MU’s seed in the NCAA Tournament is now fully in the selection committee’s hands.
On Friday, heavy rain poured down on Columbia. Somehow, it was raining even harder in Nashville.
Although metaphorical, Florida blurred the line between a raindrops and a full-on waterfall, as the Gators chomped Mizzou 95-81 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal. Florida was blistering-hot from the field, converting 34 of 55 shots, by far a season-high. Even so, the Gators missed four shots in garbage time; prior to the string of misses, they made two-thirds of their field goal attempts, which is rather ridiculous.
“They shot the heck out of the basketball,” head coach Dennis Gates said. “They were shooting 80% for a long period of time, and it seemed like they wouldn’t miss.”
The Gators ran out to a 15-2 lead; Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard led the way for UF, combining for 35 points. Richard had eight points in the first two minutes of action, including a pair of three-pointers. Better yet for the Gators, its buckets were coming in a variety of ways. Their effective movement in the halfcourt was often rewarded with an open look, and transition opportunities usually turned into baskets.
“They did exactly what we did to them when we were at their place,” Jacob Crews said. “We knew that team was going to come back and swing pretty hard on us.”
At first, Mizzou couldn’t keep up with the well-oiled machine dressed in white. With Mark Mitchell sidelined with a knee injury he suffered on Thursday — a decision that was made by Gates despite Mitchell wanting to play — the Tigers couldn’t remedy his ability to score quickly. But despite UF extending its lead to as much as 14 multiple times throughout the first half, Mizzou kept hanging around.
MU’s guards stepped up in a big way on the scoring front — Anthony Robinson II, Tamar Bates and Tony Perkins shouldered most of the ball-handling responsibilities and were able to score all over the floor. The trio combined for 42 points. Off the bench, Marques Warrick provided a spark — just like he had many times before — canning a three-pointer and recording a steal on the ensuing possession. Even T.O. Barrett saw some action and, like fellow reserve Aidan Shaw yesterday, held his own on both ends of the floor in five minutes of action.
Down low, Peyton Marshall also saw the floor, playing eight minutes and registering a plus-five, which was the second-best number on the team behind Warrick and Shaw’s plus-seven.
“To be able to actually go out there and compete with the guys, it felt good, especially going into the (NCAA) Tournament,” Marshall said. “It gave me a little more confidence.”
The game seemed to flip towards the midway point of the second half. Perkins, Bates and Robinson II permeated the paint, while Caleb Grill finally knocked down a three-pointer — he was fouled on a triple moments later and sunk all three free throws. Clayton Jr., who was up to 17 points, exited the game with apparent discomfort in his leg. Mizzou eventually cut the UF lead to four with just over 13 minutes remaining. However, Clayton Jr. would return, and so did momentum for the Gators. They quickly extended their lead back to 10, a run that was punctuated by an alley-oop slam from Alijah Martin.
“They countered everything that we countered,” Warrick said. “When they hit first, we counter-punched with runs of our own, but they came back with runs of their own. That’s what hurt us, especially in that second half.”
Mizzou would continue to remain close, but the Tigers couldn’t overcome yet another loss: Josh Gray, who started in place of Mitchell, fouled out with 7:20 left. At that point, MU didn’t have three of its four primary big men available. — Trent Burns never took off his warmup pants. Gates opted to go with a smaller lineup, and Florida took advantage down low. Alex Condon, who normally picked on players his own size, looked like a giant among boys. UF rode the interior dominance to the finish line, crossing it in victorious fashion.
“They played really physical defense,” Jeremy Sanchez said, “and they made plays at the right time.”
ESPN’s Pete Thamel, who was sitting in the second row along the sidelines, told ESPN colleague Chris Doering (a former UF wide receiver) that the Gators looked like a football team. If Condon was an athletic, big-bodied tight end, the Tigers were a group of helpless defensive backs.
Mizzou did plenty of good on Friday — that included 18 offensive rebounds, its most against an SEC opponent since Jan. 10, 2017 against Auburn. The Tigers also won the turnover battle 16-9. But it wasn’t enough. After Mizzou defeated Mississippi State on Thursday, Gates said that Florida was a No. 1 seed-caliber team. The Gators sure played like it on Friday.
Mizzou will find out its NCAA Tournament seeding along with every other tournament-hopeful squad this Sunday. Whatever happens in the Big Dance, the Tigers know that they accomplished a lot this season, even if they didn’t achieve everything they wanted, including an SEC Tournament title.
“I can’t be any happier with how we showed up for our friends, showed up for our community, for CoMo,” Crews said. “I think we put on a hell of a show for everyone to see.”