The more I look at it, the more I see this game as extremely pivotal with respect to MU's Big East seeding and their NCAA seeding (or even whether or not they make the NCAA).
Right now, MU is in a good looking position, certainly better than I would have expected coming into the season. But, they haven't wrapped up anything yet, and if they lose Saturday it could be a sign of trouble ahead.
For starters, MU's record is a little light on quality wins, and they haven't had any since the three consecutive razor thin wins to start the conference season. It's all well and good to shrug off road losses to Cincy, Louisville, and Georgetown, but at some point MU has to show again that they can beat a team other than the conference bottom feeders. Plus, if they lose at home on Saturday, they will be looking at an 8-4 conference record with a remaining schedule that includes 4 road games and 2 tough home games against ND and Syracuse (the one game that MU is almost certainly going to lose.)
A loss Saturday would really put the pressure on the rest of the games, and opens up the real possibility that they will be dropping into the Bubble Watch discussion heading into the final 3 games.
Although MU is currently projected as a 5 or 6 seed by most of the "bracketologists" that position will be pretty tenuous if they start losing home games, even to good teams. For example, if they lose to Pitt, win at Seton Hall, but then lose at Villanova and at home to Syracuse, they will certainly drop down a couple of lines and will probably need to win 2 of the last 3 (no sure thing) to avoid dropping even further.
On the other hand, a win on Saturday adds another good win to the resume and provides some cushion going forward.
