Missouri

 

Missouri Tigers

Big 12 Conference (22-10, 10-6)

 

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Baylor

Kansas

Kansas St

Missouri

Oklahoma St

Texas

Texas A&M

Other (Colorado, Iowa St, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas Tech)

Had Cincinnati, Florida or Illinois won on Tuesday night they'd be the main story in the recap. However with all three dropping opportunities to vault themselves either into the NCAA Tournament or onto the bubble they could all look back at this night as the one that helped keep them out of the Field of 65. The Bearcats and Gators both hosted ranked teams at home and both fell by four points. Cincinnati held Scottie Reynolds scoreless in the first half but they most they could manage was a tie going into the locker room.

Bad news hit West Lafayette and Columbia on Thursday afternoon, with Purdue's Robbie Hummel and Missouri's Justin Safford both going down for the remainder of the season with torn ACLs. The more important ligament on a national level: clearly that would be Hummel's, and his injury could be the difference in seed lines for the Boilermakers. Many have used Kenyon Martin's broken leg back in 2000 as the comparison to Purdue losing Hummel, but that's a bit off when you further examine the cases.

Monday's headline game is one of the rivalries that shaped the early years of the Big East Conference, and with both Georgetown and Syracuse ranked in the Top 15 of the polls it's fitting that they meet again on the primetime stage. The game matches two of the conference's best shooting teams, with Syracuse ranking first in field goal percentage while the Hoyas are second. In regards to what they like to run there is a difference, with the Hoyas' system being more of the half-court variety that is among the most efficient offenses in the Big East.

The weekly Bracketology field is based on how the tourney looks "as of this moment." . In late February, I release Bracketology updates daily as the season approaches crunch time.

 

The Missouri Tigers hadn't beaten rival Illinois since 1999, losing games in which they've been favored as well as those they weren't expected to win. Wednesday's game was more of a toss-up with a slight edge going to Bruce Weber's team, who had already won at Clemson thus far. But the Tigers were able to control the flow of play, forcing 22 Illinois turnovers on their way to an 81-68 win. While Illinois outrebounded the Tigers 44-32 and all five starters reached double figures Missouri forced 22 turnovers and held the Illini to 39.7% shooting from the field.

It may not feel like it to the respective conferences, but it has been over six years since the ACC raided the Big East, taking with them Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to reach the mandatory 12 team minimum for a conference football championship game. The Big East, caught flat-footed by the move, promptly raided Conference USA, which in turn raided the Western Athletic Conference, which then invaded the Sun Belt Conference – leading to one of the most dramatic re-alignments in college sports since the expansion of the “major” conferences themselves in the early 90’s.

Each day (just about), CollegeHoops.net features a Cheerleader (or Dancer) of the Day. Today's picture is courtesy of Icon Sports Media. Check out the archive for more