Just win, baby: Mizzou Tigers have chance to achieve a SEC Tournament first
Among other objectionable and unsightly aspects of Missouri’s meeting with Georgia in the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena, the Tigers couldn’t muster a field goal in the final 6 minutes 24 seconds. And, stop us if you’ve heard this one, they frittered away a double-digit second-half lead against the Bulldogs, enabling Georgia to recover and hover within one possession most of the last four minutes of the game.
But, hey, enough with the griping and fussing and nitpicking, already. After all, seventh-seeded Mizzou beat 10th-seeded Georgia 73-70 to advance to a 6 p.m. Friday quarterfinal against second-seeded Arkansas.
Beat the eighth-ranked Razorbacks (21-5), against whom the Tigers (16-8) split their regular-season series, and Mizzou will advance to the tournament semifinal for the first time since joining the SEC in the 2012-13 school year.
Warts and blemishes notwithstanding, in the truest spirit of March Madness, moving on to that next chance to get better and gain currency and credibility and momentum towards the school’s first NCAA Tournament win since 2010 was exactly all that mattered.
Call it “survive and advance,” as coined by late North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano.
Or, if you prefer, apply the words of former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson amid a series of narrow postseason victories: “You (reporters) can write your stories … ‘They almost lost.’ I like that.”
In this case, the Tigers did almost lose. But they also didn’t lose. And since style points don’t count, mission accomplished.
So here’s what might be considered coach Cuonzo Martin’s contemporary approximation of Valvano and Richardson’s sayings:
“Well, respectfully, I think we just have to win the game; I think we are who we are at this point,” he said. “I mean, that’s simple, but we are who we are. We’re going to make a mistake here, turn it over, bad shot, foul. Whatever it is, 24 games, that’s who we are.”
There’s plenty of wiggle room within that assertion, of course, the difference between the best version of themselves and the one that has habitually squandered big leads and at times struggled to shoot straight.
Naturally, Martin is intent on coaxing out the more appealing image, perhaps along the lines of how he implored Dru Smith before his game-winning basket at Florida: “Be the player you’re supposed to be.”
Whether MU can be the team we might have supposed it could be after a 7-0 start and a journey that includes three wins over current top 10 teams and nine wins over likely NCAA Tournament teams remains to be seen.
Certainly, the faith of fans has been dwindling as MU had lost five of seven entering the game — perhaps helping account for the paltry Mizzou fan presence here: With capacity limited to 3,400 because of the pandemic, it was hard to discern more than a few dozen Tiger fans in the crowd of perhaps 1,000 or so.
But as much as Mizzou reiterated in the victory that it can’t seem to bear prosperity, the Tigers also reinforced an overlooked point about this team: Mizzou now is 7-1 in games decided by five points or fewer, part of a resume that makes it intriguing despite some infuriating lapses.
One of those had been in its previous meeting with Georgia (14-12), which MU led by 13 points in the second half in Athens only to fall 80-70. At the time it was Mizzou’s third loss in a row, including second straight with forward Jeremiah Tilmon on a leave of absence because of a death in the family.
Even with Tilmon back now, the trajectory of this game took a familiar and unsettling turn in the second half.
After trailing 33-32 at halftime, Mizzou peeled out from a 46-46 tie with a 16-4 run keyed by 10 points from Smith (16 points) and punctuated by Javon Pickett’s layup with 7:31 left. MU also was boosted by Kobe Brown, who had 12 of his 16 points in the second half
But, like clockwork, MU stagnated.
A spree of turnovers, defensive gaffes and poor shot selection, or shots, welcomed Georgia back into the game until the final seconds.
With 19.8 seconds left and Missouri leading 69-67, Georgia’s Toumani Camara went to the line with a chance to tie it. But teammate Justin Kier’s lane violation reduced the opportunity to one shot … and Camara missed that.
Kier atoned for that with a three after Smith’s two free throws to cut it to 71-70 with 8 seconds left. But Xavier Pinson (17 points) hit two free throws with 6.5 seconds left to account for the final score … once Georgia’s P.J. Horne missed a last-ditch three-point attempt.
So no harm, no foul — at least on this night for the Tigers.
Flawed as the collective might be, they definitely are who they are: a team that has demonstrated the capacity to beat the best in the nation but also is infinitely capable of beating itself.
In the days, perhaps weeks, to come, they’ll reveal which is the more dominant trait.
Whatever the case, about all we know by now is it will never look easy.
“Whatever we have to do to win games,” Smith said, smiling, “that’s what we have to do.”