It’s the stat of the day.
If you’re keeping track of the Bracketology stuff, and I would assume you are a little if you’re reading this, one statistic that seems to be driving a lot of the seeding decisions. Are they in or out? Check the WAB column.
CBS Sports David Cobb wrote up the Stat last week in a blog post:
WAB is unaffected by victory margin and simply measures what you’ve accomplished against your schedule vs. what the average bubble team would have accomplished against the same schedule.
…
One high-profile example:
at No. 42 in WAB, North Carolina edged No. 43 West Virginia for an at-large spot. The Tar Heels owned a 0.79 WAB “score” vs. a 0.78 mark for the Mountaineers.
That meant UNC had a projected 0.79 more wins against its schedule than what the average bubble team would have produced.
The 2025 NCAA Tournament selection process brought the significance of WAB into focus, and for good reason. It’s a useful tool because it allows for a comparison of two teams that have played vastly different schedules.
The basics are that each game is awarded a game score between 0 and 1, the degree of difficulty goes up based upon the likelihood the average bubble team would win the game. So if you’re 45th in the NET, how likely are you win on the road at the top team in the NET. As of yesterday that would be akin of New Mexico at Duke. A game like that would likely score close to 1. But New Mexico at home against Mississippi Valley State? That’s as close to 0 as you could get.
You can check WAB (KenPom says we should pronounce it WAB not WOB) on the NCAA site, they update almost daily. Missouri is currently 35th, which is 7th in the SEC. They’re ahead of Georgia, Texas A&M, Auburn, and Texas… all teams who are in contention for bids.
Missouri is in a good spot because they have high value wins. They also have a LOT of empty calorie wins from the beginning of the season. But since conference play started, Mizzou’s wins have carried a lot of weight. There are still three games to go, but each of those games will only improve their WAB score if they can secure a win. Keep climbing, fellas.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
SPRING FOOTBALL kicked off with a press conference featuring the one and only Mizzou Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz. We had multiple reporters there, but Matthew Gustafson drew the short straw for having to pull the write up:
The first topic broached with Drinkwitz was, of course, the quarterback battle between Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons and former blue chip recruit Matt Zollers. Both will have an opportunity to compete for the job, making this the second consecutive season for Mizzou with some level of uncertainty surrounding the position following Brady Cook’s graduation.
Drink went long on the quarterback battle, he talked new faces, and not just the players but the coaches also. Drink outlined a lot, as did Ahmad Hardy! Matt had it all.
- Nathan continued his previews of the position battles in the spring with Defensive Tackle… a very intriguing depth picture:
There is no way around it. This is an inexperienced unit with limited past production, and that reality makes defensive tackle one of the biggest wild cards on the 2026 roster.
The lack of heavy portal activity suggests the coaching staff believes in both the talent and depth already in the room. Whether that confidence is justified will be a central story line throughout spring and into fall camp.
There’s definitely reason to be concerned. Gracial proved to be incredibly valuable last year, and Marshall came on as well. After that? Not a lot of snaps.
- It was another rough night for the Lady Tigers, Dylan previewed the last few games and the SEC schedule makers did the ladies no favors with how they’re wrapping up the conference season. Mizzou started the conference season with four ranked opponents, and they’re wrapping it up with three top 10 opponents, two of them on the road. The LSU game went poorly, and the South Carolina game didn’t go much better:
Mizzou’s lack of size continues to be an issue against the elite teams of the SEC. The Gamecocks finished with a 19-6 advantage in offensive rebounds, which in turn led to outscoring Mizzou 28-0 in second chance opportunities. South Carolina found easy points thanks to 15 Mizzou turnovers which they turned into 26 points heading the other way.
Up next is Oklahoma. It’s been a tough year, but that was expected. Kellie Harper has her work cut out for her, the Tigers were about 20 spots better on BartTorvik.com, despite winning fewer games. But to compete in the SEC you need size and athleticism.
- SEC Indoor Track Championships were spun up this week, and Sophie had the coverage:
In the 60-meter hurdles, Utecht had a strong 8.71 finish to place 12th, while Wydra followed closely in 14th, clocking a personal-best 8.91. The pair carried that energy into the high jump, where Utecht cleared a personal-best of 1.68m to take seventh overall. Wydra added valuable points with a 1.53m clearance for 16th.
FORUM STUFF
Are you into Brackets? DataMizzou has the latest projections for the Tigers, and the rest of the field.
Mizzou’s Record against the projected seeds:
- 0-0
- 1-2
- 0-0
- 0-1
- 2-1
- 0-0
- 1-0
- 0-0
- 0-1
- 2-0
- 0-1
Rock M Radio: Dive Cuts prepped for the week
I believe Majority Rules recorded something last night, so be on the lookout for that to hit your feed shortly if it hasn’t already.
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