The Tigers have bounced back time after time this season.
After dropping the season opener, they won 10 consecutive games.
After losing to Illinois they beat Alabama State.
After dropping the SEC opener to Auburn they won four consecutive, then after losing to Texas they beat two straight ranked opponents.
But for the first time, the Tigers didn’t respond immediately after their loss to Tennessee, as they then lost to Texas A&M. But the response was just a week away as the Tigers rolled through Oklahoma and Georgia the following week to get back on track.
Resiliency has been a key for the Tigers throughout the season, and senior guard Tamar Bates said it’s been a major focus throughout the year.
“We don’t let anything linger directly after the game,” Bates said. “So like, whether it’s in the locker room right after the game, after a loss, or the next day, we get back on the court and we’re in practice, we address what we need to address. … And then we just, we come with the mentality of whoever we lost to, we’re not gonna let them beat us twice.”
But it’s not just resiliency game-to-game, it’s within games as well.
After posting no points in the first half against Tennessee, Bates showed his personal resiliency with 22 points in the second half to lead the Tigers.
“Our offense was a little better, or actually a lot better, in that second half,” Bates said. “And we were able to move and get them in rotations, and then in turn, I was able to make some shots, but it wasn’t really anything too complicated. I just was able to be in the right spots.”
It’s even resiliency in individual moments, trying to bounce back when a call doesn’t go the Tigers’ way.
“That’s just what our culture is,” Bates said. “And obviously, whether we’re playing at home or on the road, we’re expecting there to be some mistakes made. You know, the refs are going to make some calls that might not be a foul, some of them might actually be a foul or not. … If we get too invested in trying to officiate instead of actually playing the game, it kind of just distracts us and takes our focus away from what our focus needs to be.”
For the first time last week, one loss turned into two as the Tigers ended a stretch of four consecutive ranked opponents with two defeats by a combined seven points.
Then they came out and crushed Oklahoma by 24 in a game that became a must-win opportunity after the losses and beat Georgia by coming back from a halftime deficit for the first time this season and running away with a game that was close throughout the first half.
“We always try to bounce back regardless if we win,” Missouri guard Tony Perkins said. “We feel like we can always, you know, make some changes and develop what we selected in one game. Just being able to do that, even with a win or loss, it’s always good because no team is perfect.
Mizzou coach Dennis Gates has talked before about players falling in love with the preparation, the scouting reports and the work to get ready for the next game. But after the Oklahoma win, he credited looking back at games as well as a major reason why his team has been able to be so resilient this year.
“I think our guys fall in love with debriefs,” Gates said. Whether it’s a good game or a game where we’ve lost, I think our guys, they accept the medicine from watching film and they don’t run from their mistakes.”
Keeping an eye on those mistakes has led to a Missouri team that’s shown it can win in different ways, with different people leading the effort.
That was never more clear than this past week as the Tigers went inside again and again to beat Oklahoma with Mark Mitchell, then ___ to beat Georgia.
“Ultimately, it’s the culmination of their experiences that is what we see as our team identity,” Gates said. “I truly believe we’ve continued in a slant sort of, like an increase in our talent, but also in our team. We’ve gotten better every day, every week, and we haven’t taken steps back. We’ve had stumps and bumps, but we’ve not taken multiple steps back at all. I just think we’re going at this steady pace that allows these guys to get to know the best of each other, but also challenge each other and also play as unselfish as they have been.”
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