Why Mizzou must take advantage of major break to play NCAA opener in St. Louis

Even with three straight losses to end the season, Mizzou still appeared relatively assured of making the NCAA Tournament with its 10-8 Southeastern Conference record highlighted by defeating SEC regular-season champion Florida.

One measure: MU appeared on all 129 of the bracket projections aggregated through BracketMatrix.com.

But the vast majority of those, and plenty of pundits, reckoned MU would be a No. 11 seed and perhaps relegated to a play-in game Tuesday or Wednesday in Dayton.

For all the chatter, though, coach Dennis Gates kept reminding himself and the rest of us that no one making projections is privy to the actual deliberations of the committee — which maintains what he called Sunday night “a steel vault” around its work until it’s released.

And, wow, when the bracket was unveiled Sunday, Mizzou effectively received not merely a reprieve from that extra round but a double bonus: a virtual home game in St. Louis on Friday despite its opponent, Miami, having a better seed (seventh) than the Tigers’ No. 10 draw in the West Region.

If MU (20-12) beats the Hurricanes (25-8), it would play Sunday against the winner of the 2-15 matchup between Purdue and Queens University.

All in all, it’s quite a logistical and geographical break from what it might have been for Mizzou, which will be playing an NCAA Tournament game in St. Louis for the first time since 1982 and in the state of Missouri for just the third time overall. The first was in Kansas City in 1944.

Converting the fertile opportunity into something meaningful and memorable, of course, is another matter.

Mizzou has won just one NCAA tourney game since 2010, having been knocked out in the first round in six of its last seven appearances to add to a certain gnawing postseason history: The Tigers have been eliminated in their first game 17 times in 30 NCAA appearances and still are seeking a first Final Four appearance.

In his fourth season, Gates is 1-2 in NCAA Tournament games at MU.

Taking the Tigers to the tournament for a third time in this span is a fine thing that Gates said he’s proud of. Then he reiterated some of the goals he’s been proclaiming since his introductory news conference, including that he wants to be the first to guide the Tigers to a Final Four and win a national title and that he aspires to be a Hall of Fame coach.

While Mizzou has the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class to look forward to in the 2026-2027 season, this feels like a future-is-now crossroads to navigate.

Or at least a chance to demonstrate some traction and gain some real momentum for a program that has gone 44-24 overall and 20-16 in SEC play over the last two seasons.

That’s been in the wake of the 8-24 (0-18 SEC) fiasco in Gates’ second season, which came after he revived the program from 12 wins to 25 in his first one.

So there’s some obvious foundation now.

But a ceiling has remained in place, and breaking through that is essential to galvanizing the fan base — including fundraising for NIL efforts to retain and attract more players.

During a Zoom call with reporters Sunday, Gates smiled and made it a point to note the business community in St. Louis — which has seven Fortune 500 companies.

“I can list them all,” he said. “We need you. We need your help. We need your support.”

Conversely, Missouri fans need something more to buy into.

It’s the Show-Me State, after all.

Now, with a few exceptions, MU for the most part has been providing just that since its last game in St. Louis: the distressing 91-48 loss to Illinois in December that Gates acknowledged lends a certain full-circle sense to this scenario.

“You could look at it that way,” he said. “No team is the same team that they were in December. There’s a lot of things that happen and take place. We’re a lot healthier. “

Since that loss came shortly after getting clobbered 80-60 by Kansas amid an otherwise soft non-conference schedule, though, it was hard not to be skeptical then. Heck, perhaps especially when Gates said that this “one game doesn’t define us” and that he couldn’t wait to get injured players such as Jayden Stone and Trent Pierce back.

Next thing you know, though, he proved spot-on: With Stone and Pierce back, MU beat Florida — now a No. 1 seed — and won at Kentucky, a 7 seed.

After a few choppy weeks, they beat Vanderbilt (5 seed) and Tennessee (6) only to ultimately lose their last three — including a rematch with Kentucky in the SEC Tournament.

As he likes to say after any highs or lows and a lot of in-betweens, Gates is stressing “amnesia” as the tournament starts.

Because it’s a fresh start for all that unfolds into the “One Shining Moment” anthem, he reminded.

At least one of which Mizzou needs to summon now if it wants this season to have lasting resonance.

Because unlike MU’s last game in St. Louis, this one game will be defining.

Vahe Gregorian

The Kansas City Star

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Vahe Gregorian has been a sports columnist for The Kansas City Star since 2013 after 25 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has covered a wide spectrum of sports, including 10 Olympics. Vahe was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his master’s degree at Mizzou.