WICHITA
In the somber University of Missouri locker room after MU’s season came to an abrupt and jolting end with a 67-57 loss to Drake in an NCAA Tournament West Regional opener on Thursday at Intrust Bank Arena, junior forward Mark Mitchell peered up from under the towel covering his head.
His eyes were moist and red, his voice just above whisper level as he sat in front of his locker.
“It’s not anything you ever want to experience,” he said.
He meant the moment itself, of course, the anguish raw after the sixth-seeded Tigers whittled a 15-point deficit down to one only to fade away in the final four minutes.
Missouri Tigers men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates coached his team into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, but Mizzou’s run came to an end with a first-round loss to the Drake Bulldogs at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Nick Tre. Smith Imagn Images
Perhaps it turns out differently if that exhilarating 23-9 rally from down 43-28 actually tied the game, as Mitchell had the chance to do after making the first of two free throws with 4 minutes, 28 seconds left.
At the mention of cutting it to 52-51 but falling back, MU coach Dennis Gates said “oooh” and flinched.
Missouri guard Tamar Bates tries to defend Drake forward Cam Manyawu during the second half of their NCAA Tournament game in Wichita on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Travis Heying The Wichita Eagle
Or maybe if Marques Warrick hit an open 3-pointer off a Mitchell steal with 1:35 left and cut it to 59-58 and stoked its crowd, Mizzou’s momentum would have carried it through.
But, alas, that stuff just didn’t happen.
And, well, the better team won.
By holding the Tigers 27-plus points below their ninth-in-the-nation average of 84.5 points a game.
By muzzling Mizzou, the top-shooting team in the vaunted Southeastern Conference (48.5%), into making just 33% of its field goals. By game’s end, the Tigers had more turnovers (17) than baskets made (15 … out of 45).
And by imposing its patient offensive will on Mizzou, with basket after basket after basket in the final five seconds of the shot clock.
Simply put, MU (22-12) struggled to execute down the stretch and for a good while looked rudderless offensively — especially in contrast to Drake (31-3), which moved the ball with precision and purpose and outscored MU both off turnovers (23-13) and in the paint (38-22).
Drake guard Tavion Banks yells at Missouri’s Mark Mitchell after a dunk late in their NCAA Tournament game in Wichita on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Travis Heying The Wichita Eagle
Never mind that Mizzou was one of 14 SEC teams to make the tournament, a record for one conference, and that it had played 22 games against NCAA tourney teams to Drake’s … one.
Ben McCollum is a heck of a coach, as anyone who was paying attention to his Division II Northwest Missouri State program knew, and this is the stuff March Madness is all about.
For all that exasperation for MU fans, though, two things can be true.
And the story of this season is as much about Mizzou’s way back to the NCAA Tournament as it was about the thud of Thursday night.
So much so that I wasn’t sure whether to lead with that point or build to it here.
A year ago, you may recall, the Tigers were 0-18 in regular-season SEC play and 0-19 overall in conference games after losing in the first round of the league tournament.
Only twice before had a high-major program gone winless in conference play one season and made it to the NCAA tourney in the next: Iowa State after going 0-18 in Big 12 play in the 2020-21 season, and Maryland after going 0-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1986-87.
Out of that, this: a team that had three wins over opponents ranked in the top five at the time and 11 wins over NCAA Tournament teams before this lamentable ending.
Drake guard Isaia Howard steals the ball from Missouri’s Mark Mitchell (25) during the second half of their NCAA Tournament game in Wichita on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Travis Heying The Wichita Eagle
Senior guard Tamar Bates put it all eloquently.
“Nobody believed in us,” he said, “but us.”
Moreover …
“Nobody cared for University of Missouri basketball before the season,” he said. “And obviously a lot of people started to talk about us, and maybe showed a little bit more appreciation and national recognition as the year went on.”
Which was nice and all.
But the feeling among them was what mattered most, including the belief that Gates instilled and their appreciation for the journey. Those things naturally were obscured by the emotions in the aftermath, yet they clearly resonated with Bates.
“Nothing anybody can say (and) no loss could demean our pride in this team,” he said, “and how great of a year that we had.”
At least in the context of the revival from a year ago.
In fact, Gates now has guided Mizzou into the NCAA Tournament twice in three seasons out of improbable scenarios.
He took his first MU team to the tournament after inheriting a program that had gone 12-21 overall and 5-13 in the SEC in Cuonzo Martin’s first season. Those Tigers beat Utah State in 2023 for the school’s first NCAA tourney win since 2010.
This time around, of course, Gates was rebooting his own program.
Next up is the challenge of extending the momentum instead of letting the pendulum swing back wildly again.
And making first-round losses like the one Thursday, the program’s 16th in 30 NCAA appearances, something that MU players and fans don’t have to experience as often as they have over the years.
