Hochman: Why Mizzou’s best player, Mark Mitchell, could also be X-factor in NCAA tourney
Scouting Drake and what Mizzou needs to watch out for in March Madness
On this episode of the Eye on the Tigers Podcast, Post-Dispatch beat writer Eli Hoff digs into Missouri's first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament. After outlining the Tigers' potential path through the March Madness bracket, he delivers his scouting report on Drake after watching some of the Bulldogs' past games. From recycling high pick-and-rolls to clogging up passing lanes, Eli offers up observations on what Mizzou could see Thursday in Wichita, then suggests three keys for MU to advance into the second round.
It’s rare that a game’s X-factor can also be a game’s best player, but that’s the case for Mizzou in, well, its biggest game.
Will Mark Mitchell’s banged-up right knee be sturdy enough?
And will Mitchell have any rust, considering his last full game was 12 days prior?
Because for all that’s made about Drake’s slow tempo and valiant rebounding and winning pedigree, if Mizzou’s Mitchell plays to his capabilities — especially at his recent clip — the Tigers should survive and advance.
On paper, No. 11 seed Drake is a good matchup for the 6-foot-8 Mitchell — the Bulldogs don’t have much size (their tallest guy is also 6-foot-8), and Mitchell is superb at getting to the line. But on paper, No. 11 seed Drake isn’t a good matchup for No. 6 Mizzou overall. A lot to be worried about with the 30-3 Arch Madness champions of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
But Mark Mitchell, man.
The dude is different. In the eight games before his injury in the Southeastern Conference tournament, Mitchell averaged exactly 20 points per game while shooting 57.8% from the floor.
He scored 31 points (31!) in the win against No. 4 Alabama.
“He got a lot of work done in the paint (this season), on the dribble,” Dennis Gates recently told reporters — Thursday’s game marks the Mizzou coach’s second trip with the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament. “He was able to get in the lane, drive and kick. Those decision-making opportunities allowed his usage rate to move up. That’s where I truly believe there’s no other system in this country that allows a Mark Mitchell to showcase the things he’s showcased, especially with the teammates and their skill sets as well between the lines.”
Mizzou's Caleb Grill, Mark Mitchell and Tamar Bates speak with the media on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, a day before their NCAA Tournament game vs. Drake. (NCAA/Veritone)
I remember interviewing Mitchell by phone last April, shortly after the Duke forward transferred to Mizzou. He was quite a get for Gates. Not just a McDonald’s All-American but the high scorer in the McDonald’s All-American Game. A five-star recruit for the Blue Devils, it wasn’t like he was buried on the bench — he averaged 11.6 points per game and 6.0 rebounds last season as a sophomore. But as Mitchell mentioned on the phone that day: “I love Duke, but I’m excited to bring a new element of myself to Mizzou and take my game to another level.”
It almost sounded too good to be true. But Mitchell has, indeed, ascended.
He’s just the Tigers’ third transfer in his first year to make an All-SEC team. He leads Mizzou with 14.1 points per game. And only 12 other players in the country this year have accomplished these stat totals, along with Mitchell: 450 points, 125 rebounds, 60 assists, 30 steals and 25 assists.
“The things I saw him improve on most,” Gates said, “was understanding spacing, playing with the ball in his hands — like he did in high school — putting him in situations where he’s guarding and defending guys bigger and smaller, but also where guys bigger and smaller are defending him. Making sure he’s not pigeon-holed to arriving or spacing in just one area, the block and the top of the key. Now he can move and arrive half-court, corners, wing, middle third of the court, top of the key or ball in his hand dribbling up. That gives him an advantage because he’s such a cerebral and versatile player. I do know he’s very unselfish.”
As for Mitchell getting to the line, well, the Tigers are 6-3 in games Mitchell made six or more free throws.
Overall, he’s second in the SEC (and ranked 30th nationally) with 207 free-throw attempts. Heck, his 6.5 attempts per game are the most by a Missouri player since ... Jabari Brown — 11 years ago.
OK, but what about the wounded knee?
