Can Florida loss be Missouri basketball’s last lesson? Where MU stands after SEC Tournament
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Aidan Shaw answered with some philosophy from Dickey Nutt.
“You either win,” Shaw said, quoting the Missouri basketball assistant coach, “or you learn.”
On Friday, Missouri learned. Quite a lot, too.
Missouri has ambitions of a Final Four. MU head coach Dennis Gates said the team has talked about that since June. He said Friday that he reminds his team in every meeting where it’s being played — San Antonio. There appears to be a sincere belief within the squad that they have the pieces to be a Final Four contender.
On Friday, as Mizzou bowed out of the SEC Tournament in the quarterfinals with a 95-81 loss to Florida at Bridgestone Arena, the Tigers saw exactly what a Final Four team looks like.
It looks like Florida guards Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard and Alijah Martin combining for 52 points on 19-of-30 (63.3%) shooting, and the Gators squad as a whole scoring 61.8% from the field.
It looks like a Gators squad that separated by double-digits before the game was two minutes old.
It looks like UF, which staved off Mizzou’s threats to catch up on multiple occasions by holding Mizzou to just three baskets made in the five minutes after the Tigers cut the deficit to five points.
“Of course,” Shaw said, “we’d like to do a lot more winning, but we learned today.”
Shaw’s answer was more about what Missouri learned about itself — whether the Tigers are any closer to their lofty ambitions. There’s a lot to take away in there.
Missouri was without its leading scorer and All-SEC member Mark Mitchell in the loss. Gates said after the game that it was his own decision to sit Mitchell.
And in a 10-0 hole less than two minutes after opening tipoff, without Mitchell, Missouri ran a likely No. 1 seed pretty close.
So, whether Mizzou got closer to its goals or further away? There are a couple of ways to look at that.
“We don't get to opportunity to raise a banner," Gates said. Our (first stage of the postseason) ends early, we wanted to be here playing on Sunday, and we're not. So, we did not accomplish a goal, but as it relates to the silver lining, we'll see what it does. But, I do know we were able to win a game yesterday against a tough NCAA Tournament team, and today, we played a game without an all-conference player. I thought we did pretty well.”
But Mizzou has now lost five of its past seven games. The Florida loss Friday was by far the most expected and understandable in that span.
The Tigers are still going to hear their name called Sunday, when the selection committee announces this year’s 68-team field. That, by definition means Mizzou is closer.
“We're getting our name selected, our season isn’t over,” Mizzou wing Jacob Crews said. “So we're as close as we can get right now. So, we're just very thankful. We understood, everybody's giving us their best shot. I mean, every team, they're shooting tough shots, making tough shots. I mean, that's just credit to them. That's hard to do, is get a sweep on a team like that, especially a No. 1 seed. So again, I think they game-planned well. I think we game-planned well, and I think they just came out with a win.”
Chasing a Florida team with a 10-point cushion was far too much for Mizzou. Each of Shaw, Trent Pierce and Caleb Grill mentioned aggression and the 10-0 run that Florida opened the game with — the cushion that kept Mizzou chasing all night long — as a reason for Friday’s loss.
There’s also encouragement in the fact that Mizzou didn’t lie down and let it get worse, even while Florida continued to shoot the lights out — “it seemed like they wouldn't miss,” Gates said.
But Missouri has lofty ambitions for this season, and the Tigers have arrived at the time of realization.
More and more often in recent weeks, the Tigers have been learning more lessons than dishing them out. This was once a team that looked likely to take a No. 4 seed or better into the SEC Tournament, and one that was on pace to earn a protected seed into March Madness.
Now, it’s a quarterfinals conference tournament exit and a likely 6- or 7-seed come Sunday.
There’s no room for lessons anymore. Every game from here on out, Mizzou is in knockout mode.
“This season, we've been a team that comes out usually and throws the first punch,” Shaw said. “As we get into the later season, people are gonna start playing with chips on their shoulders. We’ve gotta be ready to be more aggressive. We can't let somebody throw the first punch when it comes to tournament basketball like this. People who throw the first punch are usually people to win.
“So, you’ve just got to be able to, in the future, just come out with our hands on fire, chip on the shoulder and play every game like it’s our last game.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Can Florida loss in SEC Tournament be Missouri basketball’s last lesson?
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