Why Dennis Gates nearly came to tears after Missouri Tigers loss in NCAA Tournament
The dream season ended for Mizzou men’s basketball on Thursday courtesy of a 67-57 loss to Drake in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Wichita, falling well short of the ultimate goal of San Antonio and the Final Four.
The Tigers returned to the dance after not winning a conference game last season, but the woes in the Big Dance continue.
Mizzou is 1-7 in the last 15 years in the NCAA Tournament and has not made the Sweet 16 since 2009.
It was all Drake in the opening half, as the Bulldogs limited Mizzou to just 29 possessions in the first half and 23 points. The 23 points were the lowest Missouri had scored all season.
The Tigers turned the ball over 17 times but forced 15 Drake turnovers. However, the Tigers were outscored 23-13 in points off turnovers, something Drake coach Ben McCollum attributed to getting the stops that nobody expects.
“A few were just throws out of bounds. That’s part of them, probably a couple travels, here, there, and then the other ones, that’s exactly the margins that you have to win it,” McCollum said. “That’s exactly what it is. You have the stops that no one else thinks you should get like those turnover pick-sixes. Those are the ones you need to get. And if you just get a few of those that the other team doesn’t want to get or won’t fight for, you win in the margin there.”
Gates shared a similar sentiment to his coaching rival.
“We didn’t do enough to come away with the win. The enough part I would speak of is the 50-50 loose balls,” Gates said. “We forced them to turn the ball over. We just couldn’t corral the basketball, and sometimes it’s the bounce.”
Entering the matchup, Missouri had the clear size advantage, yet it was the Bulldogs who dominated down low. Drake won the first-half rebounding battle 14-12 and outscored the Tigers in the paint 18-10. The Bulldogs closed the game with 31 rebounds to Mizzou’s 26.
Gates also contributed the points-in-the-paint battle to the Tigers’ turnovers.
“They did a great job of turning our turnovers into baskets,” Gates said. “We forced them to 15 turnovers, but we had less points than the actual turnovers we forced them into. That’s a category that I think they did a great job in .”
Guard Caleb Grill made his return to his hometown in Wichita, and it was also the end of his collegiate career. The graduate guard had 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting and a single made 3-pointer off seven attempts. It was also the last college game for six other Tigers, including Tamar Bates.
Bates and Grill sat next to Gates in the postgame press conference, and Gates shared what it meant to him that both stuck with Mizzou following the tumultuous season prior.
“I’ll come to tears if I really told you everything and spilled my heart out,” Gates said. “I thank them for wanting to play for me, and allowing me to be in their life is bigger than basketball, and that’s what sometimes you have to understand. I’m proud of their growth. I’m proud of what they poured into themselves, what they poured into the strangers that come into the locker rooms that now they call brothers, and what they poured into the staff.
“You know, being called someone’s coach is a lifelong title. They’ll tell their children, their future spouses, I’ll always be their coach.”
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