Missouri baseball misses NCAA Tournament; Tigers to begin series with UCF
Losses to LSU and South Carolina excluded Missouri baseball from an NCAA Tournament appearance this year, after going 20-1 to start the season.
The good news for the baseball team, is the number of players returning in 2017-18. Missouri returns plenty of depth, and a number of athletes with a year’s worth of experience in the conference.
Missouri basketball will begin its series with Central Florida next year. The home-and-home series will start in Orlando, and will end in Columbia in 2018-19. The series should make for some intriguing matchups.
Everyone is excited about the possibility that 2017 commit Jontay Porter may re-classify and play for the Tigers in 2017. Likewise, Porter is excited to join Missouri, due to the tremendous amount of support he has there.
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Missouri also broke into its first preseason basketball poll. The Tigers haven’t been ranked in the top-25 in a long time, but following this year’s recruiting class, it’s difficult to exclude them.
When you’re the only ranked team with a losing record, it speaks volumes of the recruiting class that new head man Cuonzo Martin has assembled.
Meanwhile, Missouri football is gaining some credibility, as it has broken into the rankings of a few different polls. According to one website, Mizzou broke into the top-100 for 2017.
"Missouri has fallen hard and fast from back-to-back SEC titles and 23 wins over two years to an SEC cellar-dwellar.They’ve won nine combined games the last two years — after winning nine or more in a season five times between 2007-14 — and enter 2017 needing a defensive rebirth and a bunch of players battling for starting roles"
Of course, we want our Tigers to go top-25, but top-100 is a start. If recruiting improves, so will the sustainability of Missouri’s success.
Recruiting has not been a strong suit for Missouri football, but it’s not for a lack of trying. On Monday, the Tigers offered defensive end Trajan Jeffcoat, who is from Inman, SC.
Jeffcoat’s first SEC offer is from Mizzou, and he also holds offers from Appalachian State, Colorado State, East Carolina, Georgia State, and Indiana.
Next, Missouri football made a couple other polls. These were really intriguing, especially this one from Saturday Blitz, which outlines the most underrated college football programs of the last decade.
"When Missouri moved to the SEC in 2013, they weren’t exactly known as a national power. But what they are known for is defying the odds and making huge leaps in the rankings when nobody gave them a second thought to begin the season."
Finally, Mizzou found itself among the top 25 college football offenses entering the 2017 season, and broke into the top 20.