STILL IN? Missouri Tigers Have A LOT On The Line Against Arkansas

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After the debacle in Norman,

just how safe is Missouri spot?

In the big dance.

Lots of possibilities still remain with one game to go.

Let's talk about them all unlocked on Mizzou.

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Hey, all you true sons and daughters.

I'm John Miller, your Mizzou Mafioso.

And the central scrutinizer of Missouri Tigers football.

And basketball.

And not only on the basketball side,

but on the entire athletic department.

KU facing some interesting.

A fight, a national drama.

Plus Kim English reportedly out as Providence's head coach.

But as I said, lots of double buy possibilities still alive for Missouri.

Of course, the Tigers are going to have to beat Arkansas.

That's the obvious first step.

But I'll get into all of the potential steps here as we start the program.

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And I got to say you look at Missouri's position now in the big dance.

I think Missouri missing the tournament is pretty unlikely at this point.

But certainly the Arkansas game is still really important for Missouri.

Now, obviously, hey, you look at where Joe Lanardi, for example,

over at ESPN has Missouri.

He has him is his last four buys in the tournament.

So that means Missouri would avoid dating and the play in games.

Lanardi has Missouri as a ten seed.

And I'll just say it's certainly a must win for the double buy in the SEC tournament.

But before the big dance is beating the razor backs a must.

No, I think it's just a must to avoid dating.

Let's put it that way.

I think Missouri is going to be in the big dance regardless.

But obviously beating Arkansas would secure Missouri a birth in the NCAA tournament.

I will say this.

I think having confidence in Missouri going into the Oklahoma game.

And not even so much that Missouri would necessarily win the game.

Certainly, but certainly put in a better performance than what it did.

I guess my big mistake.

After watching this Missouri basketball team all season was thinking that it would be predictable.

And the people who obviously are not fans of Dennis Gates will take that result as confirmation of their own.

Their own previous position.

I've seen a lot of Missouri teams over the years, including and prior to Dennis Gates.

It had a lot of inexplicable no shows over the year.

So sometimes I think that's just part of following a college basketball and a college team in general.

Unfortunately, I will say this.

If Missouri loses to Arkansas, the perception is going to be that the Tigers are limping to the finish again.

Much like it did last season.

A big loss.

Now if the Tigers get blown out by Arkansas, I think that those people might have a point.

So at the very least, I do want to see a competitive game, which is what I expected to see in Norman.

It did not happen.

Once again, what would a win mean for Missouri?

Obviously no Dayton in my opinion.

So you'd be in the field of 64, not just the field of 68 at that point.

And certainly a double buy is still possible.

And yes, you'd have actual momentum.

Now on that double buy in the SEC tournament.

Of course, Missouri would have to get a top 4 seed there.

And one of the reasons this is still a possibility as Missouri has really strong tie breakers.

Of course, it's record against top teams like Kentucky and Florida.

For example, and it's round robin record if Missouri gets into a big quagmire of a tie here at fourth place.

Something like that.

Well, it has a good head to head results against Tennessee against Vanderbilt, for example, against Kentucky.

And so basically all of this means is while there's a million different possible scenarios here,

first of all, the Tigers must beat Arkansas that much is obvious.

And then the most important thing to watch, you want to see Vanderbilt beat Tennessee on Saturday.

If that happens, all of a sudden Missouri, again, if Missouri beats Arkansas Vanderbilt beats Tennessee,

all of a sudden Missouri has a really, really good shot to still get a double buy to get the four seed in the SEC tournament.

Based on, like I said, some really strong tie breakers there based on their record against common opponents and against top teams in the league as well.

And if it does come down to a head to head against Kentucky or Tennessee or whatever it might be.

Well, Missouri has a winning record, a one and no record against most of the teams that it's fighting for there.

So just an interesting thing to note there that even after getting blown out in Norman, I would have assumed that it was a long shot for Missouri to get a double buy.

But look now that I've taken a further look at it looks like Missouri still has a solid shot on it for the millionth time again.

