SACRAMENTO, APPROX– Of course, this Missouri team won that game. Why not? The opponent for the record books was the state of Utah. The score recorded on the Wikipedia page for the 2023 NCAA tournament is 76-65. But the remarkable thing about Missouri’s first NCAA tournament win in 13 years is that there was nothing remarkable about it at all. Because Missouri has won this game again and again this season.
With 10:46 to go, the Tigers were 49-47 behind the ten seeded Aggies. Mizzou’s biggest lead had been six and his biggest deficit had been two. The Tigers couldn’t distance themselves from Utah State, but they were never more than a possession behind either.
As Missouri fans bit their nails and paced their living rooms and once again doubted this team and talked about putting on their protective gear and getting Mizzou back, the Tigers just did what they’d been doing all year. They went out and won the game.
Kobe Brown went on a personal 12-4 run. D’Moi Hodge scored the next eight. sean east made a bucket. Nick honor drilled a three. Everyone got a steal or a rebound or pulled a foul. Missouri beat the Aggies 29:12 in the next 9:36 and spent the last 70 seconds celebrating their first NCAA tournament win since Dennis Gates was a 30-year-old assistant in Nevada and Brown was ten and Aidan Shaw was preparing to start kindergarten the following fall.
“It’s the freedom, the trust and the belief that we have in each other.” DeAndre Gholston called. “It’s not always your night. We preach that as a team. Kobe and D’Moi had a big outing tonight. we needed it They are big players. But this team, we all came from somewhere where we needed to score, so we have the opportunity to do that every time.
In one way or another, they all contributed to it. And this thoughtful team, cobbled together from across the country (and beyond), won another game that was far from certain in the closing minutes.
“We don’t blink when the going gets tough,” Brown said after a career-defining performance.
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You all contributed to it. All. Sometime during Missouri’s explosion, Tre Gomillion rose from the bench. He was still in his full warm-up routine. He hadn’t taken them off. In and out of the lineup over the past few weeks with a groin injury, Gomillion has been doing everything it can to play. He could not.
“I had to have a real conversation with him in the dressing room” Dennis Gates called. “I said, ‘If you’re not playing, I need to involve you, as do my staff.
“To you, he’s Coach Gomillion.”
Gomillion walked about 15 feet to Gates. He leaned in to speak to his trainer.
“I think it could have been a call or a play that he didn’t agree with,” Gomillion said after the game. “I was just reassuring him to really keep that faith in the guys. That’s it already.”
When he couldn’t play, he did what he could.
“It’s tough,” he said in the dressing room. “But those are the cards I’ve been dealt, so I just have to deal with that and give what I can.”
They all did. Because that’s what they’ve been doing all year.
We don’t know what the future holds for basketball in Missouri. The present has surpassed all dreams and expectations; at least the ones outside of the dressing room. And that would have been the case if Missouri hadn’t lost the last ten minutes. No one would have been ashamed of a 24:10 regular season that would have put Mizzou back in the national discussion, national rankings and national tournament. No one. It would have been fantastic, especially after a 12-21 season and a change of coach.
But no one told this team that that was enough. On Thursday morning – or early afternoon when it was over – this group of tigers entrenched themselves forever in the memories of their fans. Is it the best team Missouri has ever had? Almost certainly not. Will it make the deepest run a Tiger team has ever made? While I wouldn’t advise anyone to bet against it, they are a few more wins from it. But on Saturday this team ensured that no one who has followed this program from national prominence to the depths of recent years and now back to promotion will ever forget it.
This team has won the hearts of a whole fanbase. And, of course, it’s the 25 wins and second-round appearance (btw, they’re favored over the 15-seeded Princeton, which angers Arizona a few hours later in the same seat). Of course it is. But that’s how they got here. It’s that they did it with a coach many weren’t sold to and a group of players most had never heard of. It’s that they’ve beaten some really good teams and never stumbled against any of the others. It’s that they’ve brought pride, hope and fun back to a program that hasn’t seen much of it in the past decade and hasn’t maintained what little there has been.
This team? This has burned a place in your hearts and memories.
“It’s emotional for me. I actually cried,” Gates said. “My college coach, some of my teammates were here. My family is here. For me it was emotional.”
“It’s incredible,” Gholston said. “It’s something I can’t even put into words. This is a historic program just to make something happen, not something I can even dream of.”
Prior to last March, none of these players had any connection with Missouri. Gates got the job and brought in most of them. Kobe Brown been here for three years. Ronnie DeGray And Caleb Brown one per. Apart from this? The closest thing to a True Son on this team is Aidan Shaw, whose parents both went to Mizzou. Shaw signed with Cuonzo Martinstayed on board with Gates and played ten key minutes in Thursday’s win.
“I’ve always been there,” Shaw said. “To finally be a part of it, the fans and all the support we’re getting is amazing. I feel like part of a big family, including my teammates. I love it.”
That tournament losing streak? The 13 years? The 4,746 days? It’s over. It’s dead and buried.
“Days are zero now,” Shaw said.
As a matter of fact. It’s another day in a season that will forever go down in Missouri history. But it’s not the last day.
“We always say 24 hours” Caleb Brown said when asked how long the team would be partying. “But I don’t think we’re going to have that 24-hour turnaround time this time.”
The next item on the list for a team that keeps checking them off?
Gholston: “Get another one.”
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