What Mizzou's NCAA Tournament resume looks like after upsetting Iowa State
Dennis Gates walked over to the student section after Missouri blew out No. 12 Iowa State. He waved his arms and elicited the crowd to roar for one last time.
What else was he supposed to do after a key NCAA Tournament resume-building win?
"That was a tough, tough game," Gates said. "That team is great."
Missouri was better than that Iowa State team Gates called great Saturday. It's a game that also bumps up the Tigers' NCAA Tournament resume in a healthy way.
Missouri is currently slotted as a No. 9 seed according to ESPN's bracketology as of Saturday afternoon. Last week, they were projected to be in the Midwest region playing in Des Moines, Iowa, in the same bracket as Kansas State and at the same site as Kansas.
As of Saturday morning, the Tigers were in Birmingham, Alabama, in the West Region. Expect that seeding to jump in the next projections after winning two games this week, including Saturday against Iowa State.
More:Mizzou blows away No. 12 Iowa State in an upset win. Here's what to know
That win adds to MU's resume which already includes wins over Kentucky, Illinois and Arkansas. The ISU win counts as a Quad 1 win, as the NET rankings break teams down into four quadrants, with Arkansas and Illinois falling into Quad 1.
"To have a Quad 1 win in January is very important," Gates said. "Not only on selection Sunday, but just for us and our growth to recognize who we are and the confidence we have in one another."
This comes on the same day when Missouri brought back its retro block "M" uniformed the program donned in the previous decades.
The Tigers honored decades past with former players and alumni at Mizzou Arena, too. It falls into Gates' plan to one day raise banners, win championships and be a hall-of-fame coach.
"I want our tradition to remain intact," Gates said. "I want to do certain things. I want to do it short term. I want to do it long-term."
Long-term, Missouri will be impacted by the short-term. Should MU make the tournament in year one under Gates, there will be an expectation to make the tournament on a yearly basis.
That's what happened to his predecessor, Cuonzo Martin, who earned a tournament berth in year one but made only one more tournament appearance in 2021 before his firing after the 2022 season.
What Gates does with that precedent, however, will be determined after he makes his first tournament. MU took a major step toward that first tournament by beating Iowa State by 17 points to end the month of January.
Next in February is when MU can solidify its berth, advance its seeding or lose it. Missouri would need a cataclysmic collapse in February in order to miss the tournament, and MU's level of preparation and execution should earn them at least a few more wins.
Games against Auburn, Tennessee and Texas A&M also loom as an opportunity to solidify their tournament bid even more. However, games against the Auburn Tigers and Volunteers will most likely be top-25 contests on the road, and the Aggies beat MU thoroughly in College Station earlier in January.
However, even losing those three games wouldn't spell doom for Missouri's tournament chances. The Tigers' wins over Iowa State, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas give them a little room for error.
There are also games against LSU, Georgia and Ole Miss, plus two games against Mississippi State, which Missouri can win to help reach the 20-win threshold.
That's where MU finds itself entering February, after a January where Gates and the team have built Mizzou Arena into a hot ticket and transformed the Tigers into a team on the cusp of a tournament bid.
"It's a lot of fun," Tigers guard D'Moi Hodge said.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What Mizzou's NCAA Tournament resume looks like after upsetting Iowa State
