Missouri enters NCAA tournament as unlikely low seed

To start the season, college basketball's legions of pundits and prognosticators pegged Quin Snyder and Missouri as Final Four favorites.

After crashing from a 9-0 start and early No. 2 ranking, the Tigers ended the season without a vote in the Top 25 poll and barely won the endorsement of the NCAA Tournament's selection committee.

"We lost our focus from all that stuff at the beginning of the year," Snyder said, pondering his team's placement as a No. 12 seed in the West region. "We weren't a finished product yet and I still don't think we are, but every game we play we get a little closer to that.

"I see that opportunity still presenting itself with this team this season to do something special."

They get that opportunity Thursday against fifth-seeded Miami in a first-round game at 11:40 a.m. CST in Albuquerque, N.M. The Hurricanes (24-7), who didn't make the tournament last year, return after opening the season 14-0 and not losing outside of the Big East conference.

The Tigers, meanwhile, were one of three at-large teams in the tournament to receive a No. 12 seed, a lowly spot in the bracket normally reserved for wannabe Cinderellas from the mid-major conferences.

Barely getting in

It's not inconceivable Missouri slid into the tournament only after Iowa, needing a win to make the field, lost in the finals of the Big Ten conference tournament late Sunday afternoon.

"In a year that maybe we've felt better about our chances, it looks as if we were one of the last teams picked and that doesn't bother me one bit," Snyder said. "Everybody's the same right now and I think we've got a team that's peaking at the right time."

How Snyder defines "peaking" might be unique in college basketball.

Missouri is 5-5 in its last 10 games and hasn't managed to win more than two in a row since a mid-January streak of three against Big 12 also-rans Kansas State, Texas A&M and Colorado.

The Tigers are 3-7 against teams that also made the tournament, 1-7 if you take out November wins against Alabama and Xavier. The lone late victory, 72-69 against Oklahoma State at home in February, likely gave Missouri to boost it needed to crack the field.

Kareem Rush, reportedly reconsidering leaving school to enter the NBA draft after an inconsistent year, did score 33 in a second-round Big 12 tournament loss to Texas but is still inefficient offensively: His 3-point-shooting percentage (41.6) remains almost as high as his overall percentage from the floor (42.6).

The Tigers have trouble in tight games. Four of their last five losses were by a total of 10 points, including a 95-92 loss at home to then No. 1 Kansas to end the regular season. In those losses, Missouri missed more than enough free throws to make up the difference. The team's last five wins, meanwhile, came by an average of 11 points.

An interesting matchup

Through all that, the selection committee found room in the bracket for the Tigers and created an intriguing 5-12 matchup.

"Now we know what we have to do," said forward Travon Bryant. "They picked us as a 12 seed, so be it. Just from past experience -- coming in as a high-ranked team in the beginning of the year -- we know that it doesn't matter right now."

The low seeding could actually help Missouri, should they beat Miami in the first-round game. Last year's placement as a No. 9 seed left the Tigers with a second-round game against top-seeded Duke, the eventual national champion.

Should they advance, the Tigers are unlikely to face a No. 1 seed until the third round this year.