Missouri basketball was dealt a disappointing hand on Selection Sunday when the team, who'd hovered in the low single digits in most bracketology efforts since losing to Texas A&M in the Big 12 Tournament, was seeded 11th in the West bracket after a season that saw them ranked as high as ninth in the country. They draw fourth-seed Cincinnati.
Rock M Nation has already done their homework. Cincinnati strikes me, in their notes, as a team who's gotten where they are by being the opposite of the Tigers—they got off to a slow start, dealing with some early conference losses and a no-name non-conference schedule before ripping through the end of their conference season to remain fresh in the selection committee's minds.
SB Nation's Cincinnati Bearcats blog, Down the Drive, is still in the process of recovering from the team's brutal 89-51 loss to Notre Dame in the Big East Tournament. The NCAA Tournament is as good an incentive as any team can have to forget a thrashing like that, although it would be in Missouri's interest for them to remain preoccupied.