So looking at seeding, Mizzou would get the double bye, then the game 4 winner, which is Tennessee vs winner of SC vs Old Miss. I'm guessing that will be Tennessee. They beat them once already. But that doesn't mean that they will do it again. I'm sure that the Vols are going to be looking for revenge. But I'm going to be looking for another win Here's what I was looking at for seeding
SEC Men's Basketball Tournament 2023
All times central, all games at Bridgestone Arena
Wednesday, March 8
First round
Game 1: 12-seed South Carolina vs. 13-seed Ole Miss, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
Game 2: 11-seed Georgia vs. 14-seed LSU, 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Thursday, March 9
Second round
Game 3: 8-seed vs. 9-seed, noon (SEC Network)
Game 4: 5-seed Tennessee vs. Game 1 winner, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)
Game 5: 7-seed vs. 10-seed, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
Game 6: 6-seed Vanderbilt vs. Game 2 winner, 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Friday, March 10
Quarterfinals
Game 7: 1-seed Alabama vs. Game 3 winner, noon (ESPN)
Game 8: 4-seed Missouri vs. Game 4 winner, 2 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 9: 2-seed Texas A&M vs, Game 5 winner, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
Game 10: 3-seed Kentucky vs. Game 6 winner, 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Saturday, March 11
Semifinals
Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, noon (ESPN)
Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 2 p.m. (ESPN) [Reply]
��WATCH: #Mizzou AD Desiree Reed-Francois and head coach Dennis Gates escort guard Isiaih Mosley during Saturday's senior day ceremony @KSHB41pic.twitter.com/FdqCoYPpdq
Okay, here it is, lock it in: Your first pick to break brackets in the second round is Missouri. The Tigers, after a decade of mediocrity or worse in the SEC, are likely to land a seed around the 8-line, and with one of the highest Killer Ratings we’ve ever seen, they’d make a lethal Round 2 underdog.
It took one year for coach Dennis Gates, whose nicknames from colleagues include “The Sheriff” and “relationship collector”, to turn things around at Cleveland State, and he’s rebuilt Missouri even more quickly. Under Gates, the Tigers often look like they’re running the old Princeton offense on speed, with series of accurate passes leading either to quick long-distance shots or open space near the basket for big man Kobe Brown. Taking boatloads of threes (43.5% of FGA, ranking 41st in the NCAA) and making them at a 36.2% clip (ranking 67th), and shooting even more effectively inside (56.4%, ranking 11th), Missouri scores 120 adjusted points per 100 possessions, ninth-best in the country.
Defensively, Missouri forces steals on a whopping 14.8% of opponent possessions, with D’Moi Hodge, who has at least 5 steals in seven games this season, acting as a one-man wrecking crew. (Seriously, there are NCAA teams that don’t force turnovers on 14.8% of opponent possessions!) Overall, as the Tigers forego rebounding for pressure, they’re allowing opponents to shoot over 50% from inside and over 35% from beyond the arc. Not good, Missouri. But Slingshot says the disruption of the live-ball turnovers they compel will serve them well in the tournament — and steals have already been key to their wins over Arkansas, Iowa State and Tennessee this year.
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If you want an off-the-wall but eerily similar statistical comparison to Missouri, check out Eastern Kentucky under Jeff Neubauer from about a decade ago. With high-pressure defense, those Colonels were a top-five team at generating turnovers and took as many threes as possible without caring much where rebounds at either end clanged. In 2014, they beat Murray State and Belmont in their conference tournament, snagged a 15-seed and held Kansas to a one-point lead through three quarters of their matchup before succumbing in the NCAA Tournament.
These Tigers are about 11 points per 100 possessions better than that Eastern Kentucky squad, and the distinctive profile they share makes it very hard to run away from them. They could keep confounding good opponents deep into this year’s tournament. [Reply]