http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2016-01-11/college-basketball-5-sleeper-teams-capable-deep-ncaa?cid=ncaammsocial_fb_sf18660220
sam richmond just found himself a new fan :D
Richmond is simply capitalizing on the theorem that potential for improvement is inversely correlated to experience. In other words, the more experienced a team (or player) is going into a season, the less potential there is for improvement during the season.
Given that MU is the fourth or fifth least experienced team in DI, and that they're probably the only major conference team in the bottom third with both a) a winning record vs major conference teams and b) a couple of wins over ranked teams, Richmond's prediction isn't much of a stretch.
Case in point: Look how much Haniif has improved his overall game since Nov 10 compared to Fischer.
Of course, Kaminsky is the counter-argument to this theorem, but honestly, how many guys has the NCAA seen like that since they stopped using peach baskets?