Missouri's got to beat the hogs, you got to hope you got a root for Vanderbilt against Tennessee as well.

And then suddenly the odds are pretty good.

And to my point on the jackal and hide nature of this Missouri basketball team and not only just the the extremes, but also you don't know exactly when it's coming.

I thought Missouri played its best half of the season on the road by the way against Mississippi state.

And then it's worst half of the season on the road in Norman, both first halves.

How do you explain that? I really can't and I focused mostly on the inept nature of Missouri's offense.

But the defense was pretty flaccid as well. Really, there wasn't much that Missouri did right in that game.

God beat on the boards by a team that is one of the worst rebounding teams in the country is one of my viewers astutely appointed out.

So individually, it wasn't anybody's best game either.

I just again, I'm not saying Dennis gates is perfect by any means if the people who don't like Dennis gates probably think of me as an apologist.

Hey, I'm definitely a fan of Dennis gates.

The point here is I just don't know sometimes as a coach what you're supposed to do when everybody on your team is sort of seemingly a little bit out of it and not playing very well.

Is that on the coach? I don't know. You tell me one another thing. I'll say on that Oklahoma game plenty of seats, plenty of great seats available.

In fact, at Lloyd, then the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. So just next time you complain about Missouri basketball and its support.

Keep in mind of how much success Missouri's had over the last 10 or 15 years and how many great crowds the Tigers still tend to draw even when they have just a fairly above average team.

But I will say this again, nobody played well. I didn't think in that ball game. So I'm not pointing picking on Anthony Robinson at all.

But Anthony, I did notice fouls out in the game is of course shaking his head on the way out on one hand. He probably had a point on that fifth foul on another hand.

On some point it's on you and at some point you got to stop fouling and picking up four or five fouls in every single game no matter how many minutes you play.

I'm as big of a critic of the SEC officiating in basketball as anybody. But again, at some point it's got to be on you.

And when Dennis Gates was hired a few seasons ago, perhaps the most popular name among Missouri fans to be hired was Kim English.

Well, Kim English ended up at Providence and reportedly he is out after a three seasons. So just in case you think it can't get worse. Well, it can always get worse.

I'll talk a little bit about Kim also my love hate relationship with predictive metrics this time of the year coming up on the program as well.

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Get locked on Mizzou add free by the way with the every day or club plus members only discord access join at locked on Mizzou dot super cast dot com and with Kim English not returning to Providence after three seasons.

I have to say I was a little bit surprised that Providence was that impatient with English after just three seasons it's not as though the friars were terrible under English the problem is the trend hasn't been great maybe English almost a victim of his own success the first season.

Getting a 21 win campaign going 10 and 10 in the league but since then just six and 14 and seven and 12 so far in the Big East for Providence this season now the thing is when you really look at Providence you look at this new world that I'm constantly talking about in this podcast this new world of college sports that we've been in here.

In the 2020s I think it's really a tough adjustment of for these big East schools that are without football how many of them truly can compete at the highest level your sort of traditional Catholic schools I guess you could say St. John's for example Marquette of course you know Georgetown you know Georgetown not a Catholic school I don't believe but the point is.

There's a lot of that and there's a lot of schools in the Big East that don't have football at least not a serious division one FBS football program obviously Georgetown savior butler Marquette Providence to Paul Creighton Seton Hall St. John's Villanova only Connecticut of everybody in the Big East actually has an FBS football program so the question to me now that you have St. John's of course with Rick Patino.

Taking up well a lot of energy in the room obviously the St. John's is doing well Villanova is of course a classic program that is one of national championship in the last decade or so you've got Seton Hall emerging a little bit Creighton obviously is a solid program even to Paul is finally awakening a little bit here this season it would seem it's just tough sledding when you're sort of competing in that same.

