You Can Find Me In St. Louie

It's good to be writing to you folks again. For a second there, I thought my article that I published here on Feb. 28 was going to end up being a jinx on the Missouri Tigers.

All that worry for not, as the Tigers found out they were the No. 10 seed in the West Region and would face-off against the No. 7 seed Miami Hurricanes from the ACC.

The game tips off at 9:10 p.m. on Friday, March 20th at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. Yes, you read that correctly, the Missouri Tigers are playing their first (and potentially second) round game at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Now, I've seen the constant bickering that it's not fair that Mizzou gets to basically play a home game as the lower seeded team. Ladies and Gentlemen, look no further than the last time the Tigers played in this exact same building against Illinois on December 22... It was a 91-48 loss, and people were getting coaching Hot Boards ready to go.

Credit to Mizzou for turning things around when things looked bleak. The Tigers are currently 20-12 and finished 10-8 overall in SEC play, and actually weren't the last SEC team selected into the field as they finished above Texas A&M and Texas.

As of Wednesday evening on the DraftKings SportsBook, Miami had fallen from a 2.5 point favorite to just a 1.5 point favorite. If you want betting advice on any of the first round games, check out Coach Day's article here.

Mizzou and Miami have lots of familiarities with one another as former Mizzou associate head coach CY Young is now on staff at Miami for Jai Lucas. When Young left, he also brought along former Mizzou forward Marcus Allen to the Hurricanes' roster. Unfortunately for Allen, he has been battling non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and has missed a majority of the season. A link to his GoFundMe can be found here.

Mizzou guard Anthony Robinson and Miami guard Tre Donaldson were also high school teammates, winning a state title in 2022.

These friends will collide on Friday when the two teams square off in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament.

The teams have very similar styles of play and, according to Bart Torvik, since Jan. 1, have been performing at a similar level, the Hurricanes coming in at 35th in T-Rank and the Tigers checking in at 38th.

It's going to be fun to watch Mark Mitchell square off against the talented Malik Reneau. If one of these guys don't play well, it makes it very difficult for their team to win.

I think both teams will try to make the opposition settle for outside shots. Mizzou and Miami both turn the ball over more than they'd like and struggle from the free throw line, so points might be difficult to come by if shots from 3 aren't falling.

I think Mizzou is a dangerous team who is capable of beating anyone when their guys are playing well. Mitchell has been the only Tiger who has consistently put together solid performances over the last couple of weeks as the Tigers have lost three-straight heading into their matchup with the Hurricanes, but they have also shown what can happen if they start to get going. Just ask Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Texas A&M and others.

My final (biased) prediction is Mizzou wins by nearly double digits, 76-68.

The winner will play the winner of (2) Purdue vs. (15) Queens on Sunday, March 22 in St. Louis.