29-0

Posted on: March 21, 2025 at 11:31:16 CT

Take this for what it's worth, but the guy on the "Locked on Mizzou" podcast said that MU is #1 in schools with the most NCAA tournament bids and no Final Four trips.

Based on that, MU is by far the best school to not make it to a FF yet. Why is that? Do we get out-coached? Do the players get too nervous? Maybe a combination of both? It hasn't always been due to lack of talent, that's for sure.

But schools like Florida Atlantic, Loyola and San Diegho State have done it. Is it really that hard to get there, as MU makes it seem?

MU has had 16 first-round tourney losses to teams like Lamar, Rhode Island, UAB, Northern Iowa, New Mexico and Norfolk State.

Even the Stipo/Sunvold teams had two first-round losses. And those teams won the conference four straight years — something that no other MU teams have done in the 40 years since.

The reality is as much as we wish or hope for better, MU is really no better than a middle-of-the-road program. I haven't seen anything to change that in the 50 years I've been folowing MU athletics.