Realm even though the Big East is not literally the Big East when you have Creighton in there for example for the most part you still have a bunch of teams in the Northeast there competing with similar geography similar resources I think that was a tough spot for Kim English I really do I wouldn't give up on his career whatsoever Kim English a guy stillness 30s I do believe I'm certain that that's the case English stillness 30s give him time maybe he ends up being a

top assistant somewhere again for a while and by the way a career assistant isn't the worst thing in the world either but I don't see that happening for English I think he comes back from this and gets another head job somewhere I think after being a George Mason for just such a short period of time getting a power conference job like that was something he couldn't turn down I think in retrospect the Providence job that's just a tough one for anybody I think in 2026.

And Dennis Gates on a tiger talk this week raised at least my eyebrows with one comment this week not that I don't have plenty of love for Mark Mitchell and Kobe Brown but this comment quote between Kobe Brown and Mark Mitchell I will be fighting a tooth and nail for as long as I am the head coach here to get their numbers retired or recognized well first of all retired here at Missouri we have some pretty high standards.

For at Missouri basketball anyway really really high standards for retiring numbers Derek Chivas the all time leading score at this school waited decades to have his number retired Anthony Peeler has not had his number retired for example

I'll just say this when it comes to Kobe Brown and Mark Mitchell I have no desire to talk them down whatsoever and in fact I'd love to see those types of players recognized in Missouri I have no problem with that but to the idea of well if you're thinking about North Carolina the Tar Heels for example in the Dean dome where I've been before they've they have a bunch of

names and numbers up in the in the rafters that aren't retired they're just recognized well for me that's a little bit lame I would personally either retire the number and hang them in the rafters or there's plenty of blank space I would say in Missouri enough for having pictures artwork of players from the past greats from the past guys like Mark Mitchell and Kobe Brown would be perfect for this type of thought

I'm not saying this is a fully fleshed out idea but again artwork photographs anything yes recognize the greats from Missouri past great moments from Missouri past like Ricky Pauling jumping over a guy for Kansas State and dunking on his head that type of stuff should be memorialized in Missouri I'd love to see that type of thing so I think Dennis Gates is on to something here I think he made me went just a step farther than I would

be willing to go now when it comes to predictive metrics as they're often called in college basketball analytics whatever you want to call it I want to focus on the predictive part that is the word I really want to focus on here because

while I'm a fan of Ken Palm and all that kind of stuff heck give me all the data I can attempt to analyze here but I think at this point in the season at least when it comes to judging a teams NCAA tournament resume I think predictive metrics are stupid and I think you got to take them and shove them into a drawer for at least a week or two when you're actually judging who should be in the tournament

and Ali who should be in the tournament of course what seeds each teams should be assigned the season is over on Saturday forget about predictive metrics we've got the entire season in front of us now now is the time to judge what is actually happened

and not what we think is going to happen in the future that is all of course subjective the only thing we have to actually judge is the real results now when I say again this is where I kind of have the love hate relationship here when I say shove them in the drawer for a couple weeks

well once the bracket is set get them back out because yes again these metrics do have a lot of value in my opinion especially if you're going to be the type of person that's in a March madness pool something like that

and especially if you're like me if you're looking for a champion who's an elite defensive team these type of metrics these type of numbers are going to be I think a really helpful guide for you

but when it comes to actually setting the field setting the seeds all of that stuff I think it's to me antithetical to the entire exercise to be saying well here's what we think is going to happen in the future no no no

all we have to judge on now is what the results of what has happened in the past everything else is conjecture what's happened in the past that's an event

and coming up KC Kansas City that is its NPR outlet well had a pretty scathing piece a very interesting and revealing piece at the very least about KU

and the state of its a financial situation its athletic department in fact a little bit of a conflict seems to be a rising here between the faculty and the athletic department

and before you start cheering at KU's expense which I don't blame you for whatsoever this dynamic is going to hit is going to be massive across the country and Missouri is certainly not going to be immune from it

so you know what let's talk about that coming up on the program in just a second but first I do have to tell you about game time because the biggest stretch of college basketball season is here

