The Missouri Tigers would have been happy to play anywhere.
“They could have said, you know, we’re going to be, our site is going to be on the moon, right?” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “We will be thankful.”
But the Tigers aren’t playing on the moon.
They’re going just 4.5 hours west to the hometown of one of the players who has helped lead them back from an 0-18 regular-season SEC record to a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament in just one year. The highest seed a team has ever had the year after going winless in conference play, beating the No. 7 seed of the 1987-88 Maryland Terrapins.
Graduate guard Caleb Grill.
“”This is just what everyone dreams about when they play basketball in college,” Grill said. “You know, growing up, everybody wants to go to the NCAA Tournament. And all the hard work you put in since you first go there in June with this team, it’s just paid off.”
Grill grew up in Wichita, Kansas, the home of Wichita State University where the Tigers will take on the No. 11-seeded Drake Bulldogs at 6:35 p.m. Thursday. That matchup will send the winner to a Saturday game against the winner of No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 14 UNC-Wilmington.
“It’s exciting, just because of the amount of miles that my mom and my dad and my brothers have put in and the rest of my family members have put in,” Grill said. “So having them be able to have a game close to them and where I get to travel to them, I think that’s what I’m more excited about, more than anything, is to see how many of those close friends that, close family members that I’ve had come throughout the whole year and being able, you know, to play within 10-15 minutes of where they live. I’m more excited about that part and being able to go back home.”
And Grill’s homecoming will be the culmination of his return from what has been a tough couple of years since transferring from Iowa State to Missouri going into the 2023-24 season.
Grill played just nine games in his first season before a wrist injury ended his fifth year of college basketball, but gained him a sixth go around.
Then early in the 2024-25 season, Grill took a hard hit going for a rebound and hit the floor, then didn’t move for a long period as he was taken off the floor on a stretcher with a back brace, forcing him to worry not just if another year of basketball was lost, but if he could return to regular life.
“It’s been a tough couple years dealing with injuries and being able to play most of the season fairly healthy,” Grill said. “I can’t thank, you know, our doctors here, our athletic training staff, strength coach, just all really helping me stay healthy and doing everything they can to make me game ready for each game going forward.”
Grill returned to the court a little more than a month later and immediately caught fire, helping lead the Tigers to a 10-8 record in SEC play and the highest NCAA Tournament seed the program has had since 2012.
But Grill won’t be the only Tiger playing close to home.
The Kansas City group of Mark Mitchell, Tamar Bates and Aidan Shaw all come from the west side of the city across the river and Trent Pierce and T.O. Barrett both come from Oklahoma, Pierce from Tulsa, just 2:30 hours south of Wichita and Barrett from Oklahoma City, just 2:20 hours south on a straight trip down I-35.
But none come from closer than Grill, who gets to return to his home town with one goal in mind.
Don’t end his final season of college basketball there.
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