WICHITA, Kan. — No matter how much film Missouri watched or how long it practiced, it found out when you play Drake, you try to survive Drake. No matter what multibillion conference you play in, the Bulldogs force you to dig out of a tangle of arms and legs and hope.
Sixth-seeded Missouru ran out of that last piece – hope – when 11th-seeded Drake put on display for the nation what had been a nicely Midwestern secret to this point. To fully appreciate how the Bulldogs stifled the Tigers, well, you had to be inside Missouri’s jerseys. That’s where the Bulldogs also resided most of the night.
It was fairly amazing, Drake’s 67-57 win in what qualifies as one of the biggest upsets on the NCAA Tournament’s first day. It wasn’t altogether surprising, though, considering a bit of that secret – the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense – had gotten out to enough Las Vegas sportsbooks and Joe Fanatics on the street.
Sure, Missouri was favored (by 6 ½) but it wasn’t sure of anything when Drake held the Tigers for seven (!) field goals in the first 27 minutes, 46 seconds of game. It wasn’t pleasant going the first 7:14 of the second half without a basket. It was an excruciating lesson in playing against the nation’s slowest team in terms of adjusted tempo
“Other teams don’t want to do the hard things,” Drake forward Cam Manyawu said. “Like, we’ll do the little hard things. At the end of the game when you’re tired, that’s when we’re at our best. We like being in the deep end, other teams don’t.”
Drake coach Ben McCollum calls his team’s work ethic the “deep end” – that end of the pool where you either sink or paddle for shore. McCollum got the term from watching Wyoming quarterback Andrew Peasley beat Texas Tech in double overtime in the 2023 season opener.
Obscure reference, yes, but whatever works.
“Take ’em to the deep end of the pool,” Peasley said that night on CBS, “and they’re going to fold.”
Being as respectful as possible, that’s kind of what happened to Missouri, one of the best turnaround stories in the country. The Tigers trailed by as many as 15 in the second half, cut the lead to one with 4 ½ minutes left, then took a series of rushed ill-timed and rushed shots that allowed Drake to win its first NCAA Tournament game in 54 years.
“A lot of people can play in the shallow end and everything is free and fun but it’s really tough in the deep end. That’s our only way to compete,” McCollum told CBS Sports.
That deep end sank just enough SEC hopes during the first days of the tournament to plant a seed of doubt for those believing the league’s run through the bracket. If the Strength Everywhere Conference waded through its first seven games 4-3, what’s left for the other seven conference schools on Friday?
To sum up: Texas lost its First Four game to Xavier on Wednesday night. In Thursday’s first-round games top-seeded Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas A&M won but Georgia, which suffered a blowout loss to Gonzaga, and Missouri made it an oh-fer for the SEC here in Wichita.
The three losses were to teams from Atlantic 10 (Xavier), West Coast Conference (Gonzaga) and Missouri Valley (Drake).
“This is obviously the best conference in the country, possibly ever,” said Drake’s Bennett Stirtz, one of four former Division II players on the Bulldogs roster.
Just not this week at least so far.
In fact, no one had this visual on their first-round bingo card — The fans from a nice, polite private school from Des Moines, Iowa, ending the night chanting “Overrated, SEC”. Drake’s upset validated everything Drake has done this season.
“That’s part of the slow pace,” said Stirtz, the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year who led everyone with 21 points. “That just drains people mentally and physically. When we drain the shot clock sometimes that happens.”
If Drake wasn’t getting free for layups, it was forcing 17 Missouri turnovers. You could see the frustration on the Tigers’ faces. One of the highest scoring teams in the country tied its season low for field goals (15) and shot its second-worst percentage of the season (33.3%).
“We played in the best league that’s ever been assembled in college basketball and we were able to finish tied for sixth in that league,” Missouri’s Caleb Grill said proudly.
Missouri had the better athletes. Mizzou had the better pedigree in its 30th NCAA Tournament. But Drake had the better plan, one they’ve sharpened into expectations. At one point Stirtz stepped back for a 24-foot 3-pointer that was a combination of Luka Dončić and Steph Curry.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever done that in a game,” Stirtz said. “It kind of hit me like, ‘Why did I shoot that shot?’ and then it went in.”
“They made tough shots,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates, “Ultimately, that’s what March is about.”
But here’s what the experts perhaps forgot to remind America. Among those record 14 SEC teams, there is a lot of mediocrity. Georgia was one of those entries. The 89-68 loss to Gonzaga tied for its second-worst of the season and was a reminder of the bad old days when the Bulldogs were slipping off the bubble.
Even if you don’t count Georgia missing 12 of its first 13 3-pointers or shooting only 19% from the arc for the game, Gonzaga had the better, sleeker team.
“The first possession … my guys were calm and composed ready to go,” Gonzaga guard Nolan Hickman said after hitting five 3-pointers. “I don’t want to bash any of the Georgia guys but it showed. It showed in the first possession of the game.”
Hey, what did you want from a team tied for ninth place in the SEC? Maybe some history. The last time Georgia lost a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament was 2008 when a skinny sophomore named Steph Curry led Davidson to a win. It’s also worth reminding that Georgia hadn’t been to the tournament since 2015. Progress, then, is relative.
“We took a step further personally with our guys behind closed doors …,” said Georgia coach Mike White whose team finished 20-13. “In my opinion, there couldn’t have been a more resilient team in college basketball this year — two four-game losing streaks, second-youngest team in the SEC. A lot of teams would have laid down.”
It doesn’t matter that most of the season this was not a vintage Gonzaga squad. The Zags finished three games behind regular-season champion St. Mary’s and went an uncharacteristic 3-4 against Power Five opponents before Thursday.
But in their 26th straight tournament the Zags won their 16th straight first-round game.
“It is a vintage Gonzaga team because it got itself to the NCAA Tournament and it’s advancing,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said. “Sometimes when the standard is national championship or bust it’s hard to live up to it. It’s hard for me to live with myself sometimes.”
Khalif Battle also got loose helping the Zags’ cause. The bruising 6-foot-5 senior scored 24 points while dropping four 3-pointers. In his sixth season with his fourth team, Battle might as well be Mr. College Basketball. He’s seen it all, including the SEC.
“I didn’t think basketball would take off the way it did in the past couple of years [in the SEC],” said Battle, who arrived as an Arkansas transfer. “I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. They’re kind of like a freight train going through college basketball.”
We’ve only just begun March Madness. A deeper end awaits.
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