Before the season started — even before we knew this year’s Missouri Tigers would be without their best player for a second straight year — we knew the non-conference schedule would allow the Tigers something of an on-ramp to the more difficult portion of its season.
Now it hasn’t exactly been a cake walk to get to this point. After all, any team sitting at 5-3 eight games into the season doesn’t have much room to talk in that regard. However, coming off a two-game stretch where the Tigers had to grab at least one win, they beat the third best team they’ve played this year (at least by KenPom’s standards.