'We remember for sure': Tennessee needs no reminders about two Missouri losses last season

Tennessee led Missouri 85-83 with 4.2 seconds left at Thompson-Boling Arena. DeAndre Gholston took the inbound for the Tigers, sprinted up the floor and pulled up with 1.8 seconds left for a desperation shot from roughly 35 feet.

The shot hit nothing but the bottom of the net.

The Missouri bench rushed the floor to celebrate. Tennessee players stood there in a daze, on the wrong end of a buzzer beater for a second straight game, after Vanderbilt hit a walk-off corner three only days earlier at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville. 

And then there was the rematch with Missouri in Nashville. This time in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. The game was tied with 2:11 left, but Mizzou closed on a 10-2 run to win 79-71 and send the Vols packing. 

Tennessee fans don’t need the reminders. Neither do Tennessee players.  

“Talked about it first thing, really before we started,” Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark said Monday afternoon, “ … one of them was a buzz beater here. So we remember for sure.”

Now No. 5 Tennessee (19-6, 9-3 SEC) goes to Missouri (8-17, 0-12) on Tuesday night (7 Eastern Time, SEC Network), with the Vols making no secret that they haven’t forgotten what the Tigers did to them a year ago.  

‘Regardless of the record, it doesn’t matter, that’s a program that beat up on us two games last year.’

The example Clark used in front of the team was South Carolina. Tennessee last season beat the Gamecocks by 43 points on the road and by 40 points at home. 

This season? South Carolina came to Thompson-Boling three weeks ago and stunned the Vols 63-59.

“If you think they came in here and didn’t remember we beat them by about 40 two times,” Clark told Tennessee’s players, “you’re crazy because they played like it, you could tell.” 

Tennessee was the team that had something to prove last week, winning by 29 at Arkansas on Wednesday and beating Vanderbilt by 35 at home Saturday night. A statement needed to be made after the 85-69 loss at Texas A&M last Saturday, the most thorough beating of the Vols this season, and the statement was made.

The only difference this time around is this Missouri team.

After winning 23 games in Year 1 under Dennis Gates and going to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Mizzou is currently stuck in a 12-game losing streak and has lost 15 of 16 since a 7-2 start to the season. 

The Vols opened Monday as a 13-point road favorite for Tuesday’s game at Mizzou Arena.

“Regardless of the record,” Clark said, “it doesn’t matter. That’s a program that beat up on us two games last year. So we’re not looking at this as a game that we’re going to just skate by. 

“No, that’s not what it is for us. We got to go down there, we want to take care of business. We want to play really well, we want to play really hard.” 

No. 5 Tennessee at Missouri, Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Last season it was Kobe Brown and D’Moi Hodge that did most of the damage. Brown scored 21 in Knoxville and 24 more in the SEC Tournament. Hodge had 14 at Thompson-Boling and 26 in Nashville. 

But there are a few familiar faces still on the Missouri roster.

“We definitely want to lock into Sean East and Tamar Bates, who’s playing at a really high level right now,” Clark said. “Noah Carter, like those guys — Noah Carter, Nick Honor and Sean East — that were big parts of last year’s team that, like I said, they gave us a good whooping two times.”

Junior point guard Zakai Zeigler on Monday was asked what he remembers most about those two Missouri games. He didn’t need much time to find his answer.

“Two losses,” Zeigler said. “That’s what I would really say. We lost twice to them and we can’t go out with a loss this year.”