NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Missouri's season ended in the Music City a year ago with a loss to Mississippi in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
This year's team has a chance to avoid that same fate. A win today against Florida State and a victory Sunday against either Xavier or Texas Southern, Missouri will make the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2009. Today's game tips at about 8:50 p.m. on TBS.
To be back in the tournament is a big deal for the team.
"I mean, it means a great deal to me, growing up in Missouri and being a fan of the program, pretty much my whole life," Missouri forward Kevin Puryear said. "I always dreamed of getting this team back to this point and being able to contribute to that. It's a feeling I can't really describe, especially after winning the total of 18 games my first two years of college.
"So like I said, just extremely humbling experience. Taking those bumps I took and learning along the way, I needed all those lessons to get me to this point here. Makes it even more special to experience it with these guys."
Missouri hopes it has the tools to make a run. The Tigers shoot well from the floor and the foul line, play good defense, and can rebound and get to the foul line the way tournament teams need to in order to win games. One of the only knocks against Cuonzo Martin's first-year squad is the inconsistency that comes with youth.
Without Jordan Barnett, who was suspended for a DWI arrest, the Tigers are even younger than usual. Michael Porter Jr. said Thursday the absence of Barnett's production, and the 38-minute void in the box score, is a serious loss for the team. Missouri players said their offense will stay true to how it worked all season, but that, along with the short bench, necessitates the ball finding Porter Jr.
Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton is prepared for that. He dismissed the idea Porter Jr.'s lack of playing time due to back surgery at the start of the season makes him an unknown quantity for the Tigers.
"I don't understand why people are asking me why that's going to be difficult, because we've watched him play for a number of years, and he's a tremendously talented youngster," Hamilton said. "In fact, he's one of the top four, five basketball players in college basketball. So as young people say, we don't have it twisted. We know exactly what we're facing. We're facing a youngster that is tremendously talented, that's healthy."
Porter Jr. said he has made additional progress in his recovery as his nerves continue to regenerate, but said there's things his mind tells him to do his body still can't, yet.
In the SEC Tournament, Porter Jr. had a few open looks at the rip but opted for a layup each time, admitting a 100 percent version of himself would have turned those into highlight dunks. With the national stage of the NCAA Tournament, it's no surprise he said those same plays will be dunks from here on out.
In the run-up to the tournament, Martin said he liked how Porter Jr. played against Georgia and said he would be used in a similar manner in the tournament.
Hamilton also had great respect for Jontay Porter. Their skill sets, as 6-foot-10 forwards that can also run the floor, bring the ball up and shoot 3s, indicated to Hamilton the future of basketball, in which there are no true positions. He said he rewound a play from Missouri's conference tournament game in which Porter Jr. rebounded the ball, threw an outlet to Jontay, and then ran the floor and Jontay returned the pass for a transition basket.
"I said, 'Wow, that was impressive,'" Hamilton said. "One 6-10 guy throwing an outlet pass to his 6-11 brother, and he catches it with one hand and touch passes it to his brother running down the middle of the court. I had to replay that to make sure what I was seeing."
He might be even more impressed if he sees it first-hand.