Mizzou basketball team barely avoids penalty

New Missouri basketball head coach Cuonzo Martin will have ground to make up in his team's academic record. (Erin Achenbach/Missourian via AP)COLUMBIA, MO. • The Missouri men’s basketball team’s Academic Progress Rate took another plunge, but the team’s four-year score stayed just above the NCAA threshold for sanctions.

Mizzou’s single-year rate for the 2015-16 year is 930, dropping the program’s rolling four-year average to 934. That’s not only the lowest four-year average in the Southeastern Conference but the lowest among all teams in the six major basketball conferences. Only 17 Division I teams have a lower multi-year rate.

But Mizzou’s score is just high enough to avoid an NCAA penalty.…