An ugly, physical defensive loss against No. 19 Georgia (25-5) ended No. 14 Missouri’s conference tournament run in a Friday night quarterfinal.
It wasn’t a pretty game. Missouri (24-7) lacked any sustained offense, shooting 27 percent from the floor and 21 percent from three. Those are two season lows for a team that prides itself on its offensive attack. Georgia took away any momentum that Missouri mustered, and the Bulldog press sped the fatigued Tigers up to a point of breaking.
Now, they get a little break, and despite the elimination in the SEC Tournament, Missouri isn’t done playing basketball just yet.
The Tigers now await Selection Monday on March 12 at 6 p.m. on ESPN. Sixty-four teams will be in the bracket, and the top 16 teams will host the first two rounds of the tournament that starts on March 16.
Missouri could still be one of those 16 teams. The Tigers just don’t control their own path now.
“We know it’s one game at a time in the NCAA Tournament, but we’re hoping to make a deep run,” Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said after Friday’s game.
Thursday night’s second-round win against Mississippi was crucial for Missouri to still be in the hosting talk. The final regular-season loss at No. 17 Texas A&M, who lost in the SEC semifinals to Mississippi State, didn’t really hurt the Tigers, and losing to another ranked team in the SEC Tournament shouldn’t really hurt, either.
In the final NCAA Selection Committee rankings, Missouri was slotted at No. 11. The teams below the Tigers: Tennessee, Ohio State, Maryland, Georgia and Stanford.
In Sunday’s bracketology update, Missouri is the No. 5 seed in the Lexington, Kentucky region. The Tigers would play the first two rounds at Stanford. Stanford lost the Pac-12 championship to Oregon, but losing in the championship game probably won’t kick Stanford out of the Top-16.
Maryland lost in the Big 10 championship to Ohio State, who is also the No. 3 seed in the Lexington region. The Buckeyes probably will stay a three-seed. But the Terps ended their regular season on a three-game losing streak and then lost in the championship. That might be enough to kick them out of the Top-16. Georgia’s win over Missouri will help the Bulldogs potentially jump a few spots, too.
It’s up to the NCAA selection committee, of course, but Missouri really shouldn’t be out of the running to the a Top-16 seed. The Tigers would have to fall six spots after losing two ranked games, one of them on the road.
However, it will be close. Missouri hasn’t hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament since 1986. It will help the Tigers immensely if they can seal that home-court advantage.
“We’ve done a lot of things this year that Mizzou hasn’t done in a long time,” Pingeton said on Friday. And it’s not over. Thankfully, this isn’t it.”
