Columbia, Mo. ? At first, Missouri guard Clarence Gilbert said he didn’t want to talk about the last-ditch shot, saying he had not thought about it since and that it “was over.”
Coaxed, however, Gilbert did talk about his three-point attempt with about two seconds remaining that would have forced overtime against the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
“I didn’t know how much time was left,” Gilbert said. “I kind of brain-locked at the end. (The shot) didn’t feel good, but I was hoping it went in. I’ve hit other shots that didn’t feel good.”
Gilbert’s long-ranger clanked, and Kansas posted a 95-92 win that dotted the I and crossed the T on the first all-winning season in Big 12 Conference basketball history.
“I thought we had a good look to tie it,” MU coach Quin Snyder said of Gilbert’s shot, “but he pushed it because he was going too fast.”
Earlier, Kareem Rush had missed a little eight-footer inside the lane and, sighed Snyder, “He just missed the shot.”
If both shots had fallen and if the Tigers hadn’t made a couple of turnovers in the late going, well, who knows?
“The only solace we can take is there’s more season,” Snyder said. “The (Missouri) team we saw tonight had a lot of character and played hard. I saw a team battle its ass off against one of the best teams in the country. I thought we played well enough to win.”
Still, it wasn’t much solace that Missouri, by losing, was saddled with the No. 6 seed in the Big 12 tournament for the third year in a row and will have to win four games in four days in order to capture the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“Hopefully,” said Rush, “we’ll get Kansas in the championship game.”
That’s a possible rematch, but not a probable one, and Missouri, despite its 20-10 record, may have to settle for the NIT if it doesn’t go 4-0 in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena.
Gilbert scored 27 points and Rush 22 against the Jayhawks on Sunday, but neither player shot particularly well. Gilbert, who had a record 12 three-pointers against Colorado last weekend, was 3-for-11 from three-point range and missed four of 10 free throws. Rush missed four of his six three-point tries.
Gilbert, the lone senior on Mizzou’s roster, and Rush, a junior who was probably also playing his last home game (he’s expected to declare for the NBA Draft after the season), combined were 16-of-43 from the floor, including 5-of-17 from three-point range. If it weren’t for sophomore Rickey Paulding’s 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, the Tigers may never have come as close as they did.
Missouri would have liked nothing better than to spoil the Jayhawks’ perfect league season, as other MU teams have done in the past, but not this time.
“We were hell-bent on not letting it happen,” Snyder said. “(Kansas) is terrific, no question about it, and they persevered to go unbeaten. This league is really, really hard, so it’s quite a feat.”
Missouri finished with a 9-7 record in the league and will meet Iowa State at 8:20 p.m. Thursday in Kemper Arena.
“This is a tough one,” Snyder said. “It’s a tough one to take. It will be hard to get back up, but we will but this one won’t go away for a while.”
