On Missouri Basketball

I've already mentioned how I have little knowledge about college basketball, and apparently this year had little clue on how to seed the different college basketball teams in the tournament. Vanderbilt and Kansas State received way too high a seed while I think Belmont and Utah State had the cards stacked against them. I was, however, somewhat right about my thought that the Missouri Tigers were by no means a lock for the NCAA tournament.

The Tigers received an 11 seed in the West Region, and following the selection show on Sunday, CBS showed them as the first of the last 5 schools to get into the big dance. Clemson being the very last school. It's funny how quickly a schools hopes for a very successful basketball season can change in a month, or even in Missouri's case, a quick 5 game span over the course of about 2 weeks.

The season had came across struggles, a loss in OT at Texas A&M, a loss in OT against Georgetown. And perhaps before their treacherous end of the season, the bump in the road at Oklahoma State and at Colorado. However, before their trip to Manhatton to take on Kansas State, Missouri still seemed like a legitimate tournament contender. Then, they lost 3 straight, dropped to 6 behind Colorado in the Big 12 conference, struggled to put Texas Tech away in the opening round of the tournament and then seemingly quit against Texas A&M in the second round of the Big 12 tournament.

Now headed in as an 11 seed, the Tigers will take on Cincinnati in the opening round and then most likely play UConn if they can make it to the second round of regionals.