How does a coach turn a program that went 0-18 in conference play into an NCAA Tournament team just one season later? Dennis Gates did it, and now his No.
21-ranked Missouri Tigers are headed back to the Big Dance. With a 22-11 (10-8 SEC) record, the No. 6-seeded Tigers are officially headed to Wichita for the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. They’ll play No.
11 Drake in the West Region. Mizzou’s draw is roughly in line with its projection via Bracket Matrix, which tracked 109 “Bracketology” sites across the country.
The site has the Tigers averaging a 6.77 seed. As for Drake, the Bulldogs clinched their automatic bid to the tournament with a 63-48 win over Bradley in the championship game of the Missouri Valley tournament.
The Tigers are returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2022-23 season, when they lost to 15-seed Princeton in the second round.