Will Mizzou Fail On The Road Again To Another Lame Sec Team?

[Smalliebigs]

I really hope Missouri can finally beat a team on the road that isn't a half assed high school squad. They need a road win so bad it hurts.

[Smalliebigs]

Wow South Carolina is a as bad as Mississippi State.......man there are some bad basketball teams in the SEC this year

[ozark trout fisher]

They handled their business nicely, especially on offense. Keion Bell and Jabari Brown were amazing. Phil Pressey focused on being a true point guard and did an admirable job. Oriakhi's game wouldn't jump right out at you, but he was good offensively. The defense was atrocious in the first half, but they really did an excellent job of fixing that in the second half. A loss here would probably have been Mizzou's last real chance to fall to the tournament bubble. It's not done yet, but one win in the final three regular season games (and at least one more in the SEC tournament) should get us in. Two more regular season wins and I will really breath a sigh of relief. Missouri's road record still isn't good (2-7) but I think that's not a terribly meaningful stat to the selection committee. They do seem to care about your record away from home, but that includes neutral site games. After all, the tournament will not be played in our opponents home arenas. So in away games, Missouri is 5-8 overall. That's not good, but when you mix it with the win over Florida and the 15-0 home record, it doesn't seem like such a huge deal.

On a side note, this is now Missouri's 5th straight 20 win season. What a run this program has had of late. You never know how long these things will last, so we should be enjoying our good fortune now. I am.

[snap]

mizzou is so much better when Pressey does not shoot the ball!!! when bell takes it to the hole, they are hard to beat, wherever they play!!! South Carolina shot lights out first half, some by bankin, some by luck,...good win for the tigers!!! I would not want to play them in the tourn no matter what seed they get.....the way they have been competing on the road, I still think they will be tough to beat. I also expect them to have a very good SEC tournament!!!

[ozark trout fisher]

Missouri has definitely showed the capability of late to be a tough out in both tournaments (SEC and NCAA.) It will be interesting how they handle it (assuming they don't have an epic collapse and somehow find a way to miss the tourney altogether.) Laurence Bowers and Alex Oriakhi both have big time NCAA tournament success under their belt (Elite 8 for Bowers, national championship for Oriakhi.) Pressey will be wanting to get the thought of last year out of his head. But this team has struggled in tough situations this year. If we can get through our first game, we'll probably be playing a #1 or #2 seed...so a team like Indiana, Miami, or Michigan State. Missouri can absolutely beat any of those teams on any given day...but we could just as easily lose to a 9 or 10 seed.

Should be a fun rematch with LSU on Saturday. Before we played them the first time, their season was going about as bad as could be...but beating us seemingly turned everything around for them. They were 10-7 at the time but now are 17-9 and not as far as some think from getting into the NCAA tournament conversation (though still pretty unlikely.) Missouri should win at home, but they force lots of turnovers so our guards will have to play pretty well. Also one of their post players, Johnny O'Bryant has been playing very well. That will mostly be on Alex Oriakhi to handle.

[Smalliebigs]

They handled their business nicely, especially on offense. Keion Bell and Jabari Brown were amazing. Phil Pressey focused on being a true point guard and did an admirable job. Oriakhi's game wouldn't jump right out at you, but he was good offensively. The defense was atrocious in the first half, but they really did an excellent job of fixing that in the second half. A loss here would probably have been Mizzou's last real chance to fall to the tournament bubble. It's not done yet, but one win in the final three regular season games (and at least one more in the SEC tournament) should get us in. Two more regular season wins and I will really breath a sigh of relief. Missouri's road record still isn't good (2-7) but I think that's not a terribly meaningful stat to the selection committee. They do seem to care about your record away from home, but that includes neutral site games. After all, the tournament will not be played in our opponents home arenas. So in away games, Missouri is 5-8 overall. That's not good, but when you mix it with the win over Florida and the 15-0 home record, it doesn't seem like such a huge deal.

On a side note, this is now Missouri's 5th straight 20 win season. What a run this program has had of late. You never know how long these things will last, so we should be enjoying our good fortune now. I am.

I agree OTF they looked good last night.....I really hope they keep it rolling

[Al Agnew]

It's amazing what hitting some shots early does to their confidence level. I've been watching them all year, and if they miss their first couple of shots of the game, seems like they go into a funk and have to scratch like heck to get out of it. But if they hit most of their first few shots, they're going to be shooting lights out the whole game.

I'm not worried much about their inability to win on the road. NCAA tourney games are neutral site games, and there they only lost to Louisville, and that was before they had Brown and were not even close to gelling. Of course, those of us who are long time Mizzou fans know you can't take anything for granted in the tournament (like last year), but I feel pretty good about their chances. A lot in any game depends upon how the refs are calling the game, though. I don't mean whether or not they appear to be biased, I mean whether or not they are calling ticky tack fouls...or not calling anything under the basket. Oriakhi still hasn't learned to not let being pounded without calls bother him, and Bowers has been very susceptible to ticky tack fouls lately.

[Tightline]

Pressey has been one of the best point guards I have seen play in years but at times I could just ring his neck.

Go Mizzou !!!!

[ozark trout fisher]

Mizzou can come close to sealing up a tourney bid with a win today...Let's get it done, fellas. LSU will be tough though.

[ozark trout fisher]

LSU was as tough as I expected. They really came out playing well in the first half, and showed toughness coming from down 6-0 to getting a big lead. But Missouri recovered, and this talented team combined with the atmosphere of Mizzou arena has been too much for every team so far this season. I was a bit worried when we were down double digits, but it always felt like Missouri would right the ship.

Mizzou has really helped itself in the last couple of weeks. This is actually a nice win, as LSU recent run has brought them up to 17-10 and into the top 100 of the RPI. Missouri found itself pretty close to the bubble after the Arkansas game, but winning three of four has really come close to ending that. At 21-8 and 10-6 in the SEC, Missouri is in very, very good shape heading down the stretch. A split in the last two games (home against Arkansas and on the road at Tennessee) would most likely lock up a tournament bid. Missouri can almost certainly afford to lose both if they can win a game or two in the SEC tournament. So it sure seems like a whole lot would have to happen for this to even be a slight concern come selection Sunday.

But the next two games are still huge for seeding. With a couple wins, Missouri would be 23-8 heading into the SEC tournament. That by itself is probably worth something like a 7 seed. Go win the SEC the tournament and a 5 seed is still a possibility. But Missouri more than likely is still headed for an 8 vs. 9 seed game. It seems like too much has too go right to move higher than that.