1) Missouri got a meaningful win over UCF on Saturday afternoon. It was, by any metric, the Tigers' best of the year so far. UCF is 68th in the NET and 58th at KenPom (one spot ahead of Missouri). Mizzou's next best win is Wichita State, which is 101 in the NET and 89 at KenPom. Mizzou's rankings at those spots are 64 (NET) and 59 (KenPom). But in areas where people that pick tournament teams look, it was helpful. Saturday counts as a Quad 2 win for now, just Mizzou's second of the year. In fact, Missouri is just 3-1 in Quad 3 or better games. The Tigers are 7-0 in Quad 4 games. It's a big number, but it's not completely out of the ordinary. Ten teams ranked above Mizzou have played six Quad 4 games. One (Mississippi State) has played seven. The win was also on a neutral court, which makes Mizzou 2-0 in games away from home. The only teams higher than Mizzou in the NET with more than two road/neutral wins in the country are Florida Atlantic, Sam Houston, Yale, Southern Miss and Marshall. All of their schedules are about to get worse. In other words, Missouri's schedule isn't good, but honestly, it's not completely out of line for a high-major team before Christmas.
2) So the Tigers did a thing on Saturday that will help with the Selection Committee, but we're a ways off from needing to talk about the Selection Committee. Ten of the 13 SEC opponents, plus the remaining two non-con teams on the schedule, are top 100 teams in the NET. The Tigers only play one team (South Carolina at 285!!!) outside of the top 150 the rest of the season. In other words, 20 of Missouri's 23 most difficult games this season are still ahead of the Tigers. I think a reasonable target to have serious nerves on Selection Sunday is to go .500 the rest of the way. That means beating either Illinois or Iowa State and going 9-9 in league play. That would put Mizzou at 20-11 overall heading into the SEC Tournament. For what it's worth, that's one game better than KenPom has them projected as of today (the prediction there has a win over Iowa State and an 8-10 league record). So it's possible. But it's too soon to start thinking about it. Pomeroy has Missouri losing eight of its next nine. That includes five games against top 20 KenPom teams. If Mizzou can go even 3-6 over that stretch, I think it's pretty damn good and should keep us interested well into February at the least.
3) The way Missouri won that game, of course, was epic.
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