UT 12, MU 7

■ Missouri loses to the Longhorns, so they failed to win the Big 12 tourney title, but most assuredly helped their status in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee by getting to the championship game this weekend.


■ NCAA Regional Hosts were announced Sunday afternoon. Details at NCAA.com

Arizona State, Tempe, AZ
UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton, CA
Clemson, Clemson, SC
East Carolina, Greenville, NC
Florida, Gainesville, FL
Florida St., Tallahassee, Fla
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
Louisiana State, Baton Rouge, LA
Louisville, Louisville, KY
Mississippi, Oxford, MS
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Rice, Houston, TX
Texas, Austin, TX
Texas Christian, Fort Worth, TX

■ Where will Mizzou go? The remaining at-large teams, top-eight national seeds, first-round regional pairings and site assignments will be announced at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, Monday,
May 25, during a live, half-hour program on ESPN.

The Tigers will host a watch party for the selection show at the Clinton Club in Mizzou Arena. Doors will open at 11 a.m.

You can also see Mizzou's destination and pairings posted at mutigers.com. The quickest online way to learn MU's destination would be on the All Sports board at Tigerboard.com, where there are always several folks quick to post the details as they are announced.


Don't look here at Simmonsfield.com for quick info - I'll be away from my computer most of the day. But I'll be posting info about MU's Regional opponents throughout this week.


■ So . . . where do we WANT Mizzou to go?


MU won't be going to Austin, TX or Norman, OK - they don't want to match up teams in the same conference in a Regional.


Every Regional will be tough, but MU doesn't want to get sent to one of the top 5 or 6 ranked teams, like they did last year (going to the toughest regional in the tournament, at Miami). So we'd like to avoid Fullerton, North Carolina, Georgia Tech or Arizona State.


On the other hand, going to a Regional in Tempe, AZ would be an ironic and somewhat fitting full-circle twist on the Tigers' 2009 season, after MU's disastrous opening road trip to Arizona.

The hosting teams with the lowest RPI rankings (according to Boyd's World) are Mississippi (17th), Louisville (21st) and Eastern Carolina (23rd).


If you're traveling to the Regional, California probably looks appealing, so Irvine would be a possibility.


There's really no telling whether MU will get sent to someplace that could actually qualify as "regional" or whether the Tiegrs will wind up in someplace far away.


Going to Houston with Rice as the #1 seed , or to Fort Worth with Texas Christian could be interesting, since Mizzou is scheduled to play in the 2010 Houston College Classic the first weekend in March, which will include games against each of those teams.


The most intriguing matchup would be at Louisville, where the villain of the 2006 Regional in Columbia, Chris Dominguez, is now a senior for the Louisville Cardinals. As they say, "Revenge is a dish best served cold." As for why Dominguez turned down the Draft last June, read THIS.