With 10 newcomers and only three returnees, first-year Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie didn't so much inherit a nucleus as he did a start-up, a blank slate that he has yet to shape into potent form entering today's 12:30 p.m. game at Mizzou Arena.

The raw Red Raiders are dragging a seven-game losing streak into their encounter with seasoned No. 2 MU, which figures to pounce early and often in the wake of its 79-72 upset loss at previously unimpressive Oklahoma State on Wednesday. Afterward, coach Frank Haith expressed in a variety of ways his belief that Mizzou didn't play with the fire it needed to and no doubt has made that point clear to his team since.

So what would seem ample reason for Mizzou (18-2 overall, 5-2 Big 12) to play with more inspiration coupled with what it's done at its best suggests a long day ahead for Tech (7-12, 0-7), which hasn't shot as well as 40 percent in a league game and is fifth or below in 19 of 21 Big 12 statistical categories as it goes up against a team that leads nine of them.

While Gillispie pointed to improvements all around the program as the season has gone on, he was candid about where Tech stands as he spoke during the Big 12 media teleconference Monday.

In terms of simple toughness around the basket, he said, "We're not at the Big 12 level yet."

MU, meanwhile, has generated hopes of being atop the Big 12 for the first time — not to mention a deep NCAA Tournament run — as it makes its last stand before heading to the Southeastern Conference next season.

That possibility gained momentum with the Tigers' 89-88 win Saturday at then-No. 3 Baylor, MU's first true road win over a top 10 team since 1994, but took an equally massive blow with the setback at OSU.

MU enters the weekend tied with Baylor and two games behind perennial Big 12 champion Kansas, which has won the last seven titles. The week ahead will provide a swig of truth serum for Mizzou's real prospects.

After playing Tech, the Tigers have a quick turnaround and play Monday at Texas (13-7, 3-4). MU handled the Longhorns 84-73 in Columbia on Jan. 14, but questions about Mizzou's ability to win on the road resurfaced after it fell to 2-2 in conference road games.

Then on Saturday, amid the hoopla of ESPN's College Game Day swooping in, Kansas (17-3, 7-0) makes its 122nd and last foreseeable trip to Columbia in the 266th game of a series that started in 1907.

Crucial as the Texas and KU games will be in Mizzou's bigger profile, though, the Tigers best not make today an afterthought despite their apparent superiority.

Gillispie's teams play hard and, after all, he coached Texas A&M to an 8-8 Big 12 record in 2004-05 after taking over a program that was 0-16 the year before.

That team lost five of its first eight league games before beating Mizzou 91-63 to start an eight-game A&M winning streak against the Tigers that just ended Jan. 16.

Much is different now, of course. But if MU learned anything Wednesday, it should be that playing with less than urgency can get you beaten no matter how much better you might be on paper.