Missouri was proud to serve West Region No. 6 Frö in the NCAA tournament and the trip to Wichita who came with it. Although there is a 30-win conference master waiting for the first round of Matchup on Thursday.
“It gives our fans a runable distance to support us when they supported us all season,” said Missouri coach Dennis Gates. “I’m grateful for that.”
No. 11 Seed Drake is not completely unknown to Missouri, after winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis for the third year in a row. But the team played by 1987, when Missouri demanded a victory 76-74 on Drake.
After finishing 8-24 last season, Tigers (22-11) were happy to enter the big dance period.
“They could have said that our website will be on the moon, right? We would be grateful,” Gates said. “They could have said several different places. We would be excited.”
Drake (30-3) played by March 9 and will be removed from 11 days from their previous game when they hit the floor against the Tigers. MVC’s regular season champion also won the conference tournament and expects a good following from their campus in Des Moines, Iowa, about 400 miles up Interstate 35 from Wichita.
The winner of this game will play the winner of third seeded Texas Tech and No. 14 UNC Wilmington on Saturday.
Missouri ended his season with losses in five of the last seven matches. The leading point Mark Mitchell (14.1 points per match) received a minor knee injury during the Tigers ’85 -73 second round victory over the Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference tour on March 13.
Gates held 6-foot-9 on the team’s loss of 95-81 to Florida the next day, so he would be healthy for the NCAA tournament.
Mitchell and Guards Caleb Grill (13.7 PPG) and Tamar Bates (13.4) run the fast Missouri crime, but eight different players have led the team in points this season.
Missouri is tested after running the SEC upholstery to be one of 14 teams in the league to reach the NCAA tournament. Drake dominated MVC with a 15-1 record and has victories over Miami, Kansas State and the only other Sec team it played during the regular season: Vanderbilt. Commodores is in the NCAA tournament and their last victory before they ended the season with three losses in a row was March 1 over Missouri.
Tempo and playing style make these two opposites.
Missouri is ranked as a ninth in the country in points with 84.5 points per match while Drake is first ranked in points defense with 58.4 points per match.
The bulldogs are paced by MVC Player of the Year Bennett Stirtz, who average 19.1 points per match and shoots 38 percent from 3-points land. He and forward Daniel Abreu (10.4 ppg) and Mitch Mascari (9.8 ppg) were among the players who followed coach Ben McCollum from Division II northwest Missouri State to Drake.
They had no problem making the transition to Division I Ball. Stirtz had 16 points and 11 assists against Vandy in the Charleston Classic championship in November.
“I don’t care what anyone says about talent, and I think we have lots of talent. But tough children win championships,” McCollum said. “That’s what they do.”
Drake makes his fourth trip to the NCAA tournament over the past five years. The program’s latest success convinced McCollum to take the Bulldogs’ Rodret after coach Darian Devries left West Virginia.
McCollum won four Division II titles while publishing a record of 394-91 in 15 years in Northwest Missouri State. That success allowed him to be selective when considering offers to go up.
“It’s a lot of a deal, and obviously the NCAA tournament was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to taking this job,” recalled McCollum. “It was about 3 o’clock one morning, and I’m pretty close to taking it, woke up, and I’m like, man, I want to do the NCAA tournament. I want to do it.”
And he did so, thanks to his team’s resounding victory 63-48 over Bradley in the MVC Tourney title game to get the league’s automatic quay.
Missouri reached the NCAA console for the second time in Gate’s three-year period. He said that the tigers do not take easily in the middle of the major.
“It’s a first round game and everything can happen,” Gates said. “Ranking and bids and everything else doesn’t matter. All teams can win games.”
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