Mitchell hurt it during the SEC tourney game against Mississippi State, which Mizzou won, and he sat out for precautionary reasons in the game against Florida, which Mizzou lost. On Wednesday afternoon in Wichita, Kansas — the site of Thursday’s 6:35 p.m. game — Mitchell wore a pad on his right shin, per the Post-Dispatch’s Eli Hoff. Mitchell told reporters he doesn’t have any restrictions.
So here we go.
Tourney time.
And time for Mark Madness.
“He’s a humble human being, great basketball player,” Gates said. “I’m thankful for what he has done and what he’ll continue to do. The big picture is: We have this next phase ... the NCAA Tournament. For us, we’re going to take it a step at a time. He had a wonderful body of work. We’re proud of him — and now let’s see what he does.”
No. 6 seed Mizzou, No. 11 seed Drake set for clash of tempos, size in NCAA Tournament
WICHITA, Kan. — Missouri practiced fast.
When the Tigers took to the Intrust Bank Arena floor for their designated 40 minutes of practice time Wednesday, they flew up and down the court. Three-on-two transition situations. Grabbing rebounds and going. Powering to the rim. Pulling up from 3.
While most of the other teams to practice earlier in the day seemed to use their gym time to get used to the shooting environment, No. 6 seed Mizzou (22-11) may well have been sending a message to No. 11 seed Drake (30-3), which it will face at 6:35 p.m. Thursday.
As point guard Anthony Robinson II put it just before MU’s practice began: “We’re an aggressive team and we like to speed things up.”
Speed and size are two of the bigger differences between the Tigers and Bulldogs, who will battle in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a spot against either No. 3 seed Texas Tech (25-8) or No. 14 seed North Carolina-Wilmington (27-7) on the line. Sure, there’s the difference in conferences or coaching backgrounds, but it’s interesting to think about this clash of styles on paper.
“It’s gonna be a little bit different for both of us,” forward Jacob Crews said.
But, crucially, the Tigers will have star power forward Mark Mitchell available for the first round of the tournament after he missed time during last week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament with a knee injury. Mitchell looked to be practicing fully and without any noticeable limitations on Wednesday.
“No restrictions,” he said. “I’m feeling good, ready to go.”
Drake has the longest average possession length of any team in the nation, according to KenPom, which reflects in how it plays. The Bulldogs display a clear patient tempo.
“I like how you worded that,” Bulldogs coach Ben McCollum joked with the Post-Dispatch when presented with that phrase in Wichita. “Some people would say slow.”
And they wouldn’t be wrong, Coach. But he explained what Drake tries to accomplish by taking up more of the shot clock than any other team in the country:
“It's not that we try to slow it down,” McCollum said. “It's that it is difficult for us to get a shot because of the athleticism on the other side of the ball. Certain games we're able to play a little bit faster and have more possessions. Mizzou, defensively, they run quite a few defenses. You kind of just have to take what they give you. If it's five seconds in, and you need to shoot it. If it's 25 seconds in, then shoot it.
“Our intent isn't necessarily to just slow the game down per se. Obviously, the SEC is a fast league and an athletic league. Mizzou is very athletic. They play very fast. They're very well-coached. They're a tough matchup for everybody in the country, to be quite honest.”
So much of Drake’s offense — which does take 22 seconds per possession, on average — runs through point guard Bennett Stirtz. Averaging 19.1 points and 5.7 assists per game while playing all 40 minutes or awfully close to it, he’s the system.
The Bulldogs will often run repeated pick and rolls down the middle third of the floor, trying to find a window for Stirtz to get to the rim, hit a pocket pass to the roller or kick it out to the perimeter.
What’s remarkable about his game is how calm he seems, even when the shot clock has dipped low enough to be flashing tenths of seconds above his head.
“Obviously I have the ball in my hands a lot of the game, but just trusting my teammates (helps),” Stirtz said. “I've been used to it, just getting trapped most of the season, stuff like that. Knowing that I'm not the only guy out there, I trust my teammates.”
MU will happily switch those ball screens, as it often has this season, and generally change up the defensive look it shows Drake. Man, zone, a different zone, switching, fighting through screens, drop coverage — all of that could show up on any string of possessions.
