earned Missouri national attention, being ranked at No. 15 inside the AP poll on Feb. 10.



Despite dropping two consecutive games after its big win over the Bulldogs, Missouri stayed solid. Its losses against Tennessee and Texas A&M, two of the best teams in the SEC, were both nail-biters where Missouri had legitimate opportunities to have that result reversed.

Even after both of those losses, Missouri responded with another victory. What happened after that led the Tigers to its most recent victory against the Georgia Bulldogs, where they started slow but went on an impressive run in the second half to bury the Bulldogs. Its most recent win slides it in at No. 5 in the conference, ahead of teams like Tennessee and Kentucky (who both have the chance to move up in the standings on the same day).



An 8-4 SEC record and a growing overall record seem to have Missouri firmly in the postseason promise land. On Feb. 14, Joe Lunardi released an ESPN bracketology that featured the Tigers as a No. 6 seed facing 11-seeded Drake in the Midwest region. After two wins in the last week, they may move up another seed line.

With all of that being said, a nightmare scenario where the Tigers lose all of its last six games and other teams win enough to knock them out of March Madness is possible. It's unlikely, but that situation exists. One more win in SEC play should erase any chance of that happening, however.


The Tigers have a chance to pick up arguably its best win of the season on Wednesday, Feb. 19, against the No. 2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide at Mizzou Arena. Though Alabama suffered a recent defeat to the top-ranked Auburn Tigers, a win against Alabama would surely solidify its hopes as a high seed in March

https://www.si.com/college/missouri/...n-01jm5tr2nma7

Up to 15 in the AP ranking.

That feels about right. From what I've seen of them, they should be around 12-16.

Looking at AP ranking of 15 would mean you’d be the last three seed if they went by rankings which they don’t. But that sounds about right, 3/4 range unless we just go on a tear to end the season and beat Alabama then you’re thinking big. But for now it’s nice, much better than that disaster of a year last year.

Are my maths not mathing?

The top 12 gets 3 seeds.

We're sitting at about a 4 line based on that (which also seems about right).

You’re right it would be a 4 seed, my bad.

It's interesting that the Tigers dropped 6 spots last week, then bounced back 6 spots to where they were previously. I would think that even with a loss on Wednesday to Alabama, if they can run the table from there, a 4 or even a 3 should be the expectation. Beat Alabama and run the table, and a 3 should be a lock. Heck, that would be 2 quad 1 wins to finish the season. That could mean a 2. But I'm not expecting that. Alabama is going to be tough to be at. Kentucky won't exactly be a gimme either

The bracketology reports now are projecting Mizzou as a 5 seed. I guess that they're expecting 4-2 down the stretch with losses to Alabama and Kentucky. Because I would think that 5-1 will have them at least a 4.

We get Kentucky and Alabama at home. Can’t ask for more than that. Gotta win one of them somehow. Kentucky is up and down, I’d like our chances but that game is quite a ways away.

It would be really awesome - like awesome, awesome, awesome - to earn at least a 3 line. Not sure what Mizzou needs to do to get there, but a dude can dream, right?

This team is a lot of, lot of fun to watch. I love the depth and think it can be really helpful in March for those "Second game of the weekend" situations.

I also love that depth because Mizzou just has options. Foul trouble? They have depth to withstand it. Ant Robinson is having an off game? Perkins can keep things steady. Pierce isn't hitting his shots or playing with enough energy? They can go to a few different guys to replace those minutes (small - Warrick; big - Aidan Shaw; sharp-shooter - Jacob Crews). Teams are zoning up Mizzou and negating some of the effectiveness of Mitchell and Gray? They can go to a 3-F alignment with Mitchell-Crews-Pierce and pair that with Grill and one of the PG to shoot teams out of the zone. Speaking of small, say you hit a team that is small and fast. You can match that same line-up.

In 8 and a half hours there will be a basketball game.

Nice start.

This team is fun, however good they can be is yet to be seen the ceiling, but damn their floor is high

Wow! 59 points in the first half. Crazy!

These ****ers are shooting 61% is the only reason it’s not a plus 20 point game. And half of them are at the buzzer

Yeah. Both teams are shooting 60%. It'll e interesting to see what happens in the second half. Can both teams maintain that?

