Show Me My SEC Tournament Opponent, 2022-23: Missouri

Enough of you! Stop being so fun!

Tennessee defeated Mississippi yesterday, 70-55, in a score that both feels accurate and somehow a little bit of an undersell. Tennessee sorta just did the Crockpot thing to Ole Miss after their opponent (a terrible shooting team) came out on fire and stayed in it for a while. Greater observations would be nice but it’s hard to get all up in arms and come away with anything beyond “Tennessee did their thing.”

Meanwhile Missouri got to take Thursday off and watch all the others slop around in the wet, wet mud. Must be nice. The Tigers have a fun dichotomy of how they’re perceived versus what analytics anticipated they’d be. Missouri’s actually below their preseason KenPom projection of #41 and their Torvik projection of #49. They’re likely going to enter the NCAA Tournament somewhere in the 50s or 60s, they got outscored in SEC play, and they ranked 9th in the SEC in scoring margin behind Mississippi State, who went 8-10 in SEC play.

And yet: when you go 9-1 in games decided by six or fewer points, you can watch everyone slop around in the wet, wet mud. It is a nice way of living.

BELOW THE LINE ($): winning > losing