Conference tournaments: who to root for/against to help MU

Posted on: May 21, 2019 at 08:24:52 CT

Another year, another rapidly shrinking bubble for Mizzou as they once again suffer a late season meltdown (a little later this season than others). The one big difference this year, thankfully, is that the bubble for the NCAAs is very soft, meaning there are not a ton of teams competing for the last few spots and Mizzou's resume stacks up pretty well against those last teams. What we need to root for, more than anything, is few/no bubble bursting conference tournament results (ie cinderellas running the tournament and getting the auto-bid when they would not have otherwise qualified).

Ultimately, if we win today, we probably should get in. Win 2 games and we are definitely in. If we lose today, we are in some trouble and need the following things to happen.

Teams to root against (bubble teams we are competing with):
-Florida
They play aTm here in an hour to kick off the SEC tournament. The committee has never allowed more than 10 teams from a conference (SEC last year). If they are committed to not breaking that record, then we must root for UF to lose immediately and not get any more wins. Otherwise, they will look at that sweep we suffered last week and that could easily be the deciding factor on which of the two of us will get in.
-Auburn
Very similar to Florida. We need them to lose immediately as they also have a losing SEC record.
-Houston
A bubble team that we want to lose early in the AAC tourney.
-UCF
A bubble team that we want to lose early in the AAC tourney.
-Florida St
A bubble team with a good ACC record but a terrible RPI. The only reason they are considered is because of their history. We need them to lose ASAP in the tournament and not give the committee an opportunity to consider them.
-Virginia
-Oklahoma
-Michigan
-Louisiana Tech
-Duke
-UC Irvine
-Southern Miss
-Arizona
-Indiana St./Illinois St.
We need one of these 2 teams to lose early so that the Missouri Valley isn't a 3 team league.

Teams to root for (ie teams that will either help our RPI or will prevent bid-stealers from taking spots)
-LSU
-Tennessee
-(if we lose today then Ole Miss)
-UC-Santa Barbara
UCSB is the only at-large eligible team from the Big West this year. We need them to win the conference tournament to prevent a spot-stealer from getting in.
-Creighton
Creighton is the only at-large eligible team from the Big East this year. We need them to win the conference tournament to prevent a spot-stealer from getting in.
-East Carolina
They are a lock for a host, but we need them to win to hopefully prevent one of the AAC bubble teams from taking a spot.
-FAU
-Texas St.

Edited by MizzouAstro at 10:14:28 on 05/21/19