Ask and you shall receive. Tiger fans didn't want ten painful memories dredged up in our "What if?" series. So today, we talk about something good.

Back in 1994, the Tigers were on a run unequalled in school history. They had survived and early season shellacking in Fayetteville and close calls against some of the lesser lights of college hoops. They beat Central Missouri State by three and trailed Jackson State by 11 at halftime at home. An epic triple-overtime win over Illinois led by a group of unknown freshmen served as the sparkplug for the run. Though they started 10-and-1, nobody was much impressed and a loss to Notre Dame dropped them out of the top 25 a week after they entered it.

Then, standing 10-and-2, the Tigers went on the most memorable run in school history.

The Tigers had won 13 straight Big Eight basketball games. They hosted Nebraska on the final day of the regular season. The Huskers were no slouch. Nebraska led this one by a point in the final 30 seconds. Melvin Booker drove the lane and scored. Tigers lead, right? Wrong. Not a block, not a charge, but a double foul that, if called today, would be the top story on SportsCenter for 12 consecutive hours.

Tigers get the ball back. Booker drives and scores. This time it counts and he's fouled. Makes the free throw. Tigers lead 80-78, 12 seconds away from the third perfect conference season in Big Eight basketball history. Somewhere in there, by the way, was a call that Husker fans still say was a travel. And they still might be right. But it wasn't called. So anyway, Mizzou is up two and Nebraska has the ball.

Then Eric Piatkowski clears midcourt. This guy could shoot. I mean just flat shoot. He's in the NBA to this day and he can't really do anything but shoot. So anyway, he can shoot.

Piatkowski pulls up from somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 feet. It's in. I mean that, it is in. And then, somehow, it's not. That quickly, Missouri's undefeated season was back. Final score: Missouri 80, Nebraska 78. Final record: 14-and-0 in the league.

But now, we stop to ask, What if Eric Piatkowski's shot had gone in?

At first, you think the Tigers may not have lost much. They'd still have been the Big Eight champ. They'd still have finished the regular season at 23-and-3 (they finished 24-and-2). And they'd still have had one unbelievable run of 13 straight Big Eight wins. But let me quote the Columbia Daily Tribune the day after the season ended:

"The consolation prizes, which will last a lifetime.

The best NCAA Tournament showing in school history. The Tigers had to win three games to reach the final eight; in 1976, the only other time Missouri went as far, it needed to win two games in what was a 32-team tournament. Missouri was a No. 1 seed for the first time.

An undefeated Big Eight championship season, only the third in history and the first since 1971. It was the eighth conference title in coach Norm Stewart's 27 years.

A 28-4 record, Missouri's best winning percentage since 1921, when the ball actually had laces. It was the second-highest victory total in Missouri history, accomplished in a season when the Tigers had no regular-season tournament to add games to the schedule."

The most important thing that season was the unbeaten record in the Big Eight. Stewart always put a premium on winning the conference and the Tigers didn't just win it, they dominated it. They weren't the best team in the Big Eight, they were the only team in the Big Eight.

Secondly, without that win, Missouri is probably not a No. 1 seed. As it was, the Tigers ended up heading West as the tournament's final top seeded team. And that was a squad that started tourney play at 25-and-3. Honestly, a loss in that game to Nebraska likely would have taken away the Tigers' best seed in NCAA tournament history. In all likelihood, the Tigers would have been the two seed out West behind Arizona and still met Khalid Reeves and Damon Stoudamire in the regional final.

It wouldn't have changed the course of the program. 1994 would have been the best year in program history no matter what, at least by the numbers. One game didn't change that. It was a ride that no fan who saw it will ever forget. However, without that win, that may not be the case.

When you look back on it, 1994 was Norm Stewart's finest hour as a basketball coach at Missouri. He had fielded great teams, had gone to the Elite Eight (1976), had won seven conference titles, including four in a row (1980-83). But he had never had a team that was so beloved and so unexpectedly successful as that 1993-94 group.

This was Stormin' Norman's finest run. His team was picked third in the Big Eight. They were still a team stunned by recruiting restrictions due to NCAA probation. They got Julian Winfield to come on board and then played so poorly on national TV against the Razorbacks that Paul O'Liney was watching and thought, "I can help that team." Help it, he did.

Kelly Thames was the league's freshman of the year and Booker its player of the year. Stewart was honored as the National Coach of the Year. Hindsight being 20-20, it's the way a lot of Tiger fans would have liked to see Norm leave. On top. There was no better Tiger season. If that shot goes in, 1994 is not remembered as any more special than 1976 or 1989 or 2002. But now it is. Because that was the year the Tigers went unbeaten. I remember where I was when the shot rimmed out. I bet you every Tiger fan reading this does too.

In the movie "Tin Cup," Kevin Costner insists his shot to the 18th green in the U.S. Open was put in the lake by "a gust from the Gods." That same gust blew through the Hearnes Center on March 6, 1994. It knocked a three-point shot from Eric Piatkowski off the Hearnes Center rim and it preserved the greatest season in the history of Missouri basketball.