Livescore
When Nate Oats karate chopped his whiteboard in the first half of No. 4 Alabama’s 110-98 loss at No. 15 Missouri on Wednesday night and received a technical foul, it seemed like more than just a frustrated reaction to a single foul call on Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears. It looked like a release of mounting displeasure amid what is now Bama’s first two-game losing streak of the season.
Four days after surrendering 94 points in a home loss to No. 1 Auburn, Alabama (21-5, 10-3 SEC) gave up 110 or more in a game for just the second time since 1973. Increasingly, it appears defense — or the lack of it — could be a limiting factor in the Crimson Tide’s aspirations.
After getting diced up by Mizzou (more on the Tigers’ sterling showing below), Alabama is down to No. 46 in defensive efficiency at KenPom. The Tigers scored 59 in the first half alone while building their lead to 20 points. Alabama managed to stay close in the second half behind a season-high 35 points from Sears. But the Crimson Tide simply couldn’t stop fouling.
Missouri’s 47 free-throw attempts were the second-most in program history and the most-ever attempted in a non-overtime game. Don’t look now, but Alabama’s two losses over the past week marked only the beginning of a brutal closing stretch. The Crimson Tide, who are a projected No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for now, play five more games against ranked opposition to close the regular season.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Wednesday’s college basketball slate, including more on Missouri’s remarkable resurgence.
Missouri a Tier 1 title contender?
There’s a short list of teams who can actually win the national championship this year. The Big Four at the top of the sport, namely Duke, Auburn, Houston and Florida, have posted efficiency numbers that haven’t been topped by any other foursome in the internet era.
But Missouri has entered that short-list of teams that can also win six straight. Wednesday’s 110-98 victory over No. 4 Alabama is proof of what’s possible in the new era of college basketball where bucket-getting is everything, the transfer portal can be beautiful and a cellar-dweller can take an elevator to the top of the sport.
Missouri, the same team that lost to all 19 SEC opponents it faced last year, showed how far it has come. This iteration of Mizzou basketball had more answers to the test than an Alabama offense that’s been the envy of everybody in college basketball. Even on a night when Alabama’s offense hummed to a tune of 1.289 points per possession, Missouri’s avalanche felt unstoppable. It was the first time since February of 2022 against Kentucky that a Nate Oats offense was this efficient and lost.
Mark Mitchell, who was escorted out of Duke to usher in the Cooper Flagg era, continued the jarring trend of big burly forwards just blowtorching this Alabama frontline. Mitchell eviscerated the Tide for 31 points on just 15 shots. Once he’s ditched the neck brace, Caleb Grill has become an electric flamethrower. He crushed Bama for 25 points and ripped down nine enormous defensive rebounds when Alabama was sending just about everybody to try and manufacture second-chance opportunities.
Wednesday was Missouri at its absolute best, but none of this feels fake. Maybe that’s the best part. Dennis Gates’ crew has been building to this moment for weeks. Gates has preached confidence into Jacob Crews who was basically out of the rotation at the beginning of SEC play. The UT Martin transfer had the gumption to rise up for two enormous buckets in the second half when it felt like Alabama could not miss. It’s the wise pivot to pair Trent Pierce’s minutes with Mitchell to improve the floor-spacing and make ’em even tougher to defend. Pierce kept dragging defenders out of the paint which allowed Mitchell to keep eating.
And boy, did he feast whether he was part of Missouri’s supersized lineup or its small-ball look. That lineup flexibility is the secret sauce behind all of this.
Since Jan. 1, which conveniently includes a 16-point road loss to Auburn, Missouri is the fourth-best team in the country with the second-best offense in the land.
When a team shows you who they are, believe them. And this team is a Tier 1, national championship contender. — Isaac Trotter
Kentucky gets another gem from Amari Williams
When Amari Williams became Kentucky’s first transfer commitment of the Mark Pope era last April, it was obvious the Wildcats had landed their interior stopper for the 2024-25 season. Williams was a two-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year at Drexel and one of the top defenders, regardless of position, in the portal.
What was less obvious — at least to the untrained eye — was how important Williams would be offensively for the Wildcats. But even a casual observer can’t deny how good Williams has been offensively for the UK recently. The towering Englishman proved his two-way chops yet again Wednesday as he tallied 17 points on 6 of 6 shooting in No. 17 UK’s 82-61 over Vanderbilt.
Over the last two minutes of the first half and first two of the second, Williams tallied seven points as the undersized Commodores struggled to find an answer. Williams also tallied six rebounds and four blocks while hitting all five of his free throws. With the Wildcats going through a poor run of health over the past seven games, Williams is averaging 13.6 points, and he’s making things hum for UK.