Playing good but we can't stop Bama from scoring in the second half. Nervous.

It would help if we could make a ****ing free throw. 15-25

Whenever I see Grill, I think of Derek Grimm.

I know. I'm old.

I get it.

Great answer to Bama cutting it to 6.

A less of a dick Jason Sutherland in Jeff Hafer's body.

Damn! Missed 2 more there. That hurts

Caleb Grill is a Dawg

How does Caleb Grill ever get 11+ free throw attempts in a game?

Gates needs to make everyone work on free throws tomorrow. This has been terrible

Ugh 6 point game. Come on Mizzou. Don't blow it now

Keep on rolling!

Put some respect on their name.

Woohoo! What a win! The trouble at the line made it more of a nail biter than it should have been. But man, what a fun team to watch.

We are a tough team. Could have rolled over several times and continued to answer.

HCDG needs so much credit turning this ship around and putting this team together. Chemistry is so good, team is phenomenal, just all around great.

Missed 16 free throws and still won by 12. Hell of a win. I think this is my favorite Mizzou BB team ever.

M-I-Z!

That might be the best played college basketball game I've ever seen.

Both those teams played about as well as they're capable of after Alabama got their feet under them after the 12-0 start.

That was two teams playing at a genuine NCAA Championship level.

And I hope Mark Sears gets Lupus. Goddamn he was good.

Hey! **** you!

I remember Grimm and I'm not old!

I've been a Mizzou fan for 40+ years and this is easily one of my top 5 favorite teams and is quickly rising.

I remember Grimm being pretty good from 3.

It was never a nail biter.

My one complaint.

They had two fouls on Sears with like 5 minutes left in the first half and NEVER went after him.

They did the same thing against A&M when they got a 4th foul on Taylor and didn't attack him to let him hang around and cut our throats.

Then as soon as Sears got a chance to put that 4th foul on Robinson, he want straight at him and immediately drew it.

Thats the kind of savvy move that I really think we'll need to see at some point in March. They absolutely have to find a way to get a guy like that off the court when they have him in foul trouble. At LEAST force Sears into a 3rd foul so they have to sit him down for a bit.

We didn't get that 3rd foul against as him until after the under 8 timeout, IIRC.

The shooting was off-the-charts by both teams. Those are two really good defensive teams and there was some really good defense played out there tonight...and they combined for 208 points. That's freaking craaaaaazy.

Apparently Mizzou arena is on fire. I’m speaking literally. The Powrrmizzou staff had to evacuate during their postgame show.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There is also apparently a literal ****ing fire at Mizzou Arena. <br><br>This League. <a href="https://t.co/vkQUFd82vI">pic.twitter.com/vkQUFd82vI</a></p>&mdash; Barstool SEC (@SECBarstool) <a href="https://twitter.com/SECBarstool/status/1892446084225495241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

When they pulled it to within 6 at the end and we were struggling at the line, I was getting nervous. But only for a few minutes. As soon as they jumped back to a ten point lead, I was able to relax.

This was certainly a great win. If they can win out, they've got to be a 3 seed. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Nobody remaining is going to just roll over. Kentucky is the only ranked team. But did you see the Auburn vs Arkansas score? They hung with Auburn much better than Mizzou did. Our boys should beat them. But you never know. I'm excited to see how they finish and how far they get in the dance.

Haha! Me too. I remember watching Anthony Peeler and Doug Smith playing when I was in college. That's been an eternity ago.

I think we kick the shit out of Arkansas.

Anyone watch the on court interview after the game? I ****ing love Dennis Gates and this team.

I used to be a huge Mizzou baskeball fan back in the day. The Melvin Booker and Jovan Crudup team after Peeler and Smith was really good too. I always loved Paul O'liney also, but I met him when I was ~12 and he had to be one of the dumbest humans I've ever engaged with.

Loved the Peeler/Smith teams... also loved the Pauling and Dooling teams.

I was a young kid during rush and Gilbert years and that’s when I fell in love with mizzou basketball. This team might be one of my top three favorites. The team that lost in the first round with that stacked team with English and Ratliff and Pressey is up there but that loss really hurts my perception of them.

