Missouri was thrilled to earn the West Region No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the trip to Wichita that came with it. Even if there’s a 30-win conference champion waiting for the first-round matchup Thursday.

“It gives our fans a drivable distance to support us as they supported us all season,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “I’m thankful for it.”

No. 11 seed Drake isn’t entirely unfamiliar to Missouri, having won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis for the third consecutive year. But the teams last played in 1987, when Missouri claimed a 76-74 win at Drake.

After finishing 8-24 last season, the Tigers (22-11) were glad to get into the Big Dance — period.

“They could have said our site is going to be on the moon, right? We would be thankful,” Gates said. “They could have said several different places. We were going to be excited.”

Drake (30-3) last played March 9 and will be 11 days removed from their previous game when they hit the floor against the Tigers. The MVC regular-season champ also won the conference tournament and expect a good following from their campus in Des Moines, Iowa, about 400 miles up Interstate 35 from Wichita.

The winner of this game will play the winner of third-seeded Texas Tech and No. 14 UNC Wilmington on Saturday.

Missouri closed its season with losses in five of the last seven games. Leading scorer Mark Mitchell (14.1 points per game) suffered a minor knee injury during the Tigers’ 85-73 second-round victory over Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference tourney on March 13.

Gates held the 6-foot-9 forward out of the team’s 95-81 loss to Florida the next day, so he would be healthy for the NCAA Tournament.

Mitchell and guards Caleb Grill (13.7 ppg) and Tamar Bates (13.4) drive the fast-paced Missouri offense, but eight different players have led the team in scoring this season.

Missouri is tested having run the SEC gauntlet to be one of 14 teams in the league to reach the NCAA Tournament. Drake dominated the MVC with a 15-1 record and has wins over Miami, Kansas State and the only other SEC team it played in the regular season: Vanderbilt. The Commodores are in the NCAA tournament and their last win before ending the season with three consecutive losses was March 1 over Missouri.

Tempo and playing style make these two opposites.

Missouri ranks ninth in the country in scoring with 84.5 points per game while Drake ranks first in scoring defense at 58.4 points per game.

The Bulldogs are paced by MVC Player of the Year Bennett Stirtz, who averages 19.1 points per game and shoots 38 percent from 3-point land. He and forward Daniel Abreu (10.4 ppg) and Mitch Mascari (9.8 ppg) were among the players who followed coach Ben McCollum from Division II Northwest Missouri State to Drake.

They had no trouble making the transition to Division I ball. Stirtz had 16 points and 11 assists against Vandy in the championship game of the Charleston Classic in November.

“I don’t care what anybody says about talent, and I think we got plenty of talent. But tough kids win championships,” McCollum said. “That’s what they do.”

Drake is making its fourth trip to the NCAA tourney in the last five years. The program’s recent success convinced McCollum to take the Bulldogs’ helm after coach Darian DeVries left for West Virginia.

McCollum won four Division II titles while posting a 394-91 record in 15 years at Northwest Missouri State. That success allowed him to be selective when considering offers to move up.

“It’s a heck of a deal, and obviously the NCAA Tournament was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back in regards to taking this job,” McCollum recalled. “It was about 3 a.m. one morning, and I’m pretty close to taking it, woke up, and I’m like, man, I want to make the NCAA Tournament. I want to do that.”

And he did, thanks to his team’s resounding 63-48 victory over Bradley in the MVC tourney title game to gain the league’s automatic berth.

Missouri reached the NCAA bracket for the second time in Gates’ three-year tenure. He said the Tigers won’t take the mid-major Bulldogs lightly.

“It’s a first-round game and anything can happen,” Gates said. “Rankings and bids and all that other stuff doesn’t matter. All teams are capable of winning games.”

–Field Level Media