COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mizzou basketball has six games left of a lengthy, up-and-down season. Those six games hold the utmost importance for the Tigers' NCAA Tournament implications, as they sit on the bubble of many bracketology projections. 

"Everybody talks about March Madness," head coach Dennis Gates said. "The madness starts in February. It's a lot of jockeying for position in the SEC." 

Gates' Tigers have battled inconsistency for much of conference play — losing to below .500 Ole Miss, Auburn and LSU but beating ranked Florida and Kentucky exemplify that. Reaching a state of consistency is at the forefront of the Mizzou's priorities in the coming days.

That consistency needs to be found in multiple areas, beginning with the biggest detriment in the Tigers' loss to Texas: the big-man rotation. 

Starting center Shawn Phillips Jr.'s size is crucial to giving the Tigers a physical advantage — he's become vital on both ends of the floor. However, foul trouble has prevented him from playing major minutes, as he sits at just 19.5 minutes per game. Those fouls come at disastrous times and derail his ability to find a consistent stride. 

"He knows his importance to our team," Gates said. "He knows in terms of not being baited to foul. I would have loved for two fouls to be on the defensive end and not two fouls to be where they were last game. And we just got to make sure we continue to push him through in these moments. Watching a lot of film is one of them. Being able to understand that the opponents that you play their tendencies in different angles, their ability to draw fouls, but also, early positioning on defense will eliminate foul trouble. Early positioning on offense will eliminate offensive fouls." 

Phillips had a plus-four plus-minus in a 17-point loss to Texas, showcasing his importance through the box score. It also speaks to the lack of options at backup — Nicholas Randall played 10 minutes and finished with a minus-17 plus-minus. He, along with the other backup big-men, need to find consistency to become viable backups for Phillips. 

"Responsibility, consistency, I think that's the major part," Gates said. "When you're looking at lineups, being able to find consistency amongst the team in that area. Opportunities there, we have to be able to find the consistency throughout the game and throughout practices." 

The other way for his Tigers to find consistency is through time. Starters Jayden Stone and Trent Pierce have each missed significant portions of the season, which Gates believes delayed Mizzou's opportunity to find a collective rhythm opposed to other teams who didn't experience as many injuries. 

"We've been unfortunate," Gates said. "Majority of our guys have just started with 12 games these we have a 12-game season, where other teams have had their guys for the entire duration of non-conference, and they're operating on 25 games.

"So are we behind? Possibly."

Regardless on if Mizzou is behind or not, it needs to turn its attention to what's in front of them: A No. 19-ranked Vanderbilt squad that's won five of its last six games and boasts a high-caliber offense. 

The Commodores rank top-five in the SEC in points per game, 3-point percentage, 3-point makes, free-throw percentage and hold the best turnover margin per game. They're efficient, high-scoring and fast-paced. Although on the smaller side, they flip that size disadvantage into a pace and speed advantage. 

"I don't look at the height, I look at the fight," Gates said. "Each team has fight, and there's no advantage anywhere on the court. We got to go out and play basketball at the best of our ability and minimize our mistakes."

Instead of matching the Commodores fast-paced style of play, Mizzou needs to hone in on its size and correct mistakes painted by Texas. 

"Early positioning from guards as well as posts is going to be important," Gates said. Continuing to find angles on passes is going to be important. Being able to wedge out rebounding opportunities is going to be important, and staying out of foul trouble, that's going to be just as important."

The engine of Vanderbilt's offense is sophomore guard Tyler Tanner — a 6-foot, 173-pound scoring phenom. He's started all 25 games for Vanderbilt this season and is averaging 18.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game while shooting 47.2% from the field and 37.2% from the 3-point line. 

"His speed, his quickness, very seldom does he make mistakes, being able to not only make decisions quick, but being able to get his team involved, he does a great job," Gates said. "He's one of the best players in our conference and throughout the country this season."

T.O. Barrett will likely have the task of guarding Tanner, but his backup, Anthony Robinson II, could get a shot at it as well — Robinson was a member of last season's SEC All-Defense team and is a perfect matchup for smaller guards. 

Knocking off Vanderbilt would be a huge step in the right direction, it's just one of many steps the Tigers need to take to cement their place in the NCAA Tournament in the coming weeks. After hosting the Commodores, Mizzou will play formidable opponents like Tennessee and Arkansas. 

Mizzou vs. Vanderbilt is set to tip off at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Mizzou Arena.