Kansas defenders Brady Morningstar and Cole Aldrich surround Missouri guard Kim English during the second half, Saturday, March 6, 2010 at Mizzou Arena.

The 75-60 loss to Nebraska in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament by no means was a resume builder for the Missouri basketball team.

Fresh off their Big 12 tournament title run in 2009, the Tigers didn’t even defend their crown for 15 minutes. Instead, the 12th-seeded Huskers jumped out early and never looked back en route to the 15-point victory against Mike Anderson’s Tigers.

“What could go wrong, did go wrong,” Anderson said. “If you would’ve told me that we’d have four turnovers and lose by 15 points, I would’ve scratched my head. I would’ve gone, ‘Whoa.'”

It’s been that kind of a season for the Tigers, who have looked great at times and terrible at others. Such inconsistency never is a good thing to take into the NCAA Tournament.

The ink on the blueprint of how to beat the Tigers has been dry for weeks.

Teams that force Missouri (22-10 overall, 10-6 in Big 12) to play halfcourt basketball typically fare better than those who try to match the Tigers’ tempo. In addition, when Missouri misses shots — MU shot 19-for-56 (34 percent) against Nebraska and made just 44 percent of its field-goal attempts this season — a huge deficit usually follows.

Although the Tigers’ pressing style is built to put up points in a hurry, it doesn’t always work in come-from-behind situations.

“We’re an energy team,” Anderson said. “We’re an attacking team. With a team like ours, things have to go right.”

By the same token, the brand of basketball which Missouri plays can be awfully tough to prepare for with a short turnaround, and Anderson has used that to his advantage in past NCAA Tournaments.

Tough last year

Last year, Anderson and the Tigers proved to be one of the tourney’s toughest matchups before bowing out one game shy of the Final Four.

That team had All-Big 12 and all-energy player DeMarre Carroll leading the way. In 2004, Anderson’s Alabama-Birmingham squad knocked off top-seeded Kentucky in the second round before falling to Kansas in the Sweet 16.

Though talented, there are plenty of reasons this Missouri team has not fallen in line with Anderson’s more successful teams of the past. For starters, the Tigers don’t have a go-to player on offense. Sophomore guard Kim English leads the team in scoring at 14 points per game, but he disappears too often and has fallen victim to multiple off nights during the second half of the season.

In addition, starting forward Justin Safford has missed the team’s last four games and is out for the remainder of the season.

“A lot of things have taken place with this team,” Anderson said. “And now we have to make adjustments.”

Sophomore forward Laurence Bowers has attempted to fill the void left by Safford, and he said the Tigers’ problems run deeper than simply missing shots.

“I wouldn’t say (our problem) is just shooting,” Bowers said. “It’s becoming a better basketball team. Like coach said, we just gotta get back in the lab and hope we have another season, which is the NCAA Tournament. If they decide to let us in, we have to give it our all, because it’s survival or go home.”

Speaking of home, Missouri was sensational inside Mizzou Arena during the 2009-10 season.

The Tigers finished the year 16-2 at home and knocked off highly-ranked foes Kansas State (74-68 on Jan. 9) and Texas (82-77 on Feb. 17) on their home floor.

Away from Columbia, Mo., the Tigers struggled, finishing 4-6 in true road games and 2-2 on neutral courts.

As far as the nonconference season, Missouri boasts victories against Old Dominion, Oregon, Illinois and Georgia, but that list doesn’t stack up well against the list of teams in the field of 65.

The Tigers’ nonconference losses paint a clearer picture of where this team stands entering the postseason.

New life now

Mizzou’s losses to Richmond in the South Padre Invitational and Oral Roberts at home both were considered by many to be bad losses at the time. The Tigers also lost at Vanderbilt.

“I told our guys we have new life now,” Anderson said prior to the loss in the Big 12 tournament. “Now it’s one and done. The best will survive. Let’s have some fun.”

Missouri is 0-for-1 in do-or-die situations so far this season. The Tigers hope to make up for that the second time around.

“We are (in) one of the best basketball conferences in the country, and we finished in the top half of the conference,” sophomore guard Marcus Denmon said.