Mizzou basketball is set to take on Texas A&M at 8 p.m. Wednesday night. With a win, Missouri keeps its March Madness hopes alive, but with a loss, its March Madness hopes are nearly eliminated.
Columbia, Mo. — Missouri basketball (16-7, 6-4 in conference play) is set to take on Texas A&M (17-6, 7-3) at 8 p.m. Wednesday in College Station, Texas.
What a win would mean for Mizzou
The Tigers have won three of their last four games — taking down Oklahoma, Mississippi State and South Carolina — but have lost their last two games against teams with a winning record, falling to then-No. 21 Georgia and then-No. 23 Alabama.
Texas A&M, on the other hand, has lost back-to-back matchups against Alabama and Florida respectively.
Missouri is currently 2-4 in Quad 1 matchups, but its matchup against Texas A&M will give the Tigers a chance to improve to 3-4 in the category. That would give the Tigers a better Quad 1 record that the Aggies, who would drop to 3-6 with a loss.
In most NCAA Tournament bracket predictions, Texas A&M is projected to land top-10 seed while Missouri is on the outside looking in — see both USA Today's and Joe Lunardi's predictions.
A win for Missouri would give the Tigers three wins over high-major opponents projected as near-consensus bids to the big dance — Florida, Kentucky and Texas A&M. It'd be hard not to argue the Tigers as a 'last four in' team with a win over the Aggies, but more importantly, it keeps their season alive for at least a few more days until Texas and Vanderbilt come to town.
What a loss would mean for Mizzou
The Aggies, while currently tied with Arkansas for the third-best record in the SEC, aren't quite the powerhouse their record would hint at. They have zero wins against ranked opponents and have just two wins over high-major opponents with a conference record of .500 or above — Texas and Georgia.
In fact, Texas A&M's resume stacks up quite similarly to Missouri's — a high-major team that's beaten mostly bad opponents with a few quality wins sprinkled in.
So with a loss, Missouri, which many are still trying to evaluate where exactly ranks among the SEC, would certainly be viewed lower than Texas A&M, which isn't overly-infatuated with itself.
Losing to Texas A&M would put even more pressure on Missouri to beat at least four of its five matchups against Texas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Arkansas (2x), all of which are formidable SEC opponents.
In summary, Missouri beating Texas A&M just keeps its season alive. Losing ends it. The Tigers have far much more to lose than they have to gain.