“You can’t overthink it,” McCollum said. “A lot of it is to try to stymie you for two, three possessions at a time. Maybe you score a couple of times in man or they go to their 1-1-3 or 2-3 (zone) or whatever they call it. Maybe they'll press with their diamond press or man press or trap you at half court or blitz ball screens on occasion or switch ball screens. They'll tag from certain places and not tag from others.”
The Tigers’ plans for covering the series of ball screens they’re likely to see even boil down to complicating Drake’s tendency to run an action, recycle, reset and run it again.
“For me, I think (my job) is to put pressure on (Stirtz),” said center Josh Gray, who will be a crucial part of defending those plays. “Once he doesn’t get what he wants off the initial ball screen, he passes it to the big and then the big pitches it back and whatnot. So to keep the pressure on him, right, so that he (has to) pass to someone else other than the big — I feel like that would be very instrumental in our defense.”
Sound like a lot? That’s what scouting the Missouri defense takes, even if the effectiveness of that group took a dive for the worse late in the regular season.
For all the confusion the Tigers can create, Drake’s tempo will demand endurance from whatever it is Mizzou plays on a given possession. Stopping the Bulldogs isn’t about holding up for 10 seconds. It’s about holding up for 20 or 25 or all 30 of the shot clock — and then securing the rebound.
“We're more so just going to be more so focused on just being solid on the defensive end,” guard Tamar Bates said. “I mean, obviously there will be points in the game and opportunities for us to speed them up and disrupt the pace that they try to play with and obviously dragging their offense out and to shoot it at the end of the shot clock.”
The Bulldogs, in addition to their tempo, are also small. Their tallest player stands 6-feet-8, meaning MU will often have the two or three tallest players on the floor at any given moment — with some by several inches.
Gray, a 7-footer, said he sees “a lot of great opportunity” to leverage his size. But Drake is pretty good at leverage for its size, too.
“We’ve got to box them out,” Crews said. “They can rebound. They’re tiny, but they can rebound.”
Being the smaller team isn’t unusual for Drake, either.
“We've been dealing with it all year,” Stirtz said. “We're pretty undersized. We're used to it.”
Mizzou coach Dennis Gates talks about how NCAA Tournament experience has taught him
Mizzou will 'do what we do' vs. slow-paced Drake, Tigers players say
How Mizzou got back to NCAA Tournament: 'This doesn’t happen if players don’t believe in the vision'
Scouting Drake and what Mizzou needs to watch out for in March Madness
On this episode of the Eye on the Tigers Podcast, Post-Dispatch beat writer Eli Hoff digs into Missouri's first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament. After outlining the Tigers' potential path through the March Madness bracket, he delivers his scouting report on Drake after watching some of the Bulldogs' past games. From recycling high pick-and-rolls to clogging up passing lanes, Eli offers up observations on what Mizzou could see Thursday in Wichita, then suggests three keys for MU to advance into the second round.
WICHITA, Kan. — The past two Missouri men’s basketball seasons have started the same.
In comes the modern college sports roster mix: a few transfers, some freshmen, a handful of returners. The coaching staff turns to a sports psychologist to help them bond, get to know each other and find a way to come up with on-court chemistry during the one season that they, pragmatically, have together.
And they talk about going to the Final Four.
Mizzou coach Dennis Gates has not been shy about mentioning it, about encouraging his players to visualize that — a hardwood heaven in Phoenix last season or San Antonio this year.
Mizzou coach Dennis Gates speaks with the media on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, a day before their NCAA Tournament game vs. Drake. (NCAA/Veritone)
“If you don’t shoot for that, you’re not training, you’re not practicing, you’re not preparing yourself for the opportunity that’s presented,” Gates said at the start of the 2023-24 season.
But MU missed that mark, of course, battling injuries and a capital-L Losing streak that took 20-plus games to wash out of the program’s immediate reputation. There were times Gates seemed frustrated with how 2023-24 went down. He’d bemoan the lack of foul calls that his players earned. After one loss, he said his team needed to be “participants in our own rescue.” After another, he dropped a letter-shaped bomb from the news conference podium to talk about how “(expletive) terrible” one foul-drawing effort had been.
