How Missouri basketball can buck losing trend vs March Madness bubble squads at Oklahoma

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Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates believes in a 14-bid Southeastern Conference.

Not for the first time this season, Gates petitioned for the selection committee to not just break the Big East Conference’s record of 11 dancing teams in a single NCAA Tournament, but to shatter that number when the field is announced Sunday, March 16.

Fourteen is an immediately relevant number for the Tigers, because that number of berths for the SEC likely would put Mizzou’s next opponent — 14th-placed Oklahoma — into the March Madness field. However it ends up shaking out, the Sooners currently are on the bubble, and that’s been a dangerous matchup for Mizzou of late.

Vanderbilt essentially guaranteed its spot in the field by beating Mizzou in overtime Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee. One week earlier in Fayetteville, Arkansas, coach John Calipari’s Razorbacks added a much-needed signature win to their tournament credentials with a seven-point victory over the Tigers.

Notice the pattern? Two games against teams fighting for their lives, and two losses.

Mizzou (21-8, 10-6 SEC) has plenty of postseason reasons to buck that trend against the Sooners (17-12, 4-12) when it travels for a Wednesday night matchup in Norman, Oklahoma.

A win keeps Missouri alive in the hunt for an SEC Tournament double-bye heading into its regular-season finale. The Tigers also are straddling the line for a top-four seed into March, and a couple wins before the conference tournament could be the push Gates’ team needs to clinch a protected seed.

Putting a nail — perhaps the final nail — in OU’s tournament coffin is the place to start.

“I think your identity as a team is consistency. You’ve just got to be consistent, and that’s my concentration and message to our guys. We know what’s on the line,” Gates said. “It’s March. It’s March, and it’s conference season, and everything that we do and say has to match, and we have to go out and give our very best because we don’t want to take…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/missouri-basketball-buck-losing-trend-090655771.html

Author : Columbia Daily Tribune

Publish date : 2025-03-05 09:06:00

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