No. 15 Mizzou Men Push for Top 4 Finish in Sec, host Alabama

Columbia, Mon. – Now for the stretch run.

No. 15 Missouri men’s basketball and the rest of the Southeasters Conference enters the last third of the league game. At 8-4, the tigers occupy sixth place in the conference. You have functionally secured your place in the NCAA tournament.

So it is about sowing.

Bracketologist PEG Mizzou as No. 5 seeds in the NCAA tournament. This still remains a rather sketchy science until the calendar turns to March.

The race for sowing in the SEC tournament, which takes place in Nashville, Tennessee, is far more specific. The seeds awarded in this holder are transmitted to a certain extent to March Madness, since the SEC will probably produce two or three of the later seeds of number 1 in the national tournament.

The race in the second is largely on the programs among the top 4-a battle with seven teams, which increases the use for Mus Showdown on Wednesday against No. 4 Alabama.

The four top sec teams at the end of the regular season receive double -bys during the tournament, which means that they enter the bracket in the quarter -finals. Sama 9-16 first play with the winners of these games, the seeds meet 5: 8. These winners in turn get seeds 1-4 in the quarters.

Since things are due to two thirds of the league game, seven teams seem to be in the mix for these four best places. In the order of the route, before the games on Tuesday, typed: No. 1 Auburn (11-1 in the Sec), Alabama (10-2), No. 7, Texas A & M (9-3), no. 2 Florida (9-3)), Missouri (8-4), No. 6 Tennessee (8-5) and No. 24 Mississippi (8-5).

By reviewing the Crimson Tide over the weekend, Auburn arrested his case as a team that can best withdraw to end at the conference. Alabama’s stop on place # 2 could definitely slip, with all of his last six games against the opponents of the ranking. At least the seeds 3 and 4 are available for one of these programs.

This adds a little to enjoy the matchups between teams in the top Seven. These are the types of games in which the winner receives a game advantage and the head-to-head tiebreaker, which could be important-opposite the loser and possibly as a key factor for the release of the SEC classification.

Of these seven top teams, all of them have at least three games against other top -seventh programs -with the exception of one: Mizzou.

The Tigers moderator Alabama organize on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and then stand a mix of teams from the middle or the ground of the conference to complete the schedule.

What does that mean? The negative is that MU has no further chance of winning the teams directly to the ground to secure one of the four best seeds. These opportunities have passed.

The positive could be stronger. While others in the top Seven deal with each other, Missouri will be outside the Fracas and theoretically wins in cheaper matchups. There are enough pitfalls to prevent the tigers from driving to the finish line – Arkansas develops and will be a hard trip on the street. Kentucky is 17th place – but you will be the favorites in most or all remaining games.

This is a way to 12 or 13 wins, which is probably the bar for a top four.

However, coach Dennis Gates set the bar higher.

“Job is not done about what we want to do, what we want to achieve,” he said. “We want to win a second championship. There are enough games so that we may be able to do that. The next phase of this is a double bye (closed in spots) 1-4. “

The missions for the late tips on Wednesday, which will take place in front of a sold -out crowd, and apart from the weather interruptions for the fans: the last chance of the Tigers in the race for the double beige directly in a team above them a direct floor.

And when we speak of races: The Mu -‘Bama showdown could be a high-quality, rapid affair. According to Kenpom, Alabama has the most efficient offensive and the fastest in the Sec. With 74.3 possessions per game and only 15.3 seconds The gunshot per property can move the flood at a blister pace.

Mizzou can be a fast and highly oktane offense, but Alabama is at his own level from a speed.

“Both teams achieve, both teams play with pace,” said Gates. “Hopefully the ball falls in love with us and I hope it doesn’t fall in love with you. It’s just that easy. “

The crimson tide is fresh from a loss against Auburn over the weekend, which the rivals in the states, which at that time took number 1 and 2, in 1st place.

Mark Sear’s security guard repeated Alabama’s leading goal scorer and scored 17.8 points per game. The Bouncy striker Grant Nelson has an average of 12.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

The weakness of the flood is offensive: they are 12. In the Sec and turning the ball with 17.9% of the offensive possessions. In their loss of league against Ole Miss, they ran out 21 times.

A first -class opponent who comes to the Mizzou Arena has to change for Missouri, which is urging to be classified at this level by university teams.

“I don’t change the way we play,” said Gates. “I will never do that. We will continue to play our boys with confidence, play selflessly, perform the game plan. “