Arkansas looks like they're in great shape. Their biggest hurdle is tomrorrow at Bama who they should beat. Their first matchup in the SECT would be Georgia who they should beat before facing Florida. A loss to Florida at that point likely wouldn't knock them out of the NCAAT. I think it might take upsetting UK to jump them on the bubble.
Mizzou on the otherhand... dogs to us tomorrow. A loss would put them on life support. They might pick up 1 meaningless win in the SECT before facing Florida who they would need to beat to get back on the bubble. I think they're toast.
If we handle Mizzou tomorrow and win 1 game in the SECT then we should be set. The worst thing for us right now is to beat Mizzou and have Georgia beat LSU. If we lose to Mizzou then we are likely the 6 seed which is also not a bad place to be... The question is....Are we definitely NIT bound with a loss tomorrow or would 2 wins in the SECT get us back in?
If we lose tomorrow:
We'd have 10 wins and be tied with Mizzou and likely LSU. We would own the tie-break over them, so we would get the 5 seed. At which point we'd probably get UGA in the Quarterfinals.
If UGA beats LSU and Arkansas wins, we would still have the 5, but would likely play Arkansas in the quarters.
If Arkansas loses, regardless of what LSU and UGA do, we would jump up to the 4 seed.
We would need to beat Florida anyway to gat back on the bubble, so at least we'd be on their side of the bracket in any of these scenarios.
So we win tomorrow and we get either Georgia or Arkansas, right? And we would be either the 3 or 4 seed, right?
No Worries... It honestly won't be the worst thing if we lose tomorrow because we would be the 6 seed and have a good chance to win 3 straight games in the SECT. I am just wondering if that would get us back in the tourney...
Best I can figure out, I think these are the possible outcomes for Saturday. I didn't bother to go through and figure out who we would play in all the scenarios where we lose Saturday.
Obviously, Ark and LSU would have to win there first games in the tournament for us to play them, but I went ahead and assumed they do.
The first scenarios where we lose, we might end up 6th. Mizzou wins the three way tiebreaker, LSU has the second best record against the three teams, and we are last. If you go to head-to-head after Mizzou wins the first tie breaker, we are 6th and LSU is 7th since we beat them. I can't really tell how the tiebreaker works in that case.
Here's what I got:
Arkansas, Missouri, UGA WIN:
3. Georgia (12-6)
4. Arkansas (11-7)
5. Missouri (10-8, tiebreaker vs. Tennessee)
6. Tennessee (10-8)
Arkansas, Missouri, LSU WIN:
3. Arkansas (11-7, beat UK)
4. Georgia (11-7)
5. Missouri (10-8, best W% among all teams tied)
6. LSU (10-8, second-best W% among all teams tied)
7. Tennessee (10-8, third-best W% among all teams tied)
Alabama, Missouri, UGA WIN:
3. Georgia (12-7)
4. Missouri (10-8, best W% among all teams tied)
5. Tennessee (10-8, second-best W% among tied teams)
6. Arkansas (10-8, third-best W% among tied teams)
Alabama, Missouri, LSU WIN:
3. Georgia (11-7)
4. Missouri (10-8, best W% among all teams tied)
5. Tennessee (10-8, second-best W% among all teams tied, beats LSU head-to-head)
6. LSU (10-8, second-best W% among all teams tied)
7. Arkansas (10-8, worst W% among all teams tied)
Yeah. So if we lose, we will most likely be a 7 seed. Would beating UK and Arkansas be enough to get back in the tournament at that point?