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