Projecting Missouri's AP Top 25 ranking after stomping Mississippi State

The Missouri Tigers are no longer just a fun story in college basketball; they're a real threat in the toughest conference in the country.

After smashing Mississippi State on the road on Saturday, 88-61, the Tigers secured their second top-20 SEC win of the week, just a few days after beating Ole Miss.

Now 17-4, and 6-2 in the conference, Missouri has taken sole control of third place in the conference behind just Alabama and Auburn, two teams expected to compete for a National Championship next month.

I don't think Missouri has quite reached that level yet, but they've surely smashed preseason expectations and have plenty of juice to make the program's first Sweet 16 in 15 years. DeMarre Carroll was the star of that team, for the record, and he already retired after a respectable NBA career. So it's been a while.

Projecting Missouri's AP Top 25 ranking

Don't be surprised if the Tigers make a giant leap in Monday's rankings. In basketball, there are enough games that teams don't often make huge leaps — or tumbles — in the AP rankings, but Dennis Gates' team has passed pretty much every test that has been thrown at it so far, so I'm guessing they jump up to No. 12.

Leaping eight spots in just a week sounds crazy, but I think the voters were a little hesitant to put Missouri too high in the rankings for fear they'd crumble as we got deeper into conference play.

Not only have they not crumbled, they've thrived. They might not have an All-American on the team, but they've turned into a balanced unit who have more than enough offensive firepower to compete every day. Caleb Grill is cooking (pun intended) off the bench for Missouri right now, providing an offensive spark for the Tigers.

These guys are good. Pay attention now before they catch you off gaurd in March.