Missouri Tigers Take Down Kansas State Wildcats: What's Next for Mizzou?

Marcus Denmon, Phil Pressey, Laurence Bowers, Kim English and Ricardo Ratliffe all had 10 points for the Missouri Tigers in their 75-59 win over the Kansas State Wildcats on Monday afternoon.

Missouri came into the game ranked 14th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. Kansas State was ranked 24th.

It was another big win at home for a Missouri team that needed a bounce back game after losing in overtime on the road against Texas A&M.

I'd like to think I had a small part in the victory.

At approximately 1:30 on Monday afternoon, I walked in to Sports Clips in Columbia, Mo., to get a haircut.

As I was waiting for a stylist, who should walk in but Missouri forward Justin Safford.

Now you may be asking yourself, "Why was Safford getting his haircut three hours before game time?"

I have no idea.

But, after I paid, I was walking out the door and had this meaningful exchange with Safford:

Me: "Good luck today."

Him: "Thanks."

And the rest is history. Mizzou went on to beat a talented Wildcats team and earn their biggest home win of the season.

Safford had a decent game, scoring five points and four rebounds. But his biggest contributions came from his hustle, diving all over the arena for loose balls.

Frank Martin, Kansas State's head coach, was furious with his team, stomping around on the sideline and waving his arms like a mad man. (Though, to be fair, he's still not a happy man even when his team is up by 20 points.)

What's next for Mizzou?

The Tigers are 2-0 at home in Big 12 play and 0-2 on the road.

They'll need to improve their play away from Mizzou Arena if they want to challenge for second place in the Big 12.

Coach Mike Anderson's squad has a couple of tough road tests coming up in the next couple weeks.

On January 29th, the Tigers will travel to Texas to take on the No. 11 Longhorns. Then, on February 7th, it's off to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the No. 2 ranked Kansas Jayhawks.

In between those two tough games, Mizzou has to play at Oklahoma State. Even though the Cowboys aren't ranked, they are still a very tough team to play in their building.

So, for the Tigers to be serious contenders in the Big 12, they need to pull off wins in at least two of those three road challenges.

It's a tough task, but as long as the Tigers take care of business at home, they should be playing well into March Madness.