Most of the time, though, the coach’s confident, composed, consistent demeanor stayed solid. Stoic, in pose and philosophy. At some point — or maybe it was there all along — Gates accepted and embraced an almost spiritual quest.
“I’m not excited about where our program is,” he said near the end of last season, “but I am excited to lead young men through adversity the way that I have been called to do so.”
He went to work.
And it worked.
In one of the best bounce-back seasons college basketball has ever seen, the Missouri Tigers, who were 0-19 against Southeastern Conference teams last season, won 20 regular-season games and are back in the NCAA Tournament. Mizzou is a No. 6 seed and tips off against No. 11 Drake at 6:35 p.m. Thursday in Wichita and on TruTV.
A lot has changed, but very little has too.
‘Prove we’re a good basketball team’
Start, as every season now does, in the transfer portal — before scissor even meets net in the Final Four.
Gates and his staff saw four needs to fill in the portal. Ƶ wanted a primary ball-handler, a combo guard with some scoring chops, a hybrid forward who could work at all three levels and a traditional center.
“Now, you never get every single piece that you want,” Gates said as the portal opened. “You never get that. But if we can get 85% of the stuff that I just explained to you, I really do think we’ll have a great team next year.”
Mizzou filled 100% of those spots, plus one.
Iowa point guard Tony Perkins has started 27 games and has a 2.6-to-1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio, which is what Gates likes to see out of his ball-handlers. Northern Kentucky transfer Marques Warrick, who transferred to MU as the NCAA’s active career scoring leader, became a microwavable bucket-getter off the bench. Jacob Crews, who transferred in from Tennessee-Martin, can ease the 3-point shooting burden of other wings. Duke transfer Mark Mitchell has become the offense’s focal point and leading scorer. South Carolina’s Josh Gray brought 7 feet of personality and post presence.
The Tigers also welcomed in a highly ranked class of five freshmen, some of whom have seen big minutes this season: Point guard T.O. Barrett and forward Marcus Allen earned the trust of their coaches quickly. They committed and signed before the losing streak took place, meaning they stepped into a program that was in a different place than they thought it would be.
Not that it fazed the freshman class, though.
“We all made a pact to not let that type of season go on again,” Allen said.
Perhaps the most impactful — or profound, certainly — group was the returners. After trying freshman seasons on and off the court, Anthony Robinson II and Trent Pierce stuck around to develop. They grew into regular starters as SEC play began.
Guard Tamar Bates, who finished 2023-24 a few percentage points short of basketball’s 50-40-90 gold standard of efficiency, is in position to shoot 50% from the field, 40% from 3 and 90% at the free-throw line this season. In a locker room of quiet, heads-down-and-work figures, Bates has been the voice behind the turnaround.
“I understand what’s necessary and what my teammates are looking at me for,” he said last week after snapping a late-season three-game losing streak at the SEC tournament.
And then there’s Caleb Grill. His search for a fresh start at Missouri sank about a third of the way through last season with a wrist injury that healed far slower than expected and hoped. Using a medical waiver to come back for his final season was a “no-doubter,” he said, because he knew a season like the current one was possible.
“I just want to prove we’re a good basketball team,” he said before the start of the season. “... I want to show people who we are because people have — I mean, we do too — a bad taste in our mouth after last season went.”
Grill has been the exemplar of how Gates’ coaching style worked this season. The head coach held his sharpshooter accountable at times — and at other moments just held him.
After Grill played poorly in the season opener at Memphis, Gates yanked Grill from the starting lineup.
“I benched him,” Gates said. “Accountability is growth, and he allowed me to hold him accountable.”
Then Grill popped off the bench to knock down eight 3s in a nonconference game against Eastern Washington, showing the kind of shooting potential he had. He left a November nonconference game against Lindenwood on a stretcher after a neck injury, then returned from that to become one of the best shooters in the country and win the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
When Grill checked out of the Tigers’ final home game of the season, he hugged Gates on the baseline.
