Takeaways from the Missouri Tigers’ SEC tournament showdown against Kentucky
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mark Mitchell scored 32 points and seven rebounds but Missouri lost 78-72.
- Tigers had just two assists and seven turnovers in the opening half.
- Kentucky advanced; ESPN projected Mizzou as in the NCAA field; seeding pending Sunday.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Mark Mitchell all but literally put the Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team onto his back Thursday afternoon.
This time the setting was Round 2 of the Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, No. 8-seeded Mizzou taking on No. 9 seed Kentucky before a largely partisan-blue crowd at Bridgestone Arena.
The similarly seeded teams trading leads early, often and throughout. Both looked fresh — it was the Tigers’ tourney opener after a first-round bye, while UK opened with a 87-82 win against 16th-seeded LSU.
Mitchell, the senior guard from Kansas City, Kansas, was silky-smooth and central to Missouri’s efforts, scoring 32 points with seven rebounds. But the Wildcats had just a little more firepower at the end as Mizzou fell 78-72.
The outcome was never a sure thing. The Wildcats slowly pulled ahead as halftime neared, but it was razor-close, 16-15 UK, with just over 11 minutes remaining in the opening stanza.
Mizzou (20-12), which in January scored the program’s first-ever win at UK’s Rupp Arena, answered that call and others as the game progressed, never falling too far behind. Mitchell, second-team All-SEC for the 2025-26 season, saw to that.
He had nine points at halftime to lead all scorers. Kentucky had five players with six apiece at that point and led 38-29. The Tigers shot 37% from the floor in the first half, the Wildcats 48%.
Perhaps most telling, though, was Missouri’s disparity in assists-to-turnovers: The Tigers had just two assists as a team in the opening half and gave ball away seven times.
Even missing key players — most notably guard Jaland Lowe and forward Jayden Quaintance — coach Mark Pope’s Wildcats were effective in rejecting Mizzou’s penetration into the lane. The Tigers didn’t get to the paint very often, and when they did they were met with a hand in their face.
MU fell behind by double-digits multiple times Thursday but clawed back on each occasion. The Tigers whittled one of those UK leads down to five points with just over 10 minutes left.
Then it was a three-point game, the Wildcats up 60-57 at the 7:54 mark. A 3-pointer by Mitchell, bucket by Trent Piece and Mitchell finger-roll kept Mizzou within a point, 69-68, with under 3 minutes to go.
When the Tigers pulled ahead 70-69 on a Mitchell fadeaway, anything looked possible. Mitchell, especially, was doing all he could to help his basketball team survive and advance.
But Kentucky would soon regain the lead for good. Senior guard Denzel Aberdeen’s falling-down, prayer-up layin was an effective dagger for the Tigers, making it 75-70 with 20 seconds left.
T.O. Barrett scored 13 points and was the only Tigers player besides Mitchell to crack double-figures. Kentucky Otega Oweh led the Wildcats with 21 points; Aberdeen added 16 and Collin Chandler 15.
Missouri out-rebounded UK 35 to 27.
Now, while Kentucky advances in the SEC tournament, Missouri awaits its seeding in the NCAA Tournament. According to ESPN's current bracket projections, Mizzou entered the SEC tourney secure in the field of 68.
The Tigers will learn Sunday if they’re in the tourney for sure — and, assuming they make it, whether they’ll start with a bye or join other borderline teams for play-in games at Dayton, Ohio.
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 2:10 PM.