Missouri bball current NET ranking and possible finish

Posted on: December 23, 2024 at 08:48:25 CT

Missouri's NET ranking after the IL game is 45. NET ranking is reportedly used heavily by the NCAA tournament selection committee.

KS is 12, IL is 14, and Memphis is 46. Cal is 125. Missouri will beat Alabama State in the next game to be 11-2. Of course the big question is how will Missouri fare in the very tough and deep SEC conference. Below is a summary of the current NET rankings of all the SEC teams and whether Missouri plays them at home or away.

Note, the only three SEC teams Missouri will play twice before the SEC tournament are Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, MO faces 4 of the top 5 teams on the road. You have to get down to Kentucky on the list before you have a game with a decent chance of winning, and then the teams below that are all possible wins, especially at home.

Auburn (NET ranking of 1) - away - highly probable loss
Tennessee (2) - away - highly probable loss
Florida (3) - away - highly probable loss
Alabama (10) - home - probable loss but potential for upset
MS State (13) - away - probable loss but potential for upset

Kentucky (19) - home - competitive game, reasonable chance of win
Georgia (26) - away - more likely to lose than win
Texas A&M (27) - home - competitive game, reasonable chance of win
Ole Miss (31) - home - competitive game, reasonable chance of win
Texas (35) -- away - more likely to lose than win but could be competitive

Vanderbilt (38) - play them home and away, figure a split of the two games
Oklahoma (42) - play them home and away, figure a split of the two games
Arkansas (43) - play them home and away, figure a split of the two games

LSU (62) - home - probable win
South Carolina(84) - home - probable win

Looking at above, based on current NET rankings, there are only two games against teams with lower net rankings, but Missouri should win those two. Then there are three home and away games with teams with comparable rankings, and hopefully Missouri wins at least the home games, would be nice to steal one or two of the others. But figure at least least three more wins from these games, providing a total of at least five wins so far in the calculations.

Then the question is can Missouri win the three home games against higher ranked Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss. I'm going to assume they win 2 of those 3. That would be 7 wins.

If they can get to 8 or 9 wins and win a game or two in the SEC tourney, I would think MO would get an NCAA tournament invite. To do that they will have to either beat all three of KY, MS, and A&M at home, or steal a game or two on the road somewhere, which is certainly possible but likely difficult.

It would definitely be nice to see them go 9-9 in the conference regular season and then get a couple of SEC tournament wins before bowing out, I think that would guarantee they would be in the Big Dance at 22-12 (regular season 20-11). More likely is ending up 19-12 in the regular season, and 20-13 after winning one game and then losing in the SEC tourney. But hopefully they will continue to improve, especially after getting Grill back, and gradually climb in NET ranking with corresponding wins.

Edited by Harvest at 10:27:33 on 12/23/24