A sold-out Mizzou Arena can be overwhelming. The effect is supposed to be directed toward the visiting team, but the hosts aren’t always immune to it.
The Tigers hadn’t played in a gym as loud as the one they did on Dec. 10 against Kansas, the first sell-out they’d been in all year. They’d never had so many eyes on them before.
It showed. Missouri played its worst game of the season that day, a 95-67 loss to the No. 6 Jayhawks. The electricity from the crowd of 15,061 seemed to shock them. Senior guard DeAndre Gholston said about as much on the “Mizzou, That’s Who” podcast on Dec. 20.
“I don’t think it surprised us,” Gholston said. “But what I can say is, I guess you can never prepare for something like that.”
The lesson, however, was learned. Since dropping their first and only loss of the season, the Tigers have won three in a row, the most recent coming on Wednesday in an 89-75 win over No. 19 Kentucky inside a sold-out Mizzou Arena.
“It's only a loss if you don't learn from the situation,” head coach Dennis Gates said. “I don't think our guys blinked one bit and they stayed connected with each other and that's the most important thing.”
It wouldn’t have been surprising to see Missouri close its eyes and physically wince going up against a team as big as the Wildcats or a star as imposing as 6-foot-9 senior forward Oscar Tshiebwe — the reigning consensus National Player of the Year and No. 2 rebounder in the country. Kentucky had a size advantage at nearly every position on the court. The visitors finished the night with a plus-nine advantage on the boards. Tshiebwe had 19 rebounds by himself.
Yet, the Tigers stood their ground. Though they surrendered the edge on the boards, they matched Tshiebwe and Kentucky’s presence inside, both teams sinking 18 field goals inside the arc and scoring 34 points in the paint. The assertiveness caught the Wildcats off guard.
“We gotta be stronger,” Tshiebwe said. “We cannot just let people come in and try to bully, bully, bully us like we're little kids. We gotta get better.”
Kentucky’s biggest tormentor was senior forward Kobe Brown, who scored 30 points for a second consecutive game to go along with six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Brown continued his hot shooting streak, going 4-8 from outside, but was just as efficient in the post, hitting 6-10 of his 2-pointers and earning four trips to the free throw line.
He fed into the energy from the crowd. So did the rest of the Tigers.
“We're just, like I always say, a bunch of guys that love each other and just like to play basketball,” Brown said. “So whenever you have that in a program, it's like, it's big time. It makes things easy.”
Improving to 12-1 on the season, Missouri already has as many wins this year as it did in 2021-22. If the team keeps making statement wins, as it did in its SEC opener, it might see a few more sell-outs.
Stepping up off the bench
When Brown doesn’t play up to his potential as Mizzou’s best player, other players often have to overextend themselves to pick up the slack. But when Brown fills his role, it allows his teammates to do theirs more comfortably.
The latter was the case Wednesday night, with two reserves making important plays at crucial times for the Tigers.
The hosts established an early lead in the first half, going up 17-7 on the Wildcats by the 14:36 mark. Mizzou didn’t score again for four and a half minutes, though, allowing Kentucky to cut the deficit to four points. Senior point guard Sean East II got the Tigers out of the rut, scoring on three consecutive possessions.
The Wildcats went on another 7-0 run in the second half to trim the lead to 54-44. Gholston ended it, making a pair of trips to the foul line and knocking down all four free throws. East and Gholston scored 12 points each, all of East’s coming in the first half and all of Gholston’s coming in the second.
“We're all pretty much dogs and we grind every day,” East said. “We've been here for about seven, six months, you know, in the gym, in the sand, on football fields. Like, it's just in us and it has been built in us since we got here. So I mean, showing up today, we just been playing our hearts out and getting lost in the fight.”
Gates couldn’t find a gap to put East in more in the second half, but said the point guard “coached his behind off” while he was on the bench.
“Sean was a beast,” Gates said. “And when you have guys like that, who are gratified by the success of the team over the success of the individual selves, it's outstanding. And it's a part of his character.”
Up next
Missouri (12-1, 1-0 SEC) travels to Fayetteville, Ark., next week to take on No. 9 Arkansas (11-2, 0-1) on Jan. 4 at 7:30 p.m., the game airing on SEC Network.
Stay up to date on all the Mizzou news with your premium subscription
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
Everyone on here already has insurance (or they should). Everyone on here also cheers for the Tigers (or they should). In college sports the hot button issue is NIL. A school can no longer compete the way they did just a few short years ago without a robust NIL collective. In our economy, the hot button issue is inflation. Here’s your opportunity to see about saving money on something that the state requires you to have on your car and your lender requires you to have on your house. Oh and by the way, just a quote from James’s office will get a donation on your behalf to Every True Tiger Foundation, one of Mizzou’s NIL initiatives. Blink if you like saving money. Blink twice if you want to do everything you can to position your favorite college program to be as competitive in the SEC as possible. Give James’s office a call at 314-961-4800 or get a quote online at carltoninsurance.net.
“If your insurance costs a leg and an arm, call James Carlton State Farm.”
