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1) Missouri won a basketball game on Saturday night. I don't honestly really have that much more to say about it. They played well for about 20 minutes, then played poorly for about 15, then were good enough in the last few to beat a team that is worse than they are. We're in that weird part of the season where we all know Missouri isn't playing for anything and the only curiosity most of us have can't be answered for another three or four weeks so we just kind of trudge along in limbo for the last few games of the season. Mizzou plays three games this week. The Tigers will host Arkansas on Tuesday night, then do a home and home with Mississippi State on Friday and Sunday. Winning 2 of 3 would be a great week, winning one is probably what you expect and going 0-3 wouldn't be a complete shock.
2) I just took a look at the SEC standings and it's a weird league as a whole this year. There are four teams that are pretty clearly at a different level than the rest of the league. Arkansas is currently in fourth place and has a two-game edge over LSU, Alabama and Florida, all of whom are tied for fifth. Here's how I'd rank the SEC if we're breaking things into tiers:
Tier 1: Auburn, Kentucky
Tier 2: Arkansas, Tennessee
Tier 3: LSU, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi State,
Tier 4: South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Missouri, Texas A&M
Tier 5: Georgia
3) Everybody wants to know whether there's going to be a coaching vacancy at Mizzou after this season. I honestly go back and forth on what I think will happen every day. It's definitely a possibility and it's definitely not a foregone conclusion. I do believe, based on what I've been hearing, that there are some back channel conversations going on. You know kind of a "Hey, we're not saying we like your friend, but if a situation were to arise where we might like your friend, if we asked your friend to play with us on recess, do you think she would say yes?" The way these things work is that those calls are made on a level where, down the road, school officials can say they haven't talked to anyone about the job and other coaches can say they haven't talked to anyone from School X. So just because there might be some exploratory conversations happening, that doesn't mean a decision has been made. I firmly believe no decision has been made.
The only job I'm almost certain will open in the SEC is Georgia. Texas A&M is possible. South Carolina is possible. There's some talk Jerry Stackhouse might be looking at something more in the NBA. Florida and Ole Miss aren't out of the question, but if I had to guess right now, I'd say Mike White and Kermit Davis will be back next year. The only job on that list I think is better than Missouri is Florida. In other words, if Missouri were to be looking for a coach, it isn't the worst year to be looking. I don't see a job in the Big 12 or the SEC that will be open that is clearly a better job.
4) On the women's side of things, it was a very bad week for Missouri basketball. The Tigers got thumped at Tennessee by 14 on Thursday and then lost their sixth in a row to "rival" Arkansas. They led the Razorbacks by 11 in the third quarter and then completely fell apart and got beat by 17. The Tigers have lost six of nine and have two road games against top 25 teams left among their four regular season games. It looks like they'll finish below .500 in the SEC. Mizzou is 45th in the NET rankings, which is still in the territory that you'd expect them to be in the NCAA Tournament as of today, but it's not a sure thing. The rest of the regular season has them facing Georgia (25), Florida (46), Mississippi State (51) and Kentucky (58).. They probably need to win two of those and then the opener in the SEC Tournament to avoid being really nervous on Selection Sunday (or Monday, I can't remember when they do the show for the women). When you start 12-2 with a win over the No. 1 team in the country and a two-point loss to a top-five team, being on the bubble is disappointing. But ending up on the wrong side of it would be borderline disastrous. Aijha Blackwell has become a star and Hayley Frank was one of the most celebrated recruits in quite some time. If those two end their junior seasons without having yet played in the NCAA Tournament, there's not really any way to spin that other than a failure and a major missed opportunity.
5) Continuing with Mizzou women's sports, the softball team opened the season with a 3-2 weekend in Florida. The Tigers beat Penn State in extra innings, then lost 6-2 to Connecticut on Friday. They routed Wisconsin and lost 4-3 to No. 13 Virginia Tech Saturday then bounced back with a 6-5 win over No. 24 Liberty on Sunday. It's not a great start, but not a terrible one. The UCONN game is the one you'd like back. But they've got another 50 games or so left and a random loss on the first day of the season shouldn't be used as a reason to forecast anything going forward. Mizzou will play Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday and then has five more games in Florida next weekend before heading over to California the following week.
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