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so the interesting thing about yes the new world of college sports is that well I think most of us see there's a lot of pretty glaring issues in some way with college basketball

and college football well it's really easy to point to attendance numbers and point to ratings for example and go hey everything's great what are you talking about and to that point it's a pretty tough one to argue with

in the short term but there are clearly some some longer term issues for this sport and really just for the university

and current college model that we are currently in as well and I think Kansas is a pretty good example of this and specifically the Casey you are the NPR report by Sam Zeff I'll leave the I'll leave the link to the entire

piece in the description of this podcast you can check it out for yourself but without getting fully and specifically into the details here

especially when it comes to Kansas what my biggest takeaway from reading this is that every athletic department and university as well is suddenly having to come up with 20 million dollars a year

because of the revenue share rules which came into effect the previous off season every university now can pay their athletes up to it was the house settlement is what it's been sort of colloquially

colloquially that was really easy for me to say not trying it again what it was generally being called by the masses was that and the 20 million dollars well if you're going to be competitive you better spend every bit of it

and probably 90% of it's going to be on football and men's basketball so that part is not unique to Kansas whatsoever that's a Missouri thing that's an Ohio state thing

Texas thing name any power big power football power basketball type of of program and they suddenly they're going to have to come up with 20 million dollars every single year out of thin air

on top of all their other expenses on top of Kansas by the way refurbishing its football stadium Missouri

putting a huge complex on the north end of its football stadium and by the way one of the reasons this is coming to a head here in Lawrence

is because there's a big faculty standoff with the university right now their union is wanting a pay raise of course and the university is being pretty steadfast here at saying no you guys are going to get a 1% raise across the board which

if you're paying attention to inflation these days hey 1% better than a sharp stick in the eye but it certainly is not is not keeping pace with the increased cost of living here in the past few seasons

speaking of the new world we're living in it's not just college football we're in a new world of finance of costs of living and everything else here in the 2020s

and speaking of a new world well things change constantly that's the one thing you can always expect in life and another really interesting note here is that according to this article while enrollment is up currently at Kansas

KU projects a decrease in the future looming due to a enrollment cliff or projected major decline in student populations because of a declining birth rate that began in 2007

so not only do you have that declining birth rate of course the increasing costs of everything including tuition which is going to be necessary

to either recoup with bodies or an increased cost of tuition on the people are continuing to show up one way or the other people are going to start going wait a second I can educate myself online for what cost versus this

this has been something that people have talked about for many years and even decades in universities and colleges and eventually it's going to come home to roost

I just think we're seeing it right now the idea that hey the birth rates declining at the similar time when costs are going up for everybody for the students the parents who are sending their kids to these universities

and oh yeah your tuition's going up everything's going up I just at a certain point something has got to give and somebody's going to be left holding the bag I just hope I just hope it's not me and you let's put it that way so hey thanks as always for listening by the way to locked on

I have to admit today coming into the program today I was feeling a little bit well a little bit off my game simply because of of the events in in Tehran and around the world in the Middle East this is not a political program this is not going to be a blue versus red argument

I'll just say this I'm glad I'm able to provide a distraction from the real world sometimes I think hopefully that's what this show is more than just more than just a show talking about mzubask ball and football I hope this is a show that can't you to forget about you know the overwhelming stuff in life because I'll tell you this I was listening to radio this morning there's a recent show a recent song excuse me by the band del water gap the songs called how to live and there's a there's a line in that's

song that goes I know too much it's freaking me out what that one hit me right between the eyes I got to say I think I think a lot of people these days can relate to that particular sentiment again it's not about red or blue I'm a pretty relentlessly

optimistic guy but when you see events like what we saw today the the bombings in Tehran and around around the Middle East that kind of stuff no

no matter what you think that for me that's just it's a real black pill for humanity and I hate feeling that way so thanks for for joining me again today I'm locked on

mzub and putting up with my rant there at the end of the program I will see all of you tomorrow right here I'm locked on mzub

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