Often, Williams has the ball in his hands at the top of the key as a facilitator in Pope’s attack, which has led to a career-best average of three assists per game. Williams already posted the fourth triple-double in UK history this season, and he continues to prove that he’s much more than just a defensive stopper. — David Cobb
Auburn (narrowly) avoids a letdown
No. 1 Auburn made 12 of 30 3-pointers by itself in a memorable Saturday victory at No. 2 Alabama. In a grueling 67-60 win over Arkansas on Wednesday night, the Tigers and Razorbacks combined to make just 7 of 43 from deep. The brick-fest required Auburn to sweat until the final minute as it avoided the trap of a classic let-down spot following the memorable road win over the Crimson Tide.
National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome turned in his 16th double-double of the season for Auburn with 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Tigers denied Arkansas a much-needed marquee victory. It wasn’t pretty, but the win, paired with Alabama’s loss at Missouri, gives the Tigers a two-game lead in the SEC standings entering the weekend.
The Razorbacks entered as the last team in the projected NCAA Tournament field of CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm and erased a 9-point deficit with under seven minutes to play. But after taking a brief 58-57 lead with 3:06 remaining, the Hogs went belly-up and were outscored 10-2 down the stretch. — Cobb
Beefed-up Tar Heels live to fight another day
For a night at least, North Carolina felt like … North Carolina again. The Tar Heels waxed rival NC State 97-73, fueled by another tinker from Hubert Davis and the UNC coaching staff.
The Tar Heels went big, trotting out a starting lineup that included Drake Powell at the 3, Jae’Lyn Withers at the 4 and Ven-Allen Lubin at the 5. That trio hadn’t played together for more than four minutes since Jan. 7 against SMU.
It helped UNC dominate the paint in a way that hadn’t been done very much this season, especially against high-major competition. North Carolina shot 19 for 27 at the rim, doubling up NC State 52-26 in paint points while also getting six key offensive rebounds from Powell and Lubin combined.
It also had a ripple effect defensively. UNC held the Wolfpack to a meager 0.76 points per possession in the first half, and Seth Trimble came off the bench ready to fight. Trimble totaled 15 points, seven rebounds, a steal and one mean-mug in 26 minutes.
A Quad 3 win, albeit against an in-state foe, doesn’t do much to move the needle for UNC’s at-large case, but a loss would’ve been the nail in the proverbial coffin. UNC lives to fight another day, armed with a new lineup that could coax a few embers of hope. — Trotter
‘Desperation mode’ West Virginia turns it on late
West Virginia used a 21-6 run late in the second half to turn a six-point deficit into a nine-point late lead before holding on to beat Cincinnati 62-59 in a “double bubble” battle. The Mountaineers entered as one of the “last four in” the projected NCAA Tournament field. But as CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm noted, the Mountaineers were teetering on “desperation” mode, having dropped six of their previous eight.
Beating the bubbly Bearcats at home won’t solve all the Mountaineers’ problems. But it keeps their hopes of dancing alive and well under first-year coach Darian DeVries. Amani Hansberry led the way with 17 points and 13 rebounds while Javon Small added 16 points for WVU. It will go down as another maddening loss for the Bearcats (15-11, 5-10), who led 47-41 with under 10 minutes to play. A 1-for-9 shooting stretch doomed Cincinnati, which has a ton of work to do in order to revive its dwindling at-large hopes. — Cobb
FIVE STARS OF THE NIGHT
- Mark Mitchell, Missouri: 31 points on an efficient 11-for-15 shooting in a win over Alabama is big-time stuff. In a cycle when numerous big-name transfers have struggled, Mitchell has been everything and then some for surging Mizzou.
- Nate Bittle, Oregon: The Ducks 7-footer is putting together one heckuva resume for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Bittle had the game-sealing block in the final seconds to help Oregon knock off Iowa, 80-78. It capped off an all-around brilliant game from the now-healthy big fella. Bittle totaled 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. He also hit an enormous 3-pointer in winning time after Iowa had stormed back to take a late lead. Bittle is a pro. Be a friend, tell a friend.
- Micah Peavy, Georgetown: With Thomas Sorber sidelined with a leg injury, Peavy rose to the occasion with 30 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six more steals in the Hoyas’ 93-72 win over Providence. Peavy is shooting a career-best 35% from 3-point range and impacts winning in a million ways. He’s been Georgetown’s second-best player this season.
- Mark Sears, Alabama: Nate Oats will not be pleased with the four first-half turnovers, but Sears willed Alabama back into it in the second half with 21 of his game-high 35 points in the final 16-plus minutes of regulation.
- Pjay Smith, Furman: The Paladins went on the road and knocked off Samford, 80-72, behind a heroic 32-point effort from Smith. The 6-foot senior guard splashed six 3-pointers and had four steals in the roadkill. — Trotter
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