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The NCAA was a pipe dream even before Nebraska bounced the Tigers out of the Big 12 tournament 61-56 on Thursday night. The NIT can invite teams with a .500 record, but it never has. So go ahead and write the 16-16 finish in the record book.
Look ahead to next season. That’s what the Tigers are doing.
“Hopefully our young players can regroup and come back next year,” said junior DeMarre Carroll.
Along with seven new players replacing what was once a seven-senior contingent.
Glen Dandridge leaving. Kalen Grimes kicked off in the summer after applying the butt of a shotgun to a man’s face. Five players suspended after celebrating one of only six Big 12 victories after curfew at a Columbia night club.
Stefhon Hannah suffering a broken jaw in that. Hannah dismissed. Hannah and Jason Horton facing third-degree misdemeanor assault charges.
“For us to come this far,” said Carroll, himself shot in the foot while trying to break up another altercation involving teammates during the offseason, “with all the stuff that’s been going on … ”
Carroll stopped, praised the MU coaching staff headed by his uncle, Mike Anderson.
“They really kept us in tune and they never lost, you know, the dream, the road, the rainbow down the road. So hopefully, we can continue and get better next year.”
So much for uncertain new beginnings. The Tigers lost as they so often had on Thursday night at the Sprint Center.
Cutting all but a single digit off what had been a 10-point Nebraska lead, the Tigers trailed 57-56 with 2 minutes, 13 seconds to play.
With Missouri down 59-56 with 61 seconds left, Carroll’s hurried three-point attempt barely beat the shot clock and barely drew rim.
On the next possession, with MU still down by three, point guard Jason Horton drove for two and missed. Leo Lyons rebounded and missed a follow, one of 10 misfires in 12 attempts for a junior who had been one of Missouri’s hottest players the previous four games.
Remember how Missouri lost to Illinois? Remember how Missouri lost to Nebraska in Columbia?
This was more of the same in a season overflowing with it.
Carroll contended Missouri gave the game away. Aleks Maric (17 points and 13 rebounds) and Steve Harley (14 points) had a lot to do with Nebraska taking it.
The Cornhuskers, 19-11, can now look forward to an NIT invitation.
The Tigers aren’t even sure whether Lyons will be back. Lyons isn’t sure. But Lyons, in a long walk down a Sprint Center hallway, said testing his professional worth and possibly passing up his final year at MU had to do with more than dollars and cents.
He’d like assurance that he’d be a cog in the new wheel and that he wouldn’t be sitting 7 minutes in the first half as he did against Nebraska.
This after Lyons — one-of-six shooting in the first half and with seven points in 27 minutes at the end — had scored 18 or more points in MU’s four previous games.
“That’s a big part of it,” Lyons said.
Carroll said too much was being made of Lyons’ quandary.
“He’s just trying to get his name out there,” Carroll suggested. “Me and him are a tandem. If he comes back, we will probably rule the Big 12.”
Maybe next year.
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