The strength of the SEC rears its ugly head inside Mizzou Arena.
If you weren’t convinced of the bear of the SEC schedule, surely this week convinced you it’s for real. Missouri entered this week playing some of their best basketball of the year. But they knew going in this would be a difficult week. On the schedule was a road trip to Knoxville, followed by a return home to Mizzou Arena to take on the 10th ranked Texas A&M Aggies.
Still, we dreamed.
What if… what if they went 2-0? Certainly it was possible!
And it was possible. The way the Tigers have been playing in recent weeks, and shooting the ball. Beating Tennessee and A&M in back to back games was possible. But the Vols opted to get off their shooting slide and found their three point range. Then Missouri came out sluggish against A&M, and somehow let the only guy who couldn’t take the last shot get open with little to no time on the clock.
A possible 2-0 week turned into an 0-2 stretch. And Missouri joined 12 other teams in the league so far who have endured back-to-back losses in league play.
Only Auburn, Alabama, and Florida have managed to avoid two losses in a row or more.
So the DENNIS GATES REVENGE TOUR™ hits a snag, a road bump.
But the momentum is far from stopped.
Missouri played really well on the road at Tennessee. We’ve talked about the BartTorvik.com GameScore in the past, it’s a measure of how quality your level of play was in any given game. A score of 90 or more is very good, and Mizzou had a score of 96 against Tennessee. That wins a lot of games. It wasn’t as good against Texas A&M, just a 79, but at home that’s a score you can win a lot of games with.
Not in this league though.
Missouri forward Jacob Crews (35) shoots a three-pointer in the first half of a game against Texas A&M on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, at Mizzou Arena. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M)
Anyone can beat you if you don’t come out ready to play. And Missouri didn’t come out ready to play against the Aggies. It took them nearly 6 minutes to record their first point. They spotted A&M 12 points in that span. If it weren’t for the heroics of Jacob Crews, things might have gotten far worse in the first half.
But they stood and fought. The shooting never really arrived and left the rest of the offense a bit stranded. They were good in transition because they had to be.
I took a little umbrage with the rotations down the stretch. I’d have preferred to have Tony Perkins defending Taylor in those late possessions, but at the same time I get why Gates stuck with Marques Warrick. He was playing well.
The good news is this league is so tough that there are always more opportunities out there. And the opportunities get a little easier in the near future, if that’s possible. Next up is Oklahoma who is a mere 37th in KenPom.com and before Saturday was still a 9 seed in the Bracket Matrix. OU doesn’t field the elite defense like A&M or Tennessee, though they can score it. They have struggled to shoot the ball away from Lloyd Noble, but they’re still a good team. Then next Saturday a road trip to Georgia who is an elite defense, even at the cost of their offense.
Both teams are still in the top 40 in KenPom.com so there are no automatic wins. The main issue with going 0-2 this week is not that it risked an NCAA Tournament berth. The problem is it made your path to a protected seed in the Tournament or a top 4 finish in the SEC dependent on help. Mizzou went from 3rd to 7th this week. Everyone is still going to take losses, after all it’s still the best league for a reason. But Missouri only has one more game against a team ahead of them in the standings: Alabama.
Every remaining game is against a team below them in the standings, and only Alabama and Kentucky are ahead of them in KenPom. So it gets easier, but it’s still going to be a bear.
Welcome to the 2025 SEC Conference. Now let’s get this REVENGE TOUR™ back on track.
Other SEC Scores:
- (6) Florida 90, (1) Auburn 81
- (3) Alabama 85, Arkansas 81
- (4) Tennessee 70, Oklahoma 52
- (14) Kentucky 80, South Carolina 57
- (22) Mississippi State 76, Georgia 75
- (25) Ole Miss 72, LSU 70
- Vanderbilt 86, Texas 78
SEC Standings:
- Auburn Tigers: 9-1
- Alabama Crimson Tide: 9-1
- Florida Gators: 7-3
- Texas A&M Aggies: 7-3
- Tennessee Volunteers: 7-4
- Ole Miss Rebels: 7-4
- Missouri Tigers: 6-4
- Kentucky Wildcats: 5-5
- Mississippi State Bulldogs: 5-5
- Vanderbilt Commodores: 5-5
- Texas Longhorns: 4-7
- Georgia Bulldogs: 4-7
- Oklahoma Sooners: 3-7
- Arkansas Razorbacks: 3-7
- LSU Tigers: 1-9
- South Carolina Gamecocks: 0-10