KANSAS CITY, Mo. — We’re just two weeks and two days away from Selection Sunday for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and all 3 major Division-1 teams in the Kansas City area are facing different challenges this weekend.
The team with the most unknown future belongs to the Missouri Tigers. After winning 3 straight SEC home games, the Tigers have now lost back to back games on the road, at Alabama, and at Georgia. Missouri now has a sub-.500 league record, with 3 games remaining on it’s regular season schedule. Mizzou will host Mississippi State on saturday, then hosts Texas A&M on senior night on wednesday. The Tigers enter the weekend with a 7-8 SEC record, so winning at least 2 of their last 3 is essential.
The Kansas State Wildcats snapped a 6-game road losing streak with a close victory over Texas Tech this past week. The Cats have now assured themselves of a winning record in the Big 12, now standing at 9-6. But the rest of the regular season schedule is perhaps the toughest in the league. K-State will host Iowa State tomorrow, then travels to Oklahoma State on monday night for Big Monday. The Cats will close out their regular season by hosting Baylor a week from saturday on March 8th. The Wildcats need to be successful to position themselves for as high seed as possible in the Big 12 Championship, and also the NCAA’s.
The Kansas Jayhawks wrapped up at least a tie for their 10th consecutive regular season Big 12 title, and can win the title outright with a win saturday night at Oklahoma State. The Jayhawks are also in contention for a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, but that would be unlikely with a loss in any of it’s final 3 regular season games.
Heading into the weekend of March 1st, one things for sure: the Madness of March is starting right on time, and this weekend’s games could prove they don’t call it March Madness for nothing.