It's only early December, less than four weeks into the regular season, but in college basketball, it's never too soon to start thinking about March.
The Missouri basketball team has advanced to five straight NCAA Tournaments, equaling a school record first set from 1986-90 and matched from 1999-2003. The Tigers' chances of getting invited back to the sport's signature event will improve greatly if they show well over the next four days while playing host to West Virginia at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and welcoming No. 18 UCLA at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
The Missouri basketball team has advanced to five straight NCAA Tournaments, equaling a school record first set from 1986-90 and matched from 1999-2003. The Tigers' chances of getting invited back to the sport's signature event will improve greatly if they show well over the next four days while playing host to West Virginia at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and welcoming No. 18 UCLA at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
"We're looking at it as winning games as usual," junior guard Jabari Brown said. "But in the back of our minds, we know that it will play a role come tournament time."
The Mountaineers (6-2) and Bruins (8-0) are the second and third power-conference opponents Missouri will face this season, and both could wind up being counted among the quality wins when the NCAA Tournament selection committee sorts through the contenders in March.
Both have been prolific offensively. West Virginia, seemingly improved after a 13-19 season, is averaging 85.1 points, shooting 46.5 percent from 3-point range and has 50 more assists than turnovers. UCLA, the reigning Pac-12 regular-season champion, might be even better, averaging 90.6 points and shooting 55.2 percent from the field, second-best in the country.
Both represent significant upgrades in competition for Missouri, whose schedule ranks 274th, according to the ratings percentage index approximation at WarrenNolan.com.
"If you're able to have success against teams I think will do very well in their conferences, that definitely helps your résumé," MU Coach Frank Haith said.
The Tigers will get a few more chances to knock off big-name opponents before the start of SEC play when they face Illinois on Dec. 21 in in St. Louis and travel to North Carolina State on Dec. 28. Illinois is in the top 100 in RPI.
It was by design that Missouri's schedule started to get more difficult in December.
"We knew we were going to be a new team, a young team," Haith said.
NO NOSTALGIA: Missouri had no say in its opponent in the inaugural Big 12/SEC Challenge. The league offices got together to decide the matchups that weren't previously contracted by the schools involved. That could explain why the Tigers drew the Mountaineers and not one of their longtime former rivals — Kansas State, Iowa State or Oklahoma State, much less archrival Kansas.
"I don't think that's going to happen, not in this series," Haith said. "Maybe NCAA or somewhere down the road, but I don't think that's going to happen in the Big 12 Challenge."
GOOD PRESS: MU's basketball game against UCLA will be televised nationally on CBS and, for Tiger fans, could serve as the pre-pregame show for the SEC football title game between Missouri and Auburn, set to air at 3 p.m. on the network.
"What a great opportunity for the university," Haith said. "What does that do for the Mizzou brand? For six hours of that day, it's Mizzou. We're playing UCLA, and they're playing Auburn. I'm really happy for" Gary Pinkel, "and I think it does wonders for our program what they've accomplished."
Missouri's players are no different than a lot of MU students who would like to be at the game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
"I want to go, but we've got business to take care of," sophomore center Ryan Rosburg said. "So I'm hoping to win and then settle down and watch them win, so it'll be a big Saturday."
READY TO BE MORE INVOLVED?: Keanau Post arrived in Columbia with some fanfare as a junior college All-American last season at Southwestern Illinois College and seemed to have the inside track on the starting center position. But the 6-foot-11 junior lost that spot to Rosburg and has played sparingly. He's averaging 1.4 points and 2.0 rebounds while playing 9.1 minutes per game.
"It's a confidence thing with him," Haith said. "We've got to keep throwing him the ball, No. 1. It's sort of like what we did with Alex" Oriakhi. "We kind of force-fed Alex the ball. I think he's just got to get more comfortable. The speed of the game is something that he's got to adjust to.
"He's got it in him. It just takes time. Everybody progresses not the same in terms of how he gets it. But I think the first thing we must do is continue to encourage, and we've got to play inside-out a little bit more and give him opportunities."
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