Missouri basketball a No. 7 seed in NCAA Tournament, will face Utah State in March Madness
Missouri basketball’s NCAA Tournament opponent is set. The Tigers will take on 10th-seeded Utah State in the first round, playing as part of the South regional in Sacramento.
The game will take place on Thursday, beginning at 12:40 p.m. central time. If the Tigers win, they'll move on to the second round on Saturday, where they'll face either No. 2 Arizona or No. 15 Princeton.
The matchup will be aired on TNT.
Utah State finished its regular season 26-8, 13-5 in the Mountain West. The Aggies lost to San Diego State on Saturday in the MWC tournament.
Before the selection show, Missouri was widely projected to be seeded sixth or seventh in whatever region it was placed in. The Tigers ranked 51st in KenPom, 42nd in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
If you listened to the experts before the season, Missouri wasn’t supposed to be here. At the SEC’s basketball media days in October, voters picked the Tigers to finish 11th in the league.
At the time, that made sense. MU had won just 12 games in 2021-22, and new head coach Dennis Gates had brought in a roster filled with transfers from mid-majors and junior college, one scholarship freshman and three returning players.
Still, Gates spoke of his desire to play on April 1 and 3, the dates of the Final Four. Prognosticators might not have bought into what he was selling, but his players certainly did.
According to them, they didn’t even meet their internal expectations.
“I would say we definitely felt like we belonged there,” D’Moi Hodge said after the Tigers fell in the SEC semifinals against Alabama on Saturday. “We didn't come victorious in the semifinal, but we always felt like we (were) one of the best teams in the conference. We feel like we could have won the championship. We fell short.”
The Tigers started the season with nine consecutive victories, before dropping at home to Kansas. MU recovered nicely from the lost, racking up non-conference victories over Central Florida, Iowa State and Illinois before the end of the season.
In SEC play, Missouri looked impressive, finishing the regular season 11-7 and earning a double bye in the conference tournament. Once they got to Nashville, the Tigers made their longest SEC tournament run ever, beating Tennessee in the quarterfinals before losing to Alabama, which made their current record 24-9.
After the game, Gates gave a simple answer when asked about his hopes for NCAA Tournament placement.
“I just hope we get in,” Gates said. “That's my hope. I hope we get in. I don't know what the committee will do. It's going to be a lot of great teams not make the tournament.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: In March Madness, Missouri to face Utah State in NCAA Tournament 2023