Win out and in all probability they end up a 2 seed. Hell, at that point they're an SEC tournament win away from a 1 seed. Especially if they beat Auburn in the process.

I think Duke is a lock in a 1 spot. Houston probably as well. Auburn presently has one and the final 1 seed might be Florida.

So if you're Mizzou and you end up winning the SEC tournament, you'd have presumably gone through 1, if not 2 of those teams. You've already beaten Florida on the road. You've beaten one of the other teams in Bama that had an argument for a 1. You took TN down to the wire and honestly could've won that game had you just hit some of the looks you usually it.

Absolutely everything is still on the table for Mizzou, up to and including getting a 1 seed.

But winning out is going to be quite an ask with as many road games as we have left. And the teams they're playing are similar to Georgia in that they're not great teams, but they're not bad. Lots of bubble quality teams still to come.

South Carolina kinda sucks but we get them at home.

Arkansas, Vandy, Oklahoma and Kentucky are all teams that are, at worst, top 50 squads and will be playing for their tournament lives. Any of those wins could be the one that gets them into the Dance.

And that's to say nothing of the SEC tournament which will, IMO, be a harder tournament than the NCAA tournament will. To get through it even with a double bye will almost certainly require 3 wins against ranked teams (probably top 10 teams) in 3 days.

That's as hard as any elite 8 run ever is during the NCAA tournament because of upsets and such.

And to put into perspective how brutal this league is -- right now Kentucky doesn't even get a bye -- for Kentucky to win it, they'll have to play 5 games in 5 days, 4 of them almost certainly against ranked opponents.

Mizzou picked an awfully tough year to have the best team in program history because this conference is unlike anything I've ever seen. There are 14 teams in this conference with a genuine chance to make the tournament. The worst team in the conference very easily could've beaten Auburn, Vandy, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and/or A&M.

It's truly nuts.

I vaguely remember Smith, definitely remember Peeler.

The first real Mizzou team I clearly remember watching every chance I got was the Booker/Crudup team.

But I remember being real confused as to why Mizzou couldn't play in the tournament in the early 90s and thinking "Man, we self-reported and still got screwed?"

Some things never change...

But I think that's also why I remember Peeler and not Smith. I believe Peeler was on that 92 team with Booker that made the tournament. I'd say that was my true 'first team'.

Arkansas away - 37 kenpom
South Carolina home - 84 kenpom
Vanderbilt away - 47 kenpom
Oklahoma away - 50 kenpom
Kentucky home - 17 kenpom

South Carolina is hella bad. Mizzou is 12 in kenpom. It would be nice to in out and get a 2 seed. It’s doable but we gotta be better on the road.

I idolized Melvin Booker and one year I went to Norm's camp and he was my coach. It was unreal. Buck Grimm was there reffing games and he smashed my cousin's foot. I remember that was funny AF at the time because we always talked a ton of shit on Grimm during his career there.

Lawrence Bowers coaches my daughters basketball team.

He is an INCREDIBLY cool dude. I mean just the nicest guy. They're the penguins -- he showed up in game 1 in a big ol' penguin costume because he told a pile of 7 yr olds he would.

Now he has a couple younger kids as mascots on the bench with them also in penguin costumes.

But he gets so excited for these little girls anytime they do something. And man, my little, to my absolute shock, is a stick of dynamite out there. She's diving for loose balls, getting shots up and mostly just being a menace (she tells me how many fouls she gets after the game -- we've decided that she shouldn't have more than 3 but absolutely shouldn't have fewer than 2; you're not gonna be tall so you'd better be tough). Of my 3, that little princess is the absolute last of my children I figured would be sharpening her elbows in pre-game...

I think Bowers just being a damn good youth coach has something to do with it.

On that note, my eldest absolutely steamrolled Drinkwitz's daughter in a practice one day. Didn't really do it on purpose -- just chasing a rebound and didn't see her, went straight through her. No killer instinct at all but she's 65 lbs of pure muscle and sinew because of the 12 hours of friggen gymnastics she does every week. I wouldn't want her charging into me either. Eli's kid took the worst of it.