LSU and Missouri have only met once in basketball: 1980 MW Regional in Houston

at The Summit. LSU won 68-63. Hard to believe this was the only time considering Baton Rouge and Columbia aren't that far away for a home and home or even some psuedo "neutral site" like Kansas City or St Louis and New Orleans.

Sweet 16 game. This was while the NCAA tourney was still growing. Tournament had 48 teams, so some teams, like LSU got a first round bye. LSU defeated Alcorn State, 99-89 in the 'second round'. Also, the 1979-1980 was only the second round of "seeding". LSU was the 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. Incidentally, Kentucky was the 1 seed in the Mideast Regional, at Lexington no less, making the SEC the first conference to have two teams as a one seed in NCAA play.

LSU finished the regular season -- and conference tournament play as the #3 team in the AP poll behind DePaul and Louisville, and the #2 team in the UPI poll,behind DePaul, whom had held on to edge LSU 78-75 in Chicago earlier that season. Louisville was the 2 seed in the MW.

Missouri had a fine team winning the Big 8 and being ranked as high as #10 that season and was the 5th seed in the MW.Missouri did have to play in the first round beating San Jose State and then #4 Notre Dame in overtime to reach the regionals.

LSU was very quick and rather high scoring that year, but a Missouri zone midway in the second half led Dale Brown to go into a stall as LSU led 52-50. It worked and Rudy Macklin got behind the zone for an old fashioned 3 pointer to go up 55-50. Missouri never could take the lead or tie and LSU hung on. Macklin finished with 16 pts and DeWayne Scales had 17. Missouri's Mark Dressler had 20.

Brown said after the game,"I thought we stunk.We played a horrible first half.We will not have the luxury of having a bad first half against Louisville because if we do,we will be back in Baton Rouge."

Louisville reached the Midwest final with a 66-55 overtime win over another future SEC team, Texas A&M. The MW was full of overtimes as Texas A&M had reached their half of the Sweet 16 with a three overtime game and win over North Carolina where the Aggies outscored the Tar Heels 25-8 in the third OT to win 78-61.

Brown's prognosis was partially correct. It was a bad second half against Louisville that sent LSU home.