COLUMBIA, Mo. — It was 80s Throwback Night at Mizzou Arena as the Missouri Tigers hosted the No. 19 Vanderbilt Commodores. Hit tunes from the decade rang around the building, but the most fitting song wasn’t heard.
Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” reached the No. 1 spot of the Billboard Hot 100 on Feb. 14, 1987.
A little over 39 years later, its prominence has resurfaced — just not on the Billboard Hot 100. Instead, it now remains extremely applicable to the Missouri Tigers, who’s NCAA Tournament hopes are on the line each time it takes the floor.
The Tigers’ hopes of dancing in March are “Livin’ on a Prayer”, but that prayer becomes all the more attainable after their 81-80 victory over No. 19 Vanderbilt.
“Our job is to get these types of wins,” head coach Dennis Gates said. “This win is a great win for our resume. It goes right there with the Florida win, (the) Kentucky win.”
Missouri’s triumph over Vanderbilt is the Tigers’ second win against a ranked opponent this season, having beat No. 22 Florida while falling to No. 21 Kansas, No. 20 Illinois, No. 21 Georgia and No. 23 Alabama by a combined 91 points.
Missouri needed to beat the Commodores to add a high-quality win to its resume. A tight victory in which the Tigers’ leading scorer, Mark Mitchell, shoots 2-for-9 from the field helps boost the status.
Instead of being led by a dominant Mitchell scoring output — which has been the case many times this season — a collective effort from complementary Tigers drove Missouri to the win.
Some of those complementary Tigers gave expected performances, like Jayden Stone’s 19 points, Trent Pierce’s 16 points and T.O. Barrett’s five assists. Others came from heroes most likely not on bingo cards, like 7-foot-5 backup center Trent Burns, who had struggled to find his footing all season.
Burns’, along with his fellow backup bigs’, struggles led the backup center spot as Missouri’s glaring weakness that head coach Dennis Gates wanted to fix.
The freshman’s performance against Vanderbilt points toward the slender giant being the solution to a season-long equation.
“I don’t think they wanted to play him,” Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said. “But I think he held it down for him. He is a big body, and he made a couple of nice plays there… we really couldn’t take advantage of him.”
Burns finished with a career-high 18 minutes, seven rebounds and finished with a plus-minus of 19. He was named the Tigers’ player of the game.
“We need somebody to step up, especially at the five spot,” Gates said. “Tonight it was Trent Burns.”
Another unlikely hero was Anthony Robinson II, who nailed a timely 3-pointer to slow an 11-0 Vanderbilt run with 6:13 left in the game. Robinson has struggled mightily throughout SEC play, but scored 13 points on 3-for-4 shooting against the Commodores, all of which came in the second half.
While Robinson played his part to slow down the Commodore run, he couldn’t fully stop it — Vanderbilt was red-hot. The Commodores stormed back from down 19 points with 7:45 remaining to trailing by just one point by the time the final buzzer sounded.
A relentless press break forced five Tiger turnovers in the final 7:45 of action.
“They sped us up at first,” Pierce said. “I believe we weren’t ready for it. I believe we didn’t make the right reads at points of time.”
A game that Missouri should have convincingly won turned into a scare that could have ripped away an important win. Nonetheless, Missouri pulled out a win, thanks to a missed halfcourt-heave from Tyler Tanner that was inches from dropping through the net.
“Coach always says, ‘Don’t pour cold water on a win,’” Pierce said. “We won the game.”
Missouri’s prayer will continue through the coming weeks, as it plays No. 20 Arkansas twice, a 19-7 Tennessee squad once and Oklahoma and Mississippi State teams capable of pulling off an upset any given night.
