At times, this season for Mizzou looked bleak. On Dec. 22, in this very building, the Enterprise Center, the Missouri Tigers lost 91-48 in the most lopsided game in Braggin' Rights history. You could not have conviced me then that this team was making the big dance.
Ultimatetly Dennis Gates and co. did. Since Mizzou bested No. 4 Florida on its home court, just one game after they were humiliated by the Fighting Illini, the Tigers still learned a valuable lesson. Its not how you start, it's how you finish.
Missouri ended its season on a four-game losing streak. Afterwards, Gates talked about the similarities with the Tigers' cold stretch that led up to midnight striking on their season.
"One possession, one possession away. I think one possession changes a season," Gates said. "We had an opportunity to win the game on two shots against Arkansas at home. We were able to put our team in a position against Kentucky to take a late lead, wasn't able to hold onto it.
But when you look at -- and I'll do my job of dissecting this entire season, and the one thing that'll stand out to me, and I'll say this, is that we did not have the lead for more than five minutes of all those games. And when you are putting yourself in that position, whether you get down over a period of time, or not, the management of it and it's just one play of execution, whether it's defensively
or offensively."
Missouri didn’t just bow out of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. It slipped out on the same slide that had been building for two weeks. An 80–66 loss to Miami at Enterprise Center sealed a four‑game losing streak to end the season, a stretch that slowly chipped away at the momentum the Tigers once carried into March.
And for Jayden Stone, the sixth‑year guard who poured in 21 points and kept Missouri afloat for most of the night, the ending hit hard.
“It’s a whirlwind, sweltering emotions,” Stone said. “Kind of don’t know what to think right now. I’m just a little bit numb… a culmination of six years.”
For a while, he gave Missouri a real chance. Stone scored 14 in the first half, attacking gaps, hitting threes, and steadying an offense that shot just 31 percent before the break. Even as Miami controlled the glass and tempo, Mizzou trailed only 27–26 at halftime.
When the Tigers finally surged ahead 51–49 with 9:15 left — their first lead since the opening minutes — it felt like they might finally snap out of the funk that defined the final stretch of the season.
But Miami immediately answered with an 11–0 run, and that was the game. The Hurricanes punished Missouri on the offensive glass all night, finishing with 19 second‑chance points to Mizzou’s two. Malik Reneau bullied his way to 24 points and 11 rebounds, and Tre Donaldson buried five threes, including two during the decisive run.
Missouri, meanwhile, never found enough beyond Stone and Mark Mitchell’s 19 points. The Tigers shot 35 percent from the field, got little from the bench, and couldn’t manufacture clean looks inside. Once Miami pushed the lead to double digits, Missouri had no counter.
Stone didn’t force anything. He hasn’t all year, but he knew he had to carry more of the load.
“I’m not ever a player that’s going to force it,” he said. “But today, I had things going… it’s just unfortunate with the result.”
In the locker room afterward, Dennis Gates tried to shift the focus away from the loss and toward the journey.
“He told us there is no failure,” Stone said. “We should be proud of the culmination of the season… where everyone was writing us off before January, before Illinois, and then to have that turnaround.”
For Stone, the moment was bigger than the scoreboard. His voice cracked as he tried to process the end of a six‑year career that took him from injuries to losing seasons to finally finding a home in Columbia.
“I can’t believe it’s been six years,” he said. “Times where I didn’t play, times where I was the main scorer, times where I was losing pretty much every game. But to now be part of a team where I could contribute to winning… that meant everything.”
He saved his most emotional words for Gates, the coach who flew all the way to Perth, Australia, just to meet his family during recruiting.
“No one’s ever done anything like that,” Stone said. “Usually you’re just a pawn on the board. But Coach was a mentor, a father figure. That lasts way beyond basketball.”
Missouri’s season ended with a skid, and Thursday night showed the same issues that surfaced late — rebounding lapses, cold stretches, and long scoring droughts. But for Stone, and for a team that reinvented itself midseason, the ending didn’t erase the growth.
“We’re all numb now,” he said. “But when we reflect, we’ll see what this year really was.”