Kentucky at Missouri Predictions/Updates

[16thBBall Fan]

The #19 ranked Cats (20-10) (9-8) will travel to Missouri to take on the #15 ranked Tigers (21-8) (10-6) in the regular season final for the SEC. This should be a good one and hopefully the way the Cats played tonight will continue into this one and the tournaments. The game is scheduled for a 12:00pm tip and is on ESPN. Go Cats!!

[theguru]

Good, another Noon game!

Cats! Cats! Cats!

[hrcarrier]

Interesting game for sure. This is a big game for both teams likely in terms of conference tournament seeding.

[TheDeuce]

Missouri is not better than UK. 

[nikeman49]

Missou 93

Cats 86

[16thBBall Fan]

Missouri lost tonight by 12 at Oklahoma by a score of 96-84.

[Voice of Reason]

UK needs a win to guarantee a round 1 SEC tournament bye.

[DragonFire]

Yeah, that win by Ole Miss yesterday didn't help Kentucky any, nor did A&M's.

Missouri has lost one game at home this year, and Kentucky hasn't been very good on the road, though they did have big wins over Mississippi State and Tennessee.  They're gonna have to dig deep.  I am pessimistic.

[okie1]

I hope UK wins this game and then gets bounced 1st round of SEC tourny...get rested and healed up and see if they can make it to the 2nd round (possibly 2nd weekend) of the big tourny!

[gchs_uk9]

2 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

UK needs a win to guarantee a round 1 SEC tournament bye.

With a win, is a 5-seed possible? I'm unfamiliar with the tiebreakers but Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M (lose at LSU), and Ole Miss (lose at Florida) all finishing 10-8 would make a 4-way tie for positions five through eight.

[sportsfan41]

1 hour ago, gchs_uk9 said:

With a win, is a 5-seed possible? I'm unfamiliar with the tiebreakers but Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M (lose at LSU), and Ole Miss (lose at Florida) all finishing 10-8 would make a 4-way tie for positions five through eight.

They could get up to a 5 seed but lots of things have to happen. That was as of yesterday morning. I haven't looked to see how last night's games impacted that possibility. 

[DragonFire]

1 hour ago, gchs_uk9 said:

With a win, is a 5-seed possible? I'm unfamiliar with the tiebreakers but Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M (lose at LSU), and Ole Miss (lose at Florida) all finishing 10-8 would make a 4-way tie for positions five through eight.

KSR laid this out the other day on the scenarios: SEC Tournament Picture: Breaking down every Kentucky seeding scenario - On3

This was before Wednesday nights games, so we already know Missouri lost to Oklahoma (a component of the scenarios) and that Ole Miss can't lose twice, as they beat Tennessee.  So for the 5 seed specifically, it is:

Kentucky win (they move to 10-8, Mizzou falls to 10-8)
Texas A&M loses at LSU (they fall to 10-8)
Ole Miss loses at Florida (they fall to 10-8)

Kentucky wins tiebreaker thanks to pool winning percentage (.667) and head to head win over Mizzou

Kentucky beating Missouri is going to be the key in any scenario.  Ole Miss losing at Florida, that's pretty achievable.  A&M losing at LSU.... that feels unlikely.  It's very unfortunate that A&M managed to beat Auburn - of all teams - the other day, because if they were already at 9-8, I'd feel this scenario would be very achievable.

I'm more focused on the scenario for the 6 seed.  They still need to beat Missouri and have Ole Miss lose at Florida.  The last part of it is that Florida has to finish ahead of Alabama in the standings in order for Kentucky to win the tiebreak.  Well, that will happen, so long as Florida wins against Ole Miss. 

The best news is that from what they said on those scenarios, Kentucky cannot fall below an 8, so they've actually already clinched a bye.  They could only have fallen to a 9 if there was a three way tie with Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, and since Ole Miss beat Tennessee, that can't happen. 

[Jumper_Dad]

Easy view of the scenarios.

[gchs_uk9]

2 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Easy view of the scenarios.

Thanks for this. It would appear that it is all right in front of the Cats but at the same time, all of those scenarios seem reasonable, and everything remains possible.

[16thBBall Fan]

23 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Easy view of the scenarios.

If I looked at the standings correctly the only way we fall out of the bye is we have to lose and Vandy beats Georgia at Georgia and even then we would both be 9-9 and not sure of how the tiebreak would go. Plus Miss. State wins at Arkansas then it would be a 3-way tie at 9-9.