No. 11 seed Drake upsets Missouri, eliminating Tigers from NCAA Tournament in first round

Eli Hoff, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Mar 20, 2025

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WICHITA, Kan. — And so it ends.

In front of an upset-hungry audience and against an apparently hungrier team, Missouri men’s basketball’s stumbled feverishly but fruitlessly into the season-ending dusk of March.

The No. 11 seed Drake Bulldogs played their game — slowly, patiently and with plenty of Bennett Stirtz. The No. 6 seed Missouri Tigers tried to complicate things with a late rally, but fell short.

So down they went. Upset, maddeningly. Eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the first round, just like that, for the 14th time in the program’s 30 March Madness appearances.

Drake beat Mizzou, 67-57.

A ceiling that looked so high for the Tigers a month ago seems to have been reached, well, a month ago. MU’s bounceback season tailed off with six losses in the final eight games.

The Bulldogs set the tone early and also dictated the pace. Stirtz scored 21 on 8-for-11 shooting, knocking down all three of his 3-pointers.

Missouri forward Mark Mitchell — rested last week during the Southeastern Conference Tournament to be able to maximize his contributions this week — didn’t score until the final 75 seconds of the first half. He finished with eight points, making only two of his eight shots.

Guard Caleb Grill, playing what proved to be his final collegiate game in his hometown, scored 14 points and went 1 for 7 from 3-point range. Guard Tamar Bates, in what was his collegiate finale too, scored 10 points.

Drake led 30-23 at halftime after holding the Tigers to their lowest first-half scoring output of any game this season. The Bulldogs had led by as much as 10 in the first 20 minutes of the contest.

Early in the second half, the math of the matter became sweat-inducing. Drake’s lead grew to nine. The number of possessions left dwindled without favor for MU’s preferred pace.

Mizzou cut the lead to one inside the final five minutes, turning the Intrust Bank Arena environment deafening. Drake, a team that frequently plays poised offense into the final ticks of the shot clock, remained composed under Missouri's pressure to rebuild its lead.

The Tigers' significant traveling party of fans were loud, but they faded as their team's window to complete the comeback did. "Overrated, SEC," Drake fans chanted as the clock wound down to zero.

Takeaways

Against a Drake team whose tallest player is 6-foot-8, MU went small — and in doing so, started Grill, the SEC Sixth Man of the Year. Emphasizing size didn't seem to be the Tigers' game plan in the end, with 7-foot center Josh Gray playing just seven minutes.

Mizzou pledged to play fast against the patient Bulldogs, and certainly did. After defensive rebounds, MU assistant coach Rob Summers frequently rose to his feet, yelling "Go! Go! Go!" at the Tigers. After one made Drake basket, even, Missouri passed the ball across halfcourt when less than two seconds had ticked off the shot clock. Still, Drake dictated the tempo. There were only 29 possessions in the first half, setting up for the slowest pace in an MU game this season.

Missouri had been able to make a season-saving halftime adjustment earlier this season, in a nonconference game against California. The opposite was the case Thursday. The Tigers didn't make a shot for the first eight minutes of the second half as the Bulldogs expanded their lead. Mizzou's adjustment didn't come until it was too little too late.

Key moment

With Mizzou down by five inside the final three minutes after Drake responded to its late rally, Grill gave it a go from 3-point range, but missed — the Tigers' second empty trip up the floor in a row. He grimaced as he headed to the MU huddle for a timeout, clearly aware the door Drake left was closing.

Key stat

The game saw just 62 possessions. The fewest Mizzou had previously seen in a game this season was 61, while Drake had spent most of the season playing in that range.

Up next

Drake will face the winner of Thursday's nightcap in Wichita: Either No. 3 seed Texas Tech or No. 14 seed North Carolina-Wilmington.

Missouri's season is over.