(Des Moines) The Drake men’s basketball team learned it will play Missouri at 6:35 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 20 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan. The game will be televised on TruTV.
The Bulldogs, who earned the automatic qualifying berth by beating Bradley, 63-48, to win the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference tournament March 9, were selected as a No. 11 seed in the West Region. Missouri is a six seed.
This will be the first meeting between the schools since Missouri escaped with a 76-74 win at Drake Dec. 8, 1987.
The winner of the Drake-Missouri game will play the winner of the Texas Tech-UNC Wilmington contest in Saturday’s second round of the NCAA Tournament.
This will mark Drake’s eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, including the third straight year. The Bulldogs are seeking their first NCAA Tournament victory since beating Wichita State, 53-52, in the 2021 NCAA Tournament First Four.
The Bulldogs, riding a seven-game winning streak, own a school-record 30-3 mark en route to becoming the 21st team to sweep both the MVC regular season and post-season tournaments in the same year.
Drake received 103 votes in the latest Associated Press poll, just missing the top 25.
Missouri, which owns a 22-11 record, finished 10-8 in the SEC. The Tigers beat Mississippi State, 85-73, in the second round of the recent SEC Tournament before falling to No. 4 ranked Florida, 95-81, in the quarterfinal round.
Missouri was ranked No. 21 in the latest Associated Press poll and No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches poll. The Tigers had several signature wins on their resume this season, beating then No. 1 ranked Kansas in December, a top-five Florida team on the road in January, and secured a third top-five win of the season over Alabama in mid-February at home.
Florida (30-4) is the No. 1 seed in the West Region. Texas Tech (25-8) is seeded No. 3, while UNC Wilmington (27-7) is No. 14.
This will mark Drake’s second NCAA Tournament appearance in Wichita with the Bulldogs beating Notre Dame, 79-72 in overtime in the first round of the 1971 NCAA Midwest Regional before falling to Kansas, 73-71, in the regional final.
