Nearly two years since the last rendition of March Madness, college basketball teams and fans rejoiced with the release of the 2021 NCAA Tournament field after the COVID-19 pandemic brought an abrupt end to the 2020 season.
With the bracket out and open to predictions, let’s look at where Missouri men’s basketball landed in the field as a No. 9 seed facing No. 8 Oklahoma on Saturday night, as well as how the rest of the Southeastern Conference shaped up.
###How does Missouri-Oklahoma compare to other No. 8-No. 9 games?###
In early February, it was unimaginable to see the Tigers and the Sooners facing each other in the No. 8-No. 9 seed matchup. It was more likely that if these two programs were to meet in March, it would have been in the Round of 32 or Sweet 16.
Since both teams pieced together improbable runs into the AP Top 10, each school skidded into March on cold streaks.
After Missouri’s victory over SEC champion and No. 2 seed Alabama on Feb. 6, the Tigers went 3-6 in their final nine games, falling from the AP Top 10 to out of the rankings in a matter of weeks. Inconsistent play on both sides of the ball and blown second-half leads sent Missouri in a tailspin from its position as one of the top-16 squads in the early bracket reveal to missing out on the top half of all teams.
Just a little farther south, Oklahoma went through its own crisis of confidence in even shorter fashion. Just like Missouri, the Sooners knocked off Alabama on its rise to No. 7 in the AP Poll before it dropped four straight to end the regular season with back-to-back losses against rival Oklahoma State, along with losses to Texas and lowly Kansas State.
Since Oklahoma matches Missouri as two cold teams heading into March, the Sooners might be the best avenue for the Tigers to advance into the Round of 32. Missouri has fallen victim to several teams who heated up late in the season, and other No. 8-No. 9 games have teams that are on fire.
Atlantic Coast Conference champion and No. 9 Georgia Tech hasn’t lost since mid-February and faces 24-4 Missouri Valley Conference champion Loyola Chicago in the South Region.
No. 8 North Carolina and No. 9 Wisconsin are both inconsistent, but cannot be overlooked in the South Region based on the amount of talent each team has.
Meanwhile, LSU came one point away from knocking off Alabama for the SEC title and St. Bonaventure’s took home the Atlantic 10 regular season and conference tournament titles.
Since both teams come into March sliding, Missouri should have a solid chance to beat its former Big 12 rival and advance to the Round of 32.
But that’s where the fun stops.
###Missouri faces major challenge if it makes it to Round of 32###
While Missouri has a legitimate shot at advancing against Oklahoma on Saturday night, the same cannot be said of its second-round opponent.
If Missouri advances to the Round of 32 on Saturday night, it would almost certainly play undefeated No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga.
The Bulldogs boast a historically dominant offense with the highest team field goal percentage in over 30 years. Gonzaga knocks down 55.1% of their shots and leads the nation with 92.1 points per game with versatile offensive weapons up and down the rotation.
Senior forward Corey Kispert averages nearly 20 points per game and sinks 46.3% of his threes, a clip that is third-best in the nation. He is merely the tip of the iceberg for a team that features two other Naismith College Player of the Year contenders in freshman guard Jalen Suggs and sophomore forward Drew Timme.
For Missouri to beat the No. 1 team in the country, it would require an unthinkable performance. Redshirt senior guard Dru Smith would need to clamp down on the uber-athletic Suggs while senior forward Jeremiah Tilmon would need to resuscitate his best performances from January to hang with Timme. Forcing anyone who isn’t Kispert to shoot from deep and controlling the pace of play would be key for the Round of 32 showdown if Missouri can make it that far.
The Tigers would’ve much preferred to be in the No. 8-No. 9 matchup that results in a second round matchup against Michigan. The Wolverines will play without senior forward Isaiah Livers for the foreseeable future and lost their only game so far without Livers in the Big 10 semifinals.
###SEC seeding###
The SEC fielded six teams in this year’s bracket, fourth-most among the Power Six conferences, but many teams in the conference didn’t get the positions they thought their résumé merited.
“Respectfully, that’s probably always the case,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said.
Going into the tournament, there was always the belief that bids and positioning would be skewed toward the Big Ten, considering it’s the strongest conference in the history of KenPom rankings. The conference yielded nine teams in this year’s tournament, including five of the top-16 seeds.
Missouri’s former conference, the Big 12, fielded seven out of its 10 teams, with the lowest-seeded team being the Tigers’ opponent on Saturday.
Unlike those two conferences, the committee didn’t give the SEC the benefit of the doubt.
Alabama was slotted as a No. 2 seed and the fifth-best team in the tournament. In the selection committee’s eyes, the Crimson Tide’s effort to win the SEC regular season and conference tournament titles was not enough to oust Michigan from the No. 1 seed in the East Region.
Arkansas and Tennessee were aptly seeded as a No. 3 and No. 5 seed, respectively. Meanwhile, Florida received a fortunate bump into the No. 7 seed after the Gators were initially placed as a No. 8 seed.
The selection committee instead placed SEC runner-up LSU at No. 8, two spots below Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology prediction. The only advantage Florida holds over the Bayou Bengals is in head-to-head record, where the Gators won their only matchup this season on Jan. 2.
LSU, meanwhile, holds advantages in conference record and conference tournament placement since Florida lost to Tennessee in the quarterfinals.
Martin mused over where the selection committee put his team and other SEC compatriots in the field after CBS revealed the bracket, saying possible biases toward the SEC as a “football conference” and the influence Kentucky has on league opinion.
“It’s such a high-power league in football, and I think what happens is when Kentucky’s not in, they assume the league is down,” Martin said.
The final SEC team to make it into March Madness was Missouri at No. 9 after projections had the Tigers floating between a No. 7 and No. 9 seed after their loss to Arkansas in the SEC quarterfinals.
Despite wins over nine tournament teams, the committee put more consideration into the questionable double-digit losses against non-tourney teams like Georgia, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
_Edited by Jack Soble | jsoble@themaneater.com_
