College basketball’s conference tournaments are unlike most other playoff formats because of one little quirk: every team gets to be a part. Even if you are the 2023-2024 Missouri Tigers, who compiled the worst possible record in SEC play this season, you get a chance. Theoretically, everyone is gifted a dream, no matter how far-fetched it may seem.
The only problem? Dreams aren’t the only supernatural visions that play inside the mind at night. And someone forgot to set Mizzou’s alarm clock to wake up from its nightmare season, which mercifully ended after a soul-crushing 64-59 loss to the No. 11 seeded Georgia Bulldogs (6-12 SEC) in the opening round of the SEC tournament.
Of course, soul-crushing is only the applicable adjective if you are not familiar with the conglomeration of ways the Tigers have found to lose basketball games this year, or have any soul left to be crushed.
Mizzou limped into Bridgestone Arena in Nashville hoping to end the year with some positive momentum after a lethargic season, but that is exactly what the offense could be described as for the first ten minutes of play. Tamar Bates was the only Tiger with a field goal until Aidan Shaw dropped in a layup at the seven-minute mark of the first half. By then, Georgia had built a 21-11 lead on the back of five triples, the last two coming courtesy of senior guard Justin Hill. Mizzou’s offense looked all out of sorts, and the quick first half starts they enjoyed in many games was nowhere to be found.
However, the Tigers weren’t inclined to sit back and watch their season swirl down the drain. Over the last six minutes of the half, the whole team started chipping in on the offensive end that led to a 19-9 run. One area of excitement was the play of Connor Vanover, who finished the evening with a season-high 33 minutes and recorded a double-double. Vanover scored six points during the run, including a putback slam off a Shaw missed layup and a shot clock-beating jumper from beyond the free throw line. It was the kind of performance that Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates likely expected to see more of after recruiting the seven-footer from Oral Roberts in the offseason.
On the flip side of Vanover’s performance, Sean East had one of his least efficient performances of the season in the biggest game, finishing 3-12 from the floor. His and-one running layup to end the first half was electric, but the Bulldogs did a great job of corralling the floor general throughout the night.
The second half started off just as the first half ended for the Tigers. Tamar Bates started the scoring just as East ended it, with a left-handed hoop and the harm from the right block. Noah Carter and Nick Honor then cashed in three point plays of the more common variety, splashing corner triples from both sides of the court to give the Tigers a 41-35 lead with 15 minutes to play. Honor’s shot even took its time deciding if it wanted to bless Mizzou with three points, but the rims at Bridgestone Arena were friendly and it dropped in off the backboard. Vanover extended that lead even further with a putback layup, but those eight points were the largest it ever got.
Georgia took a more aerial route throughout the game, finishing with 12 made three pointers split evenly between both halves. Freshman guard Blue Cain was the go-to guy from distance and made 5 of the 9 shots he took from behind the arc. Every time the Tigers would push ahead in the second stanza, Cain would hit another big shot. A 47-41 lead was cut to three, a 51-46 lead was cut to two, and finally, a 53-49 lead was cut to a margin of a single point. Cain single-handedly shot the Bulldogs back into the game as they happily traded Mizzou’s twos for threes.
The Bulldog comeback looked to be stifled after Cain’s last three, as their offense sputtered to a halt for three minutes until Hill finally restarted the engine with a nifty turnaround jumper. The drought allowed the Tigers to build a seven point lead back up at 59-52 after Noah Carter threw a beautiful backdoor pass to a cutting East for an easy deuce.
Little did Mizzou realize at the time, but those would be the final two points it would score on the season.
It happened in ever-so-slow motion for the Tigers, who must have felt some deja-vu as the game unraveled in the last three minutes. After Hill hit the jump shot to break the run, center Russell Tchewa continued the romp back into the game by splitting a pair of free throws. Then, Mizzou’s biggest blunder of the night happened. When Georgia pressed after the made free throw, Carter could not find a teammate to inbound the ball to. He ultimately tried to throw it to Bates in the near corner, only for Cain to knock it away and throw it to RJ Melendez at the rim for a layup.
The energy that play brought to the Bulldog bench was palpable. Sean East couldn’t answer on the other end with a three, and then Justin Hill hit the most important shot of the night. After Melendez missed a fairly open layup at the rim, he gathered the rebound and swung it back out to the right wing where Hill was standing. He caught it and smoothly threw up a shot over the outstretched arm of a half-hearted Vanover closeout.
Bang. Georgia in front, 60-59.
Mizzou had a minute and a half left to do something to turn the game back in its favor. Nick Honor took that as an initiative to try and play hero ball. On two consecutive possessions with the game within one, he isolated against a potential mismatch and settled for a three and a long two. Both shots clanked loudly off the rim.
The last gasp of the season was also fitting. Down 62-59 with ten seconds left, Gates drew up a play to get Noah Carter a look from three in the corner. It worked to perfection. Carter got about as good of a look as you can expect when the defense knows you need a shot from distance. He missed. Who knows how many Tiger fans were actually holding their breath while the ball was in the air, when the story of the season seemed to premeditate the outcome of that particular shot.
Georgia narrowly escaped the moniker of becoming the only SEC team all season to lose to the Missouri Tigers, and its reward is taking on Florida Thursday in the second round. The Tigers can now soak it all in, including the firmly attached label of a winless season in conference.
Now Mizzou must hop back on the dizzying carousel of the transfer portal and recruiting, hoping not to get lost in the shuffle next season.