17. Missouri (16-4)
Coming off an atrocious season last year, few expected to see much from Missouri this year, especially with how nearly the entire SEC is remarkably strong. Instead, Dennis Gates has led quite the enormous revival, with notable wins over Kansas and Florida while helming a Tigers team actually in good shape near the end of January.
After a nice four-game winning streak in SEC play, the Tigers were unfortunately stopped on Tuesday night, falling 61-53 at Texas. It wasn’t the greatest shooting performance, with Tamar Bates leading the way with just 10 points in a tough road defeat. Fortunately, Missouri wasn’t down for long, notching a nice 83-75 win over a ranked Ole Miss team this weekend. The offense was more cohesive, getting 26 points from Bates and 25 from Caleb Grill off the bench in slowing down the Rebels.
The Tigers didn’t win a single SEC game last season, but this year they’ve already gotten multiple ranked victories in league play. They’ve certainly turned the tides and are shaping up to be an NCAA Tournament that can take on the challenges in this conference. We won’t see them in action until next weekend, but another big tests awaits at Mississippi State, with the Tigers looking for what would be just their second road win of the season.