Must win games rarely exist in college basketball in mid-January. And to call Missouri’s game against Arkansas on Wednesday night a must-win seems like a little bit of 20/20 hindsight because we know the Tigers won.
But let’s not understate it: This was massive.
Missouri had lost two in a row. It was no reason to panic, but three in a row would be a legitimate streak. And with five minutes to go, that’s absolutely where it looked like this one was headed.
At that point, Arkansas led Missouri 67-57. The Tigers had scored all of 13 points in ten minutes. They were getting destroyed on the boards and both teams were in the double bonus with whistles blowing on virtually every possession so getting enough stops without fouling seemed an unlikely proposition at best.
It’s okay if you gave up. You shouldn’t feel bad. Most of us probably did.
But nobody told the Tigers they were supposed to. Just like nobody told them during a 13-2 start they weren’t supposed to be this good.
“I heard a lot of great voices, great talking, great conversation between our players,” head coach Dennis Gates said. “They said ‘Don't panic. Don't blink. It's a five minute game.’ And they just at that point, you know, did not pump the brakes. They didn't think twice.”
“I think that's the biggest thing in college basketball right now is the way you respond to things,” Dre Gholston said. “Refereeing, runs, missed shots…The way we respond allows us to keep going and keep fighting and just helped us out tonight.”
Gholston made two free throws, Sean East hit a jumper, D’Moi Hodge went 3-for-4 from the line and it was a one-possession game with 2:36 to go. Then the Razorbacks turned it over—one of 21 times they did that on the night—and Nick Honor found Gholston for a corner three. When it splashed through, Missouri had erased the deficit with a 10-0 run in 2:22 and Mizzou Arena was louder than at any moment since Isiaih Mosley had entered a game for the first time in a month.
“Snapping the losing streak in front of our home crowd, especially against a rival like Arkansas is big for us. We're happy to do it in front of the home crowd,” Kobe Brown said. “Wanted to win for them. They were cheering so loud.”
The two teams traded points for the next minute-and-a-half before the Tigers with eight free throws in the final 29 seconds (honorable mention to a steal by Honor and a charge taken by Hodge) and Anthony Black’s desperate three-pointer missed at the buzzer.
Missouri 79, Arkansas 76. Season revived.
It was Missouri’s third win over a ranked team and the third over a team currently in the top 40 in the NET, the most important metric when it comes to figuring out whether you’re going to be playing in the NCAA Tournament or not.
But more importantly, it breathed belief back into a fanbase that had started to waver just ever so slightly over the last ten days. It wasn’t pretty. It was Arkansas’ fifth loss in six conference games. But good teams don’t have extended losing streaks. And with fourth-ranked Alabama coming to town on Saturday, that’s exactly what the Tigers could have been looking at had they not closed out the Razorbacks with a 22-9 run in the final 4:50 on Wednesday night.
The countdown for the tournament is back on. Missouri is probably about two-thirds of the way there. They’ve won 14. The magic number is likely around 21. And tonight’s was a major step on the way to that number. With every loss, the confidence erodes just a little bit more. You start to wonder if the first half of the season was a mirage and the losing streak is who you really are.
Maybe those doubts aren’t completely erased. But down ten points with five minutes to go staring at a three-game losing streak, Missouri responded. This is a team that has won on a buzzer beater from halfcourt. It has won in a blowout over a rival and another over a blue blood. And now it has won in a game that looked all but over 35 minutes in.
You’re only as good as your last game, but you’re also only as good as your next one. Every time you win, the next one gets a little bit bigger. But Missouri might have created just a little margin for error for itself with Wednesday’s closing charge.
“I thought we kept our poise,” Gates said. “That’s a quad one win for us. Top 25 team. We'll see.”
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