COLUMBIA, MO. • As his Missouri Tigers continue to collect more impressive victories and rise into that rarefied air of the top five in the latest polls with yet another blowout performance in front of another national TV audience, it is plain to see why the Frank Haith era is rolling out to rave early reviews.

No. 5 in the country, with a 17-1 record and heading into Waco, Texas, on Saturday for another nationally televised showdown with No. 3 Baylor.

Yes, Haith's Tigers really are something. We just don't know what that something is just yet, and that's actually a very good thing.

Whatever this Missouri team is going to be, it's obvious now that they aren't anywhere near that ultimate destination. A part of me wants to believe they're a wonderfully entertaining, overachieving team seeking their full potential. A part of me wants to believe they're a remarkably talented team that has peaked and hit on that special something it needs to turn this 2012 season into something special.

But then you watch them play games like Monday's 70-51 assault on Texas A&M and you realize that whatever that something is, the Tigers have only touched on it. If you think this is as good as it gets, you're missing the point.

When someone wondered if Haith had ever imagined this kind of early success, particularly after losing senior forward Laurence Bowers to a season-ending knee injury, the coach's answer was rather revealing.

"I never put a lot of thought into anything but trying to get these guys better," he said. "I knew we were talented, I knew we had good players. But I never put any thought into 'Hey, let's try to get into the top 10.' The goal is to play in the postseason. And if you play in the postseason, you compete for a national championship."

Compete for a national championship. In some places on the college hoop landscape, that's a lot of insignificant lip service. But not this year in Columbia. The Tigers have one obvious flaw that could end this season short of Haith's vision of the Final Four (depth). But 18 games into this season, we can at least imagine the possibilities because of the impressive stretches in contests when they play this game the way it's supposed to be played.

That's what makes these Tigers so intriguing. Even at 17-1 and No. 5 in the land, they have not maxed out yet. They still will have those periods where they lapse back into three years worth of "The Fastest 40 Minutes of Basketball," and forget why that style no longer makes the most sense.

So this was one of those games that coaches of highly ranked teams dream of: essentially, a 20-point blowout that was full of enough good periods when they played the game the way Haith loves, and just enough relapses to beat them up in practice the rest of the week.

"Oh yeah, there's no doubt about that," Haith said with a sly grin across his face. "We can always learn. That's the next step for this team: As we mature and grow where we are consistent in understanding how we must play regardless of the score, not taking plays off, not taking plays for granted. You have talented players that can do a lot of things. But you have to be solid. Solid is the key word. That's something we teach and there were some learning experiences we can use from tonight."

So Haith will be able to grind on them in practice as he shows them why they came out in a sluggish rut to begin the game, struggling to handle A&M's stingy half-court defense while falling behind 15-11 barely three and a half minutes into the game. They were rushing shots on offense and not exerting themselves fully on the defensive end of the floor, either.

And then he can show them the tape of the rest of the first half to illustrate what happens when they play up to their full potential and fully immerse themselves in the Haith way of doing things. After that sluggish start, the Tigers put on a rather frightening display of shut-down defense and often breathless offense that resulted in a 31-4 first-half run to go from being down 15-11 to being ahead 42-19 a little more than 10 minutes later.

Then the Tigers came out in the second half and allowed A&M to cut the lead to 51-41, before another 11-2 outburst that was highlighted by superb defense and patient offense turned it back into a rout.

As he stood in the long hallway outside his locker after the game, Haith probably was already thinking about ways to harp on that notion of what can happen when this team plays in perfect harmony. He talked a lot about consistency on both ends of the floor. He accented the importance of his smallish team being demons on the defensive boards. He talked about fighting for all those loose balls that bounce off the rim, roll on the ground or hang in the air for anyone to grab.

Then he recalled a bit of advice Hall of Fame coach and current ESPN TV analyst Bob Knight gave him after the Illinois game. Knight has been rather vocal in how impressed he has been with the way Haith's team plays, but he is also very familiar with some of the pitfalls of coaching really talented basketball teams.

So Knight took time after the Braggin' Rights game to pass on one meaningful pearl to Haith: "Don't let them get away from you now."

Haith smiled when he retold the story. "And I knew exactly what he meant," Haith said.

Sometimes when a team is playing this well this early, it stops concentrating on all the things that got them to such a lofty place. And it's the coach's job to keep their heads out of the clouds, their minds off the polls and their focus on the only goals that matter.

"You have to push for consistency," Haith said. "We have to keep pushing so that they understand that to stay up here, you have to play a certain way every game, all night, no matter what the score, no matter who the opponent is. That's what we're looking for now. Consistency."