As the clock sprinted towards zero in a feverish Mizzou Arena, with the Tigers about to topple one of the most highly regarded teams in the country, Missouri head coach Dennis Gates calmly grabbed the in-arena microphone and made of his student section one massive request: “Please do not rush the court.”
It’s a tall order for a fanbase that survived the entire 2023-24 campaign without a single conference win. But given the stunning turnaround Gates has overseen this year, the students could do nothing but obey the coach’s cool request. In the highest-scoring game of this historic SEC season, Alabama fell 110-98 on Wednesday to a ferocious Missouri team that has March machinations of its own.
Gates and Alabama coach Nate Oats shook hands as the buzzer sounded, closing the book on a seismic result, both in the SEC and on a national scale.
“Please do not rush the court”
Missouri head coach Dennis Gates had to tell the fans to not storm the court after beating No. 4 Alabama 😅 pic.twitter.com/m16EcNlU18
— ESPN (@espn) February 20, 2025
Life in the conference this season has been brutal. With nine SEC teams looking like locks for the NCAA Tournament, plus another five in the thick of the bubble battle, the schedule is relentless.
And Alabama is feeling the weight of such a loaded league right now. Wednesday’s loss to Missouri comes days after the NCAA Tournament selection committee unveiled the Tide as the No. 2 overall seed on Saturday, just behind archrival Auburn. Only a few hours later, Alabama lost at home, 94-85, to that same Auburn team in an instant classic barnburner full of high-level shot-making and back-and-forth runs.
Just like on Saturday, Alabama’s offense came to play. The Tide shot 54 percent from the field and made 13 triples Wednesday night, refusing to go away even as an early Missouri explosion threatened to blow the roof off Mizzou Arena. Even Mark Sears’ season-high 35 points were not enough to offset the host Tigers’ offensive juggernaut.
Missouri jumped out to a 12-0 lead right from the opening tip-off and impressively maintained a stranglehold on that edge for the entire 40 minutes. Alabama hung around the entire second half, largely thanks to timely shot-making and Sears’ bowling ball-esque downhill lefty drives. But the Tide never cut the lead to less than six, unable to get the necessary stops to fully climb the mountain.
Oats’ team probably still has the inside track to a No. 1 seed come Selection Sunday, but the path is as daunting as it gets. The Tide now return home to Tuscaloosa for the “easy” portion of their remaining gauntlet: hosting Kentucky and Mississippi State. After that, it’s a round-robin of top-five KenPom squads, with a home game against Florida sandwiched between trips to Tennessee and the return matchup at Auburn.
Unless Alabama can figure out the defensive end, more losses could be coming. Auburn posted 1.21 points per possession, and Missouri upped the ante with 1.39 PPP on Wednesday night. Even Alabama’s efficient attack cannot consistently match such gaudy numbers.
For a team that has already beaten Kansas at home and won at Florida — another likely No. 1 seed — Missouri still felt like a team in need of a coming out party. Despite getting buried on SEC Network while being the top-ranked matchup of the night, perhaps this was finally the Tigers’ emphatic announcement to the country. Putting up triple digits on Alabama will have that effect.
Mark Mitchell’s career-high 31 points stood out most, but the Tigers got contributions from all over: tough buckets from Anthony Robinson, deep triples from Caleb Grill, hustle putbacks from Trent Pierce, big blocked shots from Josh Gray. The beauty of this Missouri team is in its balance, as so many weapons are capable of erupting on any given night.
The Tigers have been terrific for a while. Filtering Bart Torvik’s rankings to start on Jan. 1, Missouri ranked as a top-five team even before Wednesday night’s wire-to-wire dismantling of a national title contender. A slight misstep at Texas may have thrown some off the scent, but every indication is that this Missouri team — loaded with experience, physicality, athleticism and shooting — is a legitimate threat in the Big Dance.
Required reading
(Photo: Denny Medley / Imagn Images)