They embraced longer than a shot clock could count.
Grill and Gates and Mizzou were what each other needed.
‘Thank them ... for believing’
As the current season trundled along, Gates turned down opportunities to compare it — contrast it, really — to the year before.
“This team will be their own story,” he said before the start of the campaign.
“I’ve not one time brought up last year to this team at all,” Gates said later. “I’ve learned, as a head coach, what I needed to learn. ... We didn’t put that stress on them. Ƶ wasn’t responsible (for last year).”
A gentle nonconference schedule looked like it might bite the Tigers in the tail when they trailed California by 16 points at halftime on Dec. 3, only for Robinson to pick-and-roll his way to 29 points and a win. Then, MU upset top-ranked Kansas, sending fans bounding onto the court.
A couple of months later, when Mizzou picked up its ninth SEC win of the season by beating then-No. 4 Alabama in a home track meet, Gates urged the fans to keep off the floor. The third top-five victory of the season showed Missouri could make that kind of win a little more routine.
The bliss of that night came with a curse. From there, the Tigers lost four of their last five games of the regular season — and even after a generally positive SEC tournament showing have lost five of their last seven.
“We had to learn some lessons,” assistant coach Kyle Smithpeters said at the tournament. “We are very talented. We are very good. But we’re not going to be able to walk out there and just go through the motions and get wins. People want to beat us.
“We’re not sneaking up on anybody. We finally, I think, came to that realization: that we’re going to have to go out there and do things the dirty way, the hard way again. ... You go back and look at Alabama: We scored 110 points and win a game in that type of fashion. It’s going to do something to your head. I think our guys, it just took them a little bit of time to come to the realization that, hey, we’re going to get back to the old-school stuff.”
Whether Missouri can get back to its old-school style or plain ol’ winning will determine what goes on the banner that will be hoisted into the Mizzou Arena rafters. Is this postseason about participating or making a run?
The Final Four is and has been Gates’ vision — a vision that might have seemed outlandish a year ago but looks a little more plausible from Wichita. That MU’s players and fans see it too was enough to bring the third-year coach to tears when he addressed his team in front of a crowd after the regular season finale.
“This doesn’t happen if players don’t believe in the vision of a head coach,” Gates said. “... But I specifically wanted to talk to our players and tell them how proud I am of them, and thank them and their families for believing.”
Mizzou forward Jacob Crews plans to return for 2025-26 season
WICHITA, Kan. — Missouri men's basketball forward Jacob Crews plans to use a bonus year of eligibility and return to the team next season, he told the Post-Dispatch.
"I'm coming back," Crews said Wednesday before the Tigers' pre-NCAA Tournament practice.
He'd normally be out of eligibility but has an extra year to use because he played at the junior college level in between Division I stops. The NCAA recently changed its rules to permit athletes not to count a year of junior college against their eligibility, which grants players like Crews another year, if they want.
Missouri football player Triston Newson is using the same rule to return for the 2025 football season.
Crews played at North Florida from 2020-22 before transferring down to Daytona State College. After one season in the JUCO ranks, he returned to D-I with Tennessee-Martin before joining the Tigers this season.
He has appeared in 32 games and played 415 minutes for MU, shooting 33.6% from 3-point range.
Mizzou basketball coach Dennis Gates speaks with the media on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, about Black head coaches at Southeastern Conference media days in Birmingham, Alabama, (Video courtesy Southeastern Conference)
Mizzou hires Kellie Harper as women’s basketball coach
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri is hiring former Tennessee coach Kellie Harper to lead its women’s basketball program.
Harper, 47, brings Southeastern Conference experience to the rebuilding program. MU announced her hire Tuesday afternoon.
“Kellie is a proven winner and dynamic leader who understands the ‘Will to Win’ necessary to succeed at the sport’s highest level,” athletics director Laird Veatch said in a statement. “She is nationally respected, and her experience in the SEC, her deep ties to the state of Missouri and her ability to recruit and develop championship-level players make her the ideal leader for our program. We are incredibly excited about the future of Mizzou Women’s Basketball under her leadership.”
