Getting to the Dance

■ Boyd's World has come out with his first RPI Needs Report of the season. In Boyd's words:

This report lists the record each team would need for the rest of their schedule to finish higher than the team currently in the shown key RPI positions, those that correspond to the various seeding or at large thresholds, assuming that all other teams maintain their current winning percentage. It's highly speculative, since those RPI levels will move up or down, and the committee is highly unlikely to just take the top 8 in RPI for the national seeds, for example, but it can be useful as a rough guide. The report is updated daily around 8:30 AM CDT.

For Missouri, he ranks the Tigers currently as 54th in the country. There is no chance of MU reaching the top 8 in their remaining games. To reach the top 16, MU would need to go 26-0 in their remaining games (which obviously might as well be listed as impossible). To reach the top 32, which would mean a likely 2-seed in a Regional, Mizzou would need a 20-6 record here on out.

To reach the top 45, which would likely mean a 3-seed, MU needs to finish the season 18-8. Considering the Tigers have been doing well to keep a .500 record in sight, 18-8 (.692) would mean a significant and steady upswing in the Tigers' success level.

The remaining 26 games:

2 vs. Minnesota
3 @ Baylor
2 vs. Indiana State
3 @ Kansas State
1 vs. Kansas @ Kauffman
3 vs. Texas Tech
1 vs. Eastern Illinois @ O'Fallon
2 vs. Missouri State home-and-away
3 @ Nebraska
1 vs. Missouri State
3 vs. KU
3 vs. Cal State-Bakersfield

I'll let you figure out on your own where those 18 wins will come in that schedule.