Mizzou Basketball faces must win game in Tuscaloosa
As the regular season marches on, Mizzou basketball has to keep up with the other teams in the SEC in order to pad their tournament resumé. Beating Alabama on the road would do just that.
Before SEC play got underway, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Missouri Tigers would make the NCAA Tournament. At the very least, they’d be a lower seed, but getting to the tournament after the past three seasons Missouri had would have been an absolute joy.
Now, however, several weeks have passed and the Tigers are in desperate need for “quality wins”, as the analysts call them. Wednesday will see MU hit the road for Tuscaloosa, where they’ll play the surprisingly good Alabama Crimson Tide hoops team.
We all know Alabama is known for their winning ways in football, so seeing them succeed on the basketball court is a little odd. At the moment though, Alabama is faring quite well. They recently took down a ranked Oklahoma team in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and also have an impressive win over ranked Auburn on their resumé.
The Tigers can’t really afford many more losses if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.
The point being is that if Mizzou can go to Coleman Coliseum and upset the Tide, the possibility of going dancing in March becomes a real possibility for the 2017-2018 Tigers. Initially, this game probably didn’t look all that scary for MU fans, but Alabama is a good team and they’re proving it each and every game.
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For one, they have Collin Sexton on their team, who is averaging 18.5 points per game. Sexton is one of the better players in the SEC this season and he has been one of the main reasons as to why Alabama is relevant in hoops.
Mizzou basketball is trending in the opposite direction, especially after such a hot start to the season. They’ve been below average in SEC play, posting a 3-5 conference record and a 13-8 record overall.
The Tigers can’t really afford many more losses if they want to make the NCAA Tournament, so this game against Alabama is critical for them. The Crimson Tide only have one more win and one less loss than MU does, but their 5-3 conference record and big time wins over Auburn and Oklahoma will help push them into March Madness.
Missouri, on the other hand, has just one impressive win and that came against ranked Tennessee several weeks ago. The Volunteers are still ranked for what it’s worth, but Missouri is running out of opportunities to get quality wins.
Tackling the Tide on Wednesday night is the perfect way to get Mizzou back in the tournament conversations. Hopefully they can pull off the upset and then can stay hot to close out the first regular season under head coach Cuonzo Martin.