After a weekend letdown, Missouri basketball’s need for wins is growing increasingly pressing.
Missouri basketball is staying at home Wednesday night for a midweek matchup against No. 18/19-ranked Vanderbilt at Mizzou Arena, where the Tigers can quickly right their weekend wrongs and get back on the right side of the March Madness cutoff point.
The Tigers (17-8, 7-5 SEC) lost to fellow NCAA Tournament bubble team Texas on Saturday night at home, which was an inconvenient — but not quite devastating — blow to the Tigers’ Big Dance push.
Mizzou is on the outside looking into the March Madness field in most recent projections, meaning Dennis Gates’ team can’t afford too many more disappointments for the remainder of the year.
Vanderbilt (21-4, 8-4) is a massive opportunity for a résumé-boosting win for Mizzou. The Commodores are a top-20 ranked team and have won five of their past six games. Vandy was one of the last remaining undefeated teams this year after opening the season with 16 straight wins.
Fresh off a rare home loss, Missouri is quickly getting a chance to right that wrong.
The Columbia Daily Tribune is on site at Mizzou Arena and will provide live updates from the SEC matchup throughout the game. You can follow along below for live score updates, highlights and commentary:
This section will be updated when the game begins.
Not a lot to love about that start from Missouri. Took about three minutes to get the ball into the paint. A couple of gimme baskets for the Dores on missed rebounds. Three turnovers already. Not great.
Mizzou’s game against Vanderbilt is still on SEC Network, the start time has just been pushed back because Texas A&M versus Ole Miss went long. Should be on the airwaves now, as the game has just tipped off at Mizzou Arena as of 8:11 p.m.
Mizzou is running with its usual crew against Vanderbilt.
T.O. Barrett, Jayden Stone, Trent Pierce, Mark Mitchell and Shawn Phillips Jr. will open the game for the Tigers.
Vanderbilt’s starting five: Tyler Tanner, Tyler Nickel, AK Okereke, Jalen Washington, Devin McGlockton.
Keep an eye on Tanner. He’s one of the SEC’s best playmakers, and keeping him in check early feels like an important piece to the puzzle for Mizzou tonight.
Size has to matter for Mizzou tonight. The Tigers are bigger across the board, and Vanderbilt is going to try and win this game from the free throw line and 3-point range.
Mizzou’s counter: Mark Mitchell.
This feels like a massive spot for the All-SEC forward. Mizzou has to win in the paint. Mitchell is their best player at getting downhill and to the rim.
It’s an interesting question I’ve heard posed a few times this week. I’m hesitant to call this a must-win matchup, because there is a path to the Big Dance without a win for Mizzou on Wednesday night.
That path does get extremely narrow, however, and will likely rely on at least two road wins.
After Vandy, here is Mizzou’s schedule before the conference tournament: at Arkansas; vs. Tennessee; at Mississippi State; at Oklahoma; vs. Arkansas.
Let’s say three more regular season wins (which would put Mizzou at 10-8 in SEC play for the regular season) and a conference tournament is what you need to go dancing. Where do you feel best about picking up those three wins?
At Oklahoma and Mississippi State are, maybe, the easiest games left on the schedule. Does that mean you can count on winning them both?
To me, ideally, Missouri wins two of its remaining three home games. They’re all against stellar opposition but you have to protect home court. That would give Mizzou some cushion on the road.
There’s no right answer. The only thing we can confidently say is that a path to March Madness is much, much easier with a win in hand tonight.
The gameday report is unchanged from Tuesday night, meaning power forward Jevon Porter and small forward Annor Boateng are Mizzou’s lone absentees to face Vanderbilt.
The Commodores will be without Duke Miles and Frankie Collins, which has been the case for most of the past month.
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 18
Time: 8 p.m. CT
Location: Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri’s game against Vanderbilt will tip off at 8 p.m. Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri.
TV Channel: SEC Network
Stream: FUBO
Missouri’s game against Vanderbilt will air live on SEC Network. Dave Neal will be the play-by-play announcer for the game, and Jon Sundvold will be the on-air analyst.
The game will be available to stream with FUBO, which offers a free trial to potential customers.
Satellite radio: XM: 106 or 190; SXM App: 960
Tiger Radio Network will air the game live with Mike Kelly as the play-by-play announcer and Chris Gervino as the analyst on satellite channel 106 or 190. Fans can also tune in via the Sirius XM app on channel 960.
Missouri is again expected to be without forward Jevon Porter, who has not played since Dec. 14. Small forward Annor Boateng has been ruled out for the season.
Mizzou guard Sebastian Mack was removed from Missouri’s availability report Wednesday night, meaning he will be available off the bench.
Vanderbilt is missing star guard Duke Miles and Frankie Collins. Miles has been out since late January, while Collins has been a long-term absence for the Commodores.
Trying to predict which Missouri team will show up at this stage of the season is somewhat of a fool’s errand, but we’ll take a stab anyway.
The Tigers are among the last four teams into the NCAA Tournament field at CBS Sports on Monday morning, so the sky didn’t fall despite a massively disappointing night against Texas.
Mizzou can’t afford too many more losses, especially at home, but the Tigers have a tough task against a Vandy squad that has won five of its past six.
Home games are listed in bold.
Neutral-site game listed with an asterisk (*).
All times listed in CDT.
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
Our team of savvy editors independently handpicks all recommendations. If you purchase through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices were accurate at the time of publication but may change.
Subscribe to Updates
Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.
