Missouri looking forward to Selection Sunday
Dennis Gates isn’t all that interested in guessing where Missouri might be seeded in the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday.
The Tiger’s head coach has plenty of opinions on the rest of the SEC. Gates said Saturday he thinks the conference should have eight or nine teams get into the Big Dance. He thinks Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Arkansas should all make it. He thinks Tennessee and Texas A&M should both be No. 2 seeds. He also thinks Alabama should be the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.
But as far as where Mizzou ends up, Gates doesn’t have any opinion. The Tigers have been doubted all year. They were picked 11th in the SEC preseason poll. Pundits, such as Jeff Goodman of ESPN, criticized the team’s relatively easy non-conference schedule. Missouri was voted No. 25 in the most recent AP Poll but is only No. 42 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. Gates said he’s heard a lot more negative about his team than he has positive throughout the year.
“I just hope we get in,” Gates said “That's my hope. I hope we get in. I don't know what the committee will do. It's going to be a lot of great teams not make the tournament. I hope we're able to get in. I hope we've done enough.”
Missouri’s chances to receive an at-large bid are much better than Gates makes them seem. Jerry Palm, a bracketologist for CBS Sports who projected the team as a No. 6 seed before its loss to Alabama in the SEC tournament on Saturday, told PowerMizzou.com in February that seeding for the NCAA tournament comes down to four factors: who did you play, where did you play, who did you beat and who beat you?
Based on those standards the Tigers are still one of the top teams in the country, even after being eliminated from the SEC tournament by the Crimson Tide. Mizzou is one of just six teams that have at least six victories over Quad 1 opponents and no losses against Quad 2-4 teams, joining Alabama, Baylor, Kansas, Texas and UCLA. All of the other five teams in the exclusive club are ranked in the top seven of this week’s AP Poll.
The Tigers were in the field of 68 in all 118 tournament forecasts that were tracked by The Bracket Project as of Saturday night. The team was slotted as high as a No. 5 seed and as low as a No. 9. The Tigers had an average seed of 6.99, which projects them as the second-highest No. 7 seed in the tournament.
Many of Mizzou’s players know what to expect on Sunday. Senior forward Kobe Brown, senior point guard Nick Honor and the four players who followed Gates from Cleveland State to Missouri — Tre Gomillion, D’Moi Hodge, Mabor Majak and Ben Sternberg — have all been to the Big Dance before. Brown said the team’s felt a little disrespected all season, but that he’s not all that concerned with how they’ll end up getting seeded. It’s all a part of March Madness.
“I feel like tomorrow, whatever happens, happens,” Brown said on Saturday. “We're not too worried about it, we're not going to be too surprised. Wherever they place us, we're gonna fight and we're gonna give it our all. We're gonna have fun. You know, it's our last time for our team to be together. So wherever we are, we're gonna try to make the most of it.”
But for players like Noah Carter, Ronnie DeGray III, Mohamed Diarra, Sean East II, DeAndre Gholston and Mabor Majak — upperclassmen who have spent upwards of three years in the sport — Sunday will be the first time their team’s name will be called. It’s the dream they all aspired to when they became Division I athletes.
The same goes for underclassmen Kaleb Brown, Jackson Francois and Aidan Shaw. Selection Sunday will be a first for them, too.
“As a team, we’re very excited,” Gholston said. “Just to know we've worked hard all year and we're getting rewarded for it is a great feeling. And personally, it's no better feeling to me. I've never been in the tournament before. I've been at a mid-major, so around this time, if I lose, I'm usually going home. But you know, I have the opportunity to share this one shining moment with my brothers and try to see if we can do something special.”
The Tigers will find out their NCAA tournament fate during the Selection Sunday show, airing on CBS at 5 p.m. CT. The team will hold a watch party open to the public inside Mizzou Arena, with doors opening at 4 p.m.
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