Why Dennis Gates almost broke down in tears during the Missouri Tigers’ NCAA Tournament defeat

With a 67-57 loss to Drake in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Wichita on Thursday, Mizzou men’s basketball’s incredible season came to an end, falling far short of San Antonio’s ultimate goal and the Final Four.

After losing a conference game the previous season, the Tigers made a comeback to the dance, but their problems in the Big Dance still persist.

Mizzou has not advanced to the Sweet 16 since 2009 and has a 1-7 record in the NCAA Tournament during the previous 15 years.

The Bulldogs held Mizzou to only 29 possessions and 23 points in the first half, and it was all Drake. Missouri had scored the fewest points of the season—23.

Despite forcing 15 Drake turnovers, the Tigers turned the ball over 17 times. Nevertheless, Drake coach Ben McCollum credited the Tigers’ 23–13 points off turnovers to their ability to make unexpected stops.

Some were simply out-of-bounds tosses. That’s a part of them, most likely a few trips here and there, followed by the others, and those are the precise margins you need to win it,” McCollum stated. “It is just that. Like those turnover pick-sixes, you have the stops that nobody else believes you should get.

The ones you must have are those. Additionally, you win by a small margin if you capture a few of those that the opposing team is unwilling to pursue or battle for.

Gates shared a similar sentiment to his coaching rival.

“We didn’t do enough to come away with the win. The enough part I would speak of is the 50-50 loose balls,” Gates said. “We forced them to turn the ball over. We just couldn’t corral the basketball, and sometimes it’s the bounce.”

Entering the matchup, Missouri had the clear size advantage, yet it was the Bulldogs who dominated down low. Drake won the first-half rebounding battle 14-12 and outscored the Tigers in the paint 18-10. The Bulldogs closed the game with 31 rebounds to Mizzou’s 26.

Gates also contributed the points-in-the-paint battle to the Tigers’ turnovers.

“They did a great job of turning our turnovers into baskets,” Gates said. “We forced them to 15 turnovers, but we had fewer points than the actual turnovers we forced them into. That’s a category that I think they did a great job in.”

Guard Caleb Grill made his return to his hometown in Wichita, and it was also the end of his collegiate career. The graduate guard had 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting and a single made 3-pointer off seven attempts. It was also the last college game for six other Tigers, including Tamar Bates.

Bates and Grill sat next to Gates in the postgame press conference, and Gates shared what it meant to him that both stuck with Mizzou following the tumultuous season prior.

“I’ll come to tears if I really told you everything and spilled my heart out,” Gates said. “I thank them for wanting to play for me, and allowing me to be in their life is bigger than basketball, and that’s what sometimes you have to understand. I’m proud of their growth. I’m proud of what they poured into themselves, what they poured into the strangers that come into the locker rooms that now they call brothers, and what they poured into the staff.

“You know, being called someone’s coach is a lifelong title. They’ll tell their children and their future spouses, I’ll always be their coach.”