COLUMBIA, MO. • The Missouri men’s basketball team is a third of its way through the conference schedule and still projected as an NCAA Tournament team. ESPN’s latest Bracketlogy projections have the Tigers (13-6, 3-3 SEC) as the No. 10 seed in the South Region, opening against No. 7 seed Rhode Island (15-3) in Nashville. The winner would face the winner of a first-round matchup between No. 2 seed Xavier (18-3) and No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast (14-8).
CBSSports.com's NCAA projection also has Missouri as a 10 seed, playing No. 7 seed Miami in the first round. The other first-round matchup paired with MU's game is No. 2 West Virginia vs. No. 15 Canisius, also known as Kassius Robertson's former school. CBS has nine SEC schools in the field with the addition of Georgia as a No. 10 seed.
The strength of the SEC is clearly keeping the Tigers in the hunt for their first NCAA invite since 2013. Eight SEC teams are in the latest ESPN bracket. The league has never placed more than six teams in the NCAA Tournament. Here’s a look at the SEC projections:
EAST
No. 5 Florida vs. No. 11 Boise State/Houston play-in winner
No. 9 Arkansas vs. No. 8 Miami
No. 10 Alabama vs. No. 7 TCU
WEST
No. 5 Kentucky vs. No. 12 New Mexico State
MIDWEST
No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 12 Buffalo
WEST
No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 East Tennessee State
No. 9 Texas A&M vs. No. 8 Michigan
No. 10 Missouri vs. No. 7 Rhode Island
Of their remaining 12 games, the Tigers have six against SEC teams projected in the NCAA field, starting with Wednesday’s visit from Auburn. Three of the others are home games against Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas A&M. The Tigers have road games against Kentucky and Alabama.
That leaves six games against teams that aren’t projected in the NCAA field: home and away against Ole Miss and Mississippi State and road games at LSU and Vanderbilt.
With the conference race heating up, each week we’ll take stock of the conference with the P-D SEC Power Poll:
1. Florida (14-5, 6-1), RPI, 24
Gators have won eight of nine with road wins at Kentucky, Mizzou and Texas A&M
2. Auburn (17-2, 5-1), RPI 8
Lots of wins but only two over projected NCAA teams from the SEC.
3. Tennessee (13-5, 4-3), RPI 12
November win over Purdue looks more impressive each week.
4. Kentucky (14-5, 4-3), RPI 20
Cats out of the AP top 25 after losses to South Carolina, Florida.
5. Alabama (13-6, 5-2), RPI 26
Nine top-100 wins for the Tide, who have four straight wins.
6. Arkansas (13-6, 3-4), RPI 32
Hogs winless away from home in SEC action.
7. Texas A&M (13-6, 2-5), RPI 33
Aggies 2-0 since lineup returned to full strength.
8. Missouri (13-6, 3-3), RPI 36
Tigers cling to the bubble but Illinois loss still an RPI drag.
9. South Carolina (12-7, 3-4), RPI 53
Momentum stalled with home loss to Vols.
10. Georgia (12-6, 3-4), RPI 51
Dogs have dropped three of four after 2-0 SEC start.
11. Mississippi State (14-5, 3-4), RPI 76
Only two RPI top-11 wins.
12. Ole Miss (10-9, 3-4), RPI 150
Home win over the Gators keeps Rebels out of the bottom.
13. LSU (11-7, 2-4), RPI 99
Potent but inconsistent.
14. Vanderbilt (7-12, 2-5), RPI 143
Vandy beat LSU but still buried after brutal nonconference slate.
Lastly, here’s how I turned in my AP poll ballot this week:
1. Villanova
2. Virginia
3. Purdue
4. Duke
5. Kansas
6. Michigan State
7. Cincinnati
8. West Virginia
9. Oklahoma
10. Xavier
11. Arizona
12. Texas Tech
13. North Carolina
14. Clemson
15. St. Mary’s
16. Gonzaga
17. Ohio State
18. Florida
19. Arizona State
20. Wichita State
21. Auburn
22. Tennessee
23. Kentucky
24. Louisville
25. Rhode Island
Off the ballot: TCU, Seton Hall, Creighton, Michigan
New to the poll: St. Mary’s, Florida, Louisville, Rhode Island
Just missed the cut: TCU, Michigan, Nevada, Florida State
• I value head-to-head results, which makes voting trick some weeks, this time especially. St. Mary’s just beat Gonzaga at Gonzaga, but Gonzaga beat Ohio State by 27 points earlier this season. That explains Nos. 15-17 on my ballot. But what to do with Florida? The Gators beat Gonzaga in double overtime earlier this year, so why ranked below all three? Florida had more ground to make up after bad losses to Loyola Chicago and Ole Miss.
• Kentucky fell out of the AP poll for the first time since 2014, but I couldn’t leave the Cats off the ballot while adding Louisville. Just three weeks ago UK slaughtered the Cardinals by 29 points. Louisville is 5-1 in the ACC and deserves a spot in the top 25, which makes it hard to leave out the Cats.