Dru Smith’s late heroics aren’t enough as Missouri Tigers’ season ends in NCAA loss
Missouri could never regain its December form.
The Tigers enjoyed success that stunned many outside of their locker room. They beat future NCAA Tournament teams like Illinois, Oregon and Oral Roberts. Some big victories followed, but so did inexplicable losses.
Add it up and there was no telling which Missouri men’s basketball team would show up in the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately for the Tigers — who lost 72-68 to Oklahoma in the first round on Saturday — the inconsistent bunch showed up, all the way down to the final seconds.
Mizzou trailed by eight with 1:08 remaining. But after a pair of Dru Smith three-point swishes around a missed free throw, Missouri trailed by three and regained possession when Smith blocked Austin Reaves’ attempt.
The Tigers had no timeouts, so the opportunity to tie would emerge from a possession that started with about 17 seconds remaining.
Everyone in Lucas Oil Stadium, several hundred of them scattered around the home of the Indianapolis Colts, knew where Missouri wanted the ball to go.
“Dru Smith always plays smart and never gives up,” Tigers senior forward Jeremiah Tilmon said. “We were coming to him at the end of the game, trying to get the ball in his hands.”
But the best Missouri could come up with was far from sufficient. Kobe Brown might have had an opportunity. Drew Buggs, who was getting most of the second-half minutes in place of starter Xavier Pinson, got his hands on the ball but was fouled with 2.5 seconds remaining.
Buggs did all he could do. He made the first three throw to cut the margin to two. Mizzou’s only shot was for him to miss the second on purpose. And he did. But the ball caromed into the hands of Oklahoma’s Jalen Hill. He made both free throws with 1.3 remaining to ice the contest.
“Guys came down scrambling,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said. “But time ran out.”
Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said the intent was to foul Buggs once the clock had ticked down to a specific time.
“I use that 6-second mark,” Kruger said.
The game was as close as the selection committee envisioned when it named Oklahoma No. 8 seed and Missouri a No. 9. The Tigers figured to have an edge when Oklahoma’s second leading scorer, De’Vion Harmon couldn’t play because of a positive COVID-19 test.
But that just put the ball in the hands of top players Austin Reaves and Brady Manek. Reaves finished with 23 points, even while getting attention from Dru Smith, the Tigers’ top defender.
Manek had 19, including five three-pointers. He also had what was probably the game’s biggest bucket.
Smith’s three-pointer gave Missouri a 55-54 lead with 6:16 remaining. The Tigers had a one-point halftime lead but had been trailing for most of the second half. This seemed like the moment to put pressure on Oklahoma.
Instead, after the Sooners had regained a one-point lead, Missouri missed three-pointers on its next three possessions. Dru Smith, Mark Smith and Brown had rushed their attempts and there were no offensive rebounds. Two of the shots didn’t draw iron.
“We were obviously still in the game, but that’s when we have to capitalize, execute what we’re doing and get a good shot and make a good decision,” Martin said.
That didn’t happen and with 3:28 remaining, Manek swished a three-pointer to make it 61-57 and eventually the lead grew to eight before Dru Smith’s late heroics.
But it wasn’t enough. The final horn sounded, and Tilmon pulled his jersey over his head. All seniors have an additional year of eligibility because of the havoc created by COVID-19 — including playing the entire NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis and in places like Lucas Oil Stadium, which was split in half with a black curtain separating two courts.
Martin doesn’t know what his seniors will do but last week suggested he wouldn’t encourage his seniors to return.
If that’s the case, this was a tough way to end a season and careers of players like Tilmon, Dru Smith and Mark Smith.
“It’s a very emotional locker room,” Martin said.
As it was on the Oklahoma side, for a different reason.
“There’s nothing better in sports than those spontaneous locker room celebrations,” Kruger said. “You can’t practice them. You can’t express how they feel.”
This one included Harmon via FaceTime.
For Missouri, it was a one-and-done NCAA Tournament and a 16-10 finish — a 10-10 record after a 6-0 start — that ended sooner than expected. Mizzou went 3-7 to finish the season. The season record was the best since the 2013-14 season, but the finish was unsatisfying.
“We never got over the hump on a consistent basis,” Martin said about the season.
The same could be said for Saturday’s effort.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 10:14 PM.