WICHITA, Kan. — If a hush can be heavy, and if sound — or the absence of it — can be suffocating, then it was inside the Missouri men’s basketball team’s locker room on Thursday night.
The Tigers had been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by No. 11 seed Drake, a 10-point upset that capped an end to the season that felt so distant from its peak. That’s certainly not going to bring out the music and dancing in the locker room, but the sight of players turned into slouching statues staring at the floor or their phones was grim.
The Mizzou team that so gleefully earned a reputation for its finger-to-mouth shushing celebration after wins had been guttingly shushed itself.
And while there were myriad factors in the Bulldogs taking their game to the Tigers and beating them 67-57 in Thursday’s game, it’s difficult to view that first-round matchup as taking place in a vacuum. It wound up being the sixth defeat in MU’s final eight games of the season, a record that is similarly grim.
Missouri went 9-4 in its first 13 Southeastern Conference games of the season, locking up its March Madness bid with a win on Feb. 19 over ranked Alabama — what ended up being the peak of the season. After that, shooting regressed, turnovers increased and other teams unveiled an intensity or desperation that the Tigers didn’t match.
One month and one day after the win over ’Bama, Mizzou was sent on a bus trip back to Columbia with its season over. It became a steep downturn, even if some players don’t see it that way.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it spiraled quickly,” guard Tamar Bates said. “I mean, if you look at a lot of other teams around the country, we weren’t the only team that had a few losses, took a few losses — especially in the conference that we was in. So I wouldn’t necessarily say anything spiraled or fell apart. Like I said, we just didn’t play well today.”
Part of his view might come from a few key performances of his during that stretch, including an SEC tournament win over Mississippi State and Bates making every free throw he took in the final 12 games of the season.
However, the numbers do show some divides between how Mizzou performed in its first 13 SEC games versus its last eight in all competitions.
Opponent points per game, for example, climbed from 72.5 to 85.3. If nothing else, the Tigers challenged themselves by needing to flat-out score more points to be competitive down the stretch of their season.
The team’s 3-point shooting declined from 37.1% over the first 13 games of league play to 35.5% in the last eight. On a single-game basis, MU suffered more games below the 30% mark (three) in those last eight than in the previous 13 (two). Two such games came against Florida in the SEC tournament and Drake in the NCAA Tournament.
Missouri guard Caleb Grill, right, falls while passing the ball against Drake guard Bennett Stirtz, second from right, during the first half of a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Wichita, Kan.
TRAVIS HEYING, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Guard Caleb Grill sinking into a shooting slump late in the season was certainly a factor in that. He shot 41.2% from 3-poit territory during the first 13 SEC games, making an average of three triples per game on 6.5 attempts. In the last eight, he shot more while making fewer, which tanked his efficiency. Grill averaged only two makes on 8.5 attempts in that stretch, a 29.5% clip.
One of the ultimate bellwether statistics in coach Dennis Gates’ eyes, assist-to-turnover ratio, also shifted for the worse. The Tigers went from averaging 14 assists and 10.1 turnovers per game to 13 assists and 11.8 turnovers — not the helpful kind of movement on either end. That bottomed out with 10 assists to 16 turnovers against Drake.
Turnovers seemed to impact forward Mark Mitchell, Mizzou’s leading scorer. His field-goal percentage climbed noticeably from 44.3% in the first 13 SEC games to 54.3% in the final eight games, and he scored two points per game more in the latter span. But he went from averaging one turnover a game to 2.57, a huge spike in giveaways.
“I’m not really sure,” Mitchell said multiple times when asked what happened to the Tigers down the stretch.
Missouri became a better offensive rebounding team in its last eight games, grabbing about one offensive rebound more per game than it had in the previous 13, but secured 4.6 fewer defensive rebounds per game. In fairness, that was partially because of the availability of defensive rebounds as opponents’ field-goal percentage climbed six percentage points, but that was part of the overall problem too.
Opponents were consistent in fouling Mizzou 20 times per game in both spans, but the Tigers’ discipline faded. They went from committing 19 fouls per game through the strong portion of conference play to 22 in the final eight games of the season, swapping an edge with the whistles to a deficit.
Overall, the cracks in the MU hull that sank the ship were a collection of “little details,” as point guard Anthony Robinson II termed it, that added up to be too much.
“Defensively and offensively, little details that hurt us,” Robinson said. “We had Final Four potential. Definitely (stinks) to end it like this.”
Mizzou men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates speaks with the media on Thursday, March 20, 2025, after a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Drake. (NCAA/Veritone)
Mizzou’s Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates speak with the media on Thursday, March 20, 2025, after a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Drake. (NCAA/Veritone)
Drake’s Mitch Mascari celebrates in front of Missouri players as his team is about to win a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Wichita, Kan.
Travis Heying, Associated Press
Missouri’s Dennis Gates coaches his team in its loss to Drake in a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Wichita, Kan.
Charlie Riedel, Associated Press
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