COLUMBIA, Mo. — It should have been a joyous moment for Jeremiah Tilmon. He just extracted his team from the jaws of defeat with a last-second basket and free throw to beat Bradley, but while his Missouri teammates swarmed him in the locker room on Dec. 22, the senior center couldn’t fully revel in the moment.
“I’m not the type to be extremely happy about stuff like that,” he explained minutes later, “because I just feel there’s a lot of pressure on me.”
It was a sobering reminder of the enormous weight Tilmon carries across the broad and sculpted shoulders along his 6-foot-10, 260-pound frame.