The Morning Commute for Feb. 17, 2025.
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about NCAA Tournament bids. And how close Mizzou is to one.
On Saturday, Mizzou put the hurting on Georgia to put its 19th overall win on the board for the 2024-2025 season. It also marked the Tigers’ 8th conference win, keeping them in the hunt for a top four seed in the country’s toughest conference.
We’re belaboring the point, but we think you understand… Mizzou’s impressive resume got even more so in Athens. And it was enough for Joe Lunardi to list Mizzou as a 98 percent lock on his latest Bracketology.
If you’ve been following our chatter over at Rock M+, you’d know that our team had circled last Saturday’s game as Mizzou’s chance to practically put a seal on an at-large bid. Mizzou was a slight favorite, but blowing by Georgia in the second half did enough to convince us at least that the odds of Mizzou falling out of contention now are astronomically low.
So start clearing your March weekends, folks. You’ll be watching hoops.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
Because nearly every NCAA champion has entered the NCAA tournament as a top 30 unit each offensively and defensively. The number of teams who have a top 30 offense and are also top 30 on defense is 13. But the number of teams who have as good of an offense and a better defense than Missouri is 6: Houston, Texas Tech, Florida, Duke, Auburn, Alabama.
Well, well, well…
Lexy Keys and Zya Vann proved to be Tiger killers off the bench combining for 15 of Oklahoma’s 25 in the quarter. They finished the game with a combined 24 points.
The fourth quarter proved to be much of the same. After an Abbey Schreacke three to open the quarter, Oklahoma put the game out of reach with a 12-2 run. The Tigers never got it back to single digits, losing 82-66.
Starting to feel like rinse and repeat, amirite?
- In which Karen says FLOOR SAVES THE DAY at the Lou to the Zou quad meet on Friday
All six Tigers — YES, ALL SIX!!!! — either tied or beat their season high scores, and two had career highs. To lead off, Elise FINALLY got both judges to agree that YES, that IS a 9.90 routine, as she scored her season high 9.90 after what felt like an eternity of 9.875 scores. Next up for her— get them to realize she deserves even better than that! Rayna followed with a season-high tying 9.85, as she might have put a little too much power in that second pass, but she looked great overall. And then came Railey, who I had been hoping would end up back in the rotation. I don’t know how they keep her out of it going forward, honestly, as she earned a career-high 9.925. STUNNING. Amari then followed with a season-high tying 9.95, which again, was gorgeous. And then from the title of this piece, you should know what happened next.
KEN TEN! KEN TEN!
[Head Coach Andrew] Grevers also mentioned a key piece of success heading into the meet is the veteran leadership on the team.
“I mean, obviously when you look at the senior class, you see tremendous leadership coming up. Sierra Smith, of course, Taylor Williams, our NCAA qualifier from last year has really stepped up as of recently, with not only her leadership, but her personal confidence in her swimming and her performances during practices. Olivia Liddle, she’s been incredible, and how she’s showing up and supporting the divers.”
What is it we always say? Biggest stars, biggest moments? Or something like that.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about Torvik game scores, where Mizzou is seeding in the latest bracketology, and Brady Cook’s upcoming trip to the Draft Combine. Hop in!
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