She has 20 years of coaching experience, having entered the coaching ranks soon after concluding her playing career at Tennessee. Harper has been the head coach at Western Carolina, North Carolina State, Missouri State and with the Lady Vols. She has a career coaching record of 393–260.
She made the NCAA Tournament in four seasons at UT — it wasn’t held during 2020, her first season, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Lady Vols dismissed Harper after the 2023-2024 season, looking for someone who could do more than crack the field each season.
A coach who can consistently get teams into the NCAA Tournament would be a welcome figure at Mizzou, which hasn’t been to the women’s tournament since 2019, when Sophie Cunningham was a player.
“I am incredibly honored to be the next head coach at Mizzou,” Harper said in a statement. “Missouri is a special place, and I know firsthand the passion and pride that surrounds this program. Our family is excited to return to the state of Missouri. I look forward to working with our leadership and our student-athletes, building strong relationships throughout the community and winning championships in Columbia. The foundation is in place for success — and I can’t wait to get started.”
Harper’s salary and contract details were not immediately available Tuesday, but Veatch has pledged to increase the university’s investment in women’s basketball.
Harper will replace Robin Pingeton, whose contract expired after 15 years at Missouri.
Important things to know about Mizzou Tigers athletics
Why avoiding mistakes will be key to Mizzou holding off No. 11 seed Drake in NCAA Tourney
Scouting Drake and what Mizzou needs to watch out for in March Madness
On this episode of the Eye on the Tigers Podcast, Post-Dispatch beat writer Eli Hoff digs into Missouri's first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament. After outlining the Tigers' potential path through the March Madness bracket, he delivers his scouting report on Drake after watching some of the Bulldogs' past games. From recycling high pick-and-rolls to clogging up passing lanes, Eli offers up observations on what Mizzou could see Thursday in Wichita, then suggests three keys for MU to advance into the second round.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri has become a popular pick in March Madness brackets, but in unfortunate fashion. The Tigers are a trendy upset pick around the college basketball world.
ESPN’s “The People’s Bracket” shows that 40% of the bracket filled out on its site have No. 11 seed Drake upsetting No. 6 seed Mizzou in Thursday’s 6:35 p.m. NCAA Tournament game in Wichita, Kansas. That’s the most upset picks of any of the 6-11 matchups, though two of those are dependent on First Four games to lock in the 6 seeds’ opponents.
And Drake is a difficult team to make sense of. The 30-3 Missouri Valley Conference champions are an appealing pick mostly because of the raw number of wins they’ve acquired. The Bulldogs have a clear style and tempo (slow), an NBA prospect in guard Bennett Stirtz and the buzz that a mid-major program or two discovers during the days after the bracket reveal.
So how do the Tigers prove the 40% wrong and beat Drake to make the second round, where No. 3 seed Texas Tech (25-8) or No. 14 seed North Carolina-Wilmington (27-7) awaits? Minimizing mistakes to let the talent gap prevail.
Drake's Bennett Stirtz looks to pass as Bradley's Christian Davis defends during the first half of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship game on Sunday in St. Louis.
Jeff Roberson, Associated Press
Drake enters the Big Dance with the title of slowest team in America, though the better superlative is probably “most patient.” Each Bulldogs possession takes 22 seconds on average, which is the longest of the 364 Division I teams — Missouri, for comparison, has an average possession length of 16.5, and the D-I average is 17.6.
It’s not that Drake stands around playing keep away until the shot clock gets serious, though. The Bulldogs will be relaxed getting the ball across half-court, then run half-court offensive actions like any other team.
Drake particularly loves to set up high ball screens in the middle third of the floor, letting Stirtz run the pick and roll right down the lane. If that doesn’t work the first time, he’ll dump the ball off, cut back around to the top of the key and reset. The repetition seems to be a challenge to the other team not to make a mistake when defending the common play.
Stirtz is a savvy passer who is fully capable of reading what the defense lays out in front of him. He’ll punish overzealous help defense by bounce-passing the ball out to the uncovered player. He can make shots over drop coverage, and time pocket passes into the roller if there’s space.
