We play Missouri in the first round

[gundun]

MU draws Xavier in Tip-Off

Missouri will play defending Atlantic-10 champion Xavier in its first-round game of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off on Nov. 20 in San Juan. The Tigers will be in the same bracket as Virginia Tech and Fairfield. The other bracket has Memphis, Tennessee-Chattanooga, USC and Seton Hall.

Missouri will play UT-Chattanooga in Columbia on Nov. 17, but that game won’t affect the bracket or play in Puerto Rico. MU also will play a three-game exhibition tour in Canada over Labor Day weekend.

[muskieman]

O’Reilly Auto Parts ? I never knew Bill owned an auto parts place in PR. It was my hope that we would see MOR muffler shop PR shootout.

[Wisexuowl]

Talk about SOS.

The pairings mean we'd probably play VaTech and then either USC or Memphis ... if we beat Missouri.

Should that happen, and with other OOC games against LSU, Auburn, Virginia, and Duke, our SOS will be damn high.

Great work by Mike and Sean!

[Goodenchiladas]

Beat Missouri and probably play Va Tech and then play Memphis or USC or Seton Hall.

Lose to Missouri and probably play Fairfield (and should hopefully beat Fairfield) and then play Seton Hall or USC.

Missouri is a "40 minutes of hell"-style team that didn't lose too much from last year and was top 65 in Sagarin and Pomeroy. Not going to be easy for Xavier with a freshman point guard and without Duncan, our most frequent "go to guy" from last year. Especially in November.

Don't be surprised if Missouri is favored.

[Miche]

Missouri is a "40 minutes of hell"-style team that didn't lose too much from last year and was top 65 in Sagarin and Pomeroy. Not going to be easy for Xavier with a freshman point guard and without Duncan, our most frequent "go to guy" from last year. Especially in November.

Don't be surprised if Missouri is favored.

According to the team statistics on ESPN.com, Missouri lost 4 of their top 5 scorers from last year:

Missouri Tigers Statistics 07-08

Hannah (14.7ppg), Leo Lyons (13.1), Carroll (13.0) and Matt Lawrence (8.8) were all seniors in 07/08, having used 4 years of eligibility. That's almost 50 points and 19 rebounds per game.

What sportsbook are you using?

[Goodenchiladas]

Missouri is a "40 minutes of hell"-style team that didn't lose too much from last year and was top 65 in Sagarin and Pomeroy. Not going to be easy for Xavier with a freshman point guard and without Duncan, our most frequent "go to guy" from last year. Especially in November.

Don't be surprised if Missouri is favored.

According to the team statistics on ESPN.com, Missouri lost 4 of their top 5 scorers from last year:

Missouri Tigers Statistics 07-08

Hannah (14.7ppg), Leo Lyons (13.1), Carroll (13.0) and Matt Lawrence (8.8) were all seniors in 07/08, having used 4 years of eligibility. That's almost 50 points and 19 rebounds per game.

What sportsbook are you using?

According to http://www.kenpom.com/sr.php?team=Missouri&y=2008, only 1 of Missouri's top 6 were seniors (based on playing time), and Hannah looked like the only major loss as a senior. Lyons, Carroll and Lawrence are all still listed on the Mizzu 2008-2009 roster (http://mutigers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskb ... l-mtt.html), so they still appear to have eligibility. It does look like would-be-junior Keon Lawrence is gone, too. Missouri adds a Top 10 JC recruit forward (Ramsey), a transfer junior guard from Delaware (Taylor) and 4 top 150 freshman (#88, #112, #128 and a top 150 player/top 15 point guard).

All I'm saying is that they could be pretty good.

[Mr. Neutral]

Joe Lunardi's June 18th Bracketology had X as #9 seed and Missouri at a #11.

Mizzou ended up 16-16 overall, 6-10 in the B12.

They bring back their #2-3-4 scorers, losing leading scorer Stefhon Hannah.

Mizzou roster---http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasket ... /roster/MO

[madness31]

This is where an eligible Crawford would come in handy. We know he can play at the NCAA level, whereas the other point guards are untested. Jackson can play point but is probably not ideal. It will be interesting to see how his game changes if he is "the man" rather than a bench player.

A win in round 1 would be huge and probably makes the tournament a reasonable success regardless of what happens the next couple games considering it improves the strength of schedule. Should we lose we will need to win the next 2 to avoid creating a huge hole to climb out of.

Sean is a great coach and the best I've seen at X so I imagine he will have the team ready to compete but coming away with a W is not going to be easy against a team that will likely have a great year.

I'd love a shot at Memphis but USC would also be nice.

[Mr. Neutral]

<<Jackson can play point but is probably not ideal.>>

I will be absolutely shocked if DJ is anything but a necessity choice at PG. Last year, he showed that he is on his way to being a decent ballhandler for an SG, but he didn't show me that he is anywhere close to the level of PG that we've become accustomed to.

I'm putting my money on Holloway or Lyons at the point, and then everybody else after that.

[tacitus]

Why was my reply deleted? What did I say this time? Is it anti-muskie to point out that Missouri wasn't very good last year, lost several seniors and only picked up two good recruits, and that we should therefore beat them, and even if we don't that it won't be that big of a deal, because it will still be athletic competition from the Big 12...