Missouri State moves up to the 12th seed in the Southwest Bracket in the latest ESPN Bracketology update from Joe Lunardi, set to take on Arizona in Denver. But as the Missouri Valley Conference's regular season champions continue to scale the bracket their colleagues at Mizzou continue to falter, falling to a seventh-seed position against Marquette after their continued road struggles.
Missouri State had been a 13th seed in the previous edition, with Missouri sixth. Which proves my theory: Winning games puts you in a better position to succeed in the NCAA tournament, while losing makes it more difficult. Missouri's been bouncing between six and seven for some time now, and Missouri State 12th and 13th, so these latest machinations shouldn't be especially surprising.
But Missouri State's performance in the ongoing Missouri Valley Tournament will be crucial to their future placement. They'll play down-on-their-luck ex-powerhouses the Southern Illinois Salukis at 12:05 today on Fox Sports Midwest, and anything is possible from there. Though SIU is really, really down on its luck.