Georgia

[Jerry Rapp]

Corey Tate would be another very good candidate. He has been the head coach at Mineral Area College(Junior College). He gets the D1 players who are too stupid to make a D1 school. He has connections in many places. He could do a Pinkel and bring in some mid level recruits and possibly make a team out of them, one that would stick around for at least 2 or 3 years. (and if you don't know who Corey Tate is, don't even respond).

[ozark trout fisher]

where is Kim Anderson these days??? I had the pleasure of observing a Missouri basketball practice years ago during the Norm years......Norm was working the crowd, which was cool, while Kim was teaching/coaching the floor.........OTF.....thinkin' you on to something there!!!

He's at UCM, and winning a bunch of ball games there. His team nearly beat MIzzou in the exhibition this year, which was ironic as heck.

As for the game today.....looks like the post players are coming along...Post (no pun intended), and Jones actually might be decent at some point in the future. This win itself doesn't mean much, but the development of those two (plus Johnathan Williams III) does.

If they win on senior night against A&M, despite all the damage their resume has taken, they would go into Knoxville on Saturday with their tournament hopes alive. But we really need to sweep this week to have any chance at all (which won't be easy, because Tennessee is borderline great at home and Texas A&M isn't a pushover.) Do that, and a trip to the semis of the SEC tournament would at least get us on the bubble. It's not likely, but it's not impossible.

The team that you could compare Mizzou with would be Ole Miss last year, who took a couple of late, bad losses to fall off the bubble before making a crazy run to steal the auto-bid and win a tourney game. Who knows, maybe they can do the same. And that would be the safest thing, to just go ahead and get the auto-bid. There are scenarios short of that where Mizzou can get an at-large bid, but none in which they'd be a total lock.

[Quillback]

Just thinking ahead to the SEC tournament, outside of Florida, you can make a case for about 6 teams having a shot at getting to the final. Kentucky is tough, but Arkansas has beaten them twice this year. Georgia, Mizzou, Tennessee, Ol Miss - they all have a reasonable chance. Could be a great tournament.

[ozark trout fisher]

Just thinking ahead to the SEC tournament, outside of Florida, you can make a case for about 6 teams having a shot at getting to the final. Kentucky is tough, but Arkansas has beaten them twice this year. Georgia, Mizzou, Tennessee, Ol Miss - they all have a reasonable chance. Could be a great tournament.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Since you brought up Kentucky....boy are they scuffling to finish out the season. Despite their ranking, that loss to Carolina yesterday puts them not far at all from the bubble. They only have one RPI top 50 win (Louisville) and one more over Missouri (right at #50 this morning.) With a record of 21-8, that is a profile of a bubble team right there. The thing that will save them is their non-conference SOS and a correspondingly inflated RPI. So they have no real chance to miss the tourney despite those poor numbers, but a 9-10 seed is extremely possible for a team that was dreaming of 40-0 before the season.

Calipari will not be fired after this year. But if they take a round of 64 or 32 loss this year, look for him to be near the top of the hot seat list headed into next season.

Anyway, right now I'm just hoping for the auto-bid for MO. There are ways to get in without it, but I don't like the math. So I'm hoping MIssouri can just avoid UF as long as possible, or else see the Gators upset before we would meet them. I think we have a shot against any other team, UK included. Arkansas might actually be the second scariest team in the SEC at the moment. This all depends on what seed we get. There is a ridiculously wide range MO could still secure, so I can't even begin to have any idea. A double bye is very much in play if we win out.

By the way, I can only thank Arkansas for getting red hot right after we beat them. Ya'll are not only playing yourselves into a 8-9 seed, you're also giving MO a couple quality wins we didn't know we had.

[Quillback]

I didn't know about that KY loss to SC until I just looked at the scores in the paper. That's a bit of a shocker. Those 2 wins over AR do give Mizzou an argument should AR make the NCAA's.

I never have liked the 8 or 9 seed, as if you win, you're going to get the #1 seed.

[ozark trout fisher]

I never have liked the 8 or 9 seed, as if you win, you're going to get the #1 seed.

True. Sometimes falling to an 11 is pretty good for your chances. You get a somewhat beatable 6 seed in the first round and then a really good team, but at least slightly flawed 3 seed next if you win. And compared to what you'd expect, a decent number 11 seeds make a sweet 16 run. It's much harder for 8/9 or 7/10 seeds who have a likely top-5 team in their second game.

And as far as the first game goes, there's precious little difference between playing an 8 seed or a 6 seed. Both will be tough, borderline top 25 teams still with a lot of holes to potentially exploit. If Missouri somehow sneaks in (probably as a play-in) an 11 seed is what I'm hoping for.

[Quillback]

I think an 11 seed would be great for Arkansas. Win your first 2 games and hope the 1 and 2 seeds get knocked out.