Because of the Bulldogs’ slower tempo, they do find themselves in late-shot clock situations where a desperation shot is necessary. That often comes at the rim, where a Drake player will go up into contact looking for a foul to get something out of the possession, and it works — Drake is 11th in the country in getting 0.43 free throws per field goal attempt, a metric in which MU is second in the nation at 0.47.
Defensively, Mizzou is prone to fouling — especially when relying on help defenders to come over from the corner or step up into action from the low post. It became an especially jarring issue late in the regular season.
“We’ve got to be able to rotate early and not reach,” Tigers coach Dennis Gates said before the regular-season finale against Kentucky. “Sometimes being out of position is the cause, the root cause, of fouling because you’re trying to catch up, trying to hold.”
Crisper rotations and verticality down low will be key to defending Drake’s antics late in the shot clock. The Bulldogs don’t have a player taller than 6-feet-8 on the roster, so MU should be able to play sound defense based on its size advantage — assuming it can get the positioning part down.
And because Stirtz looks so comfortable running the pick and roll, throwing different coverages out at him would be valuable in trying to unsettle his process of reading the defense. Power forward Mark Mitchell, who usually starts games as an undersized center for Missouri, can handle switching duties out of ball screens. Guards like Anthony Robinson II and Tony Perkins can fight around screens, too. Can center Josh Gray, who as a 7-footer will be the tallest player on the floor by a substantial margin, hold up in those situations? His performance could be a bellwether for how the Tigers handle Drake’s offense.
As far as Mizzou’s offense goes, minimizing mistakes will be crucial on that end of the floor too. Drake leads the country in steal rate, turning 14.6% of opponent possessions into steals. MU, for context, is 10th in the nation at 13.4%. In a game that, because of Drake’s slow tempo, will likely see fewer possessions than a typical Missouri game, every turnover becomes a little bit more impactful. That’s not a March cliché — it’s the math of a 61-possession game versus a 71-possession game.
The Bulldogs will defend passing lanes to play for deflections and interceptions, perhaps at the expense of leaving a shooter like Caleb Grill open. Drake defenders are prone to moments of flat-footedness, which allows drives to the rim to work fairly well.
Can Mizzou keep its passing crisp and rely on drives to get inside? Players like Mitchell, Perkins and Tamar Bates can certainly excel with that as the emphasis. If they’re clicking, it’ll be difficult for Drake to keep up.
The key to avoiding an upset is avoiding preventable mistakes. If Missouri can do that, its size and overall roster quality should prevail over the Bulldogs.
How to watch Mizzou Tigers basketball vs. Drake Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament
The Mizzou men's basketball team makes its first NCAA Tournament appearance in two years on Thursday when the No. 6-seeded Tigers face the No. 11-seeded Drake Bulldogs in Wichita, Kansas.
In Drake (30-3), which won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, the Tigers must deal with the nation's slowest-paced team in a March Madness matchup.
The Tigers (22-11) slipped to that sixth seed after a late-season slump, but they can make fans forget about that with a strong NCAA Tournament showing. Mizzou hasn't made it past the second round since 2008-09.
Mizzou and Drake have faced each other twice in the past 70 years, both Mizzou wins, one in Columbia and one in Des Moines, in the 1980s.
The winner of Thursday's game advances to a Saturday game vs. the winner of a game between No. 3 seed Texas Tech and No. 14 seed UNC Wilmington.
Here's how to watch Mizzou Tigers vs. Drake Bulldogs basketball:
Mizzou Tigers vs. Drake Bulldogs TV, live stream and radio
Game time: 6:35 p.m. CDT/ 7:35 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 20
Location: INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas
TV channel: truTV
Live stream:
Mizzou radio: KTRS (550 AM and 106.1 FM) in St. Louis, across Missouri and online through the .
Other radio: A national radio broadcast is also available via . The Drake broadcast is available through the .
Streaming apps: Varsity Network app on the or (free); TuneIn app on the or . (requires subscription)
