Missouri coach Dennis Gates held a press conference on Thursday ahead of the Tigers’ matchup with Mississippi State on Saturday.
Here are some of his quotes that I found most telling and what went unsaid in them.
When asked about the bye week
What Gates said: “I think it’s timely. Whenever you look at being able to get into a new month of basketball in your conference, that means that, you know, teams are starting to break down a little bit. … I think it gives us a time to recoup, focus on what we’ve done right, focus on what we’ve done wrong and correct those wrongs.”
What went unsaid: The bye came slightly before the midpoint of the SEC schedule, but adding on the Dec. 30 game, the Tigers haven’t had a full week off since Christmas.
And boy was this stretch a good time for it. Gates mentioned they got a chance to do some installs on both sides of the ball and the next three games are the remaining stretch that really needs the extra focus.
At Mississippi State, at Tennessee and hosting Texas A&M. Get through that stretch with a win, two would be extraordinary, and you’re well set for the rest of conference play.
So I think Gates is right that this was about as perfectly-placed of a bye as the Tigers could have hoped for.
Hopefully they will be effective afterward.
When asked about playing consecutive road games
What Gates said: “At the end of the day, the big picture in scheduling is this, you still have the same amount of road games as you do home games. What you cannot do is allow yourself to lose focus of the lesson that you need to learn and you know, through the obstacles, regardless of where you play and who you play, they still have an advantage. They’re at home. We have to go out, focus how we need to focus and just play a complete ball game from beginning to end.”
What went unsaid: Every road game is tough, certainly. But it kind of goes along with what Gates mentioned next in the first quote about the bye week, the Tigers have not played well on the road. Missouri is 1-4 away from Mizzou Arena. Now don’t get me wrong, the games were well played outside of Auburn, but being able to claim at least one of these two road games coming up might be crucial to how the seedings end up playing out. If the Tigers can take either the game at Mississippi State or at Tennessee, they’ll be sitting at 17-5, 6-3 with nine games to go and five of those at home. Getting one of these two could be massive.
When asked about the stretch of four top-16 teams in a row
What Gates said: “It’s an 18-game stretch, not a four-game stretch. And each stretch of games add on emotional, mental and physical components that we have to endure. We have some unbelievable opponents that we’re facing, but ti’s one game at a time and each game can deliver different tendencies or different things moving forward.”
What went unsaid: Gates is right, all 18 games of the conference schedule will be very tough. That’s part of being a team in the best conference, arguably ever. But starting at the Ole Miss game last week, the Tigers are lined up against teams currently ranked No. 23 (Ole Miss), No. 14 (Mississippi State), No. 8 (Tennessee), No. 13 (Texas A&M), unranked (Oklahoma and Georgia) then No. 4 (Alabama).
That’s a heck of a stretch. I’ve talked a lot about the four-game stretch from Ole Miss to Texas A&M, but add on Alabama at the back end and that’s five ranked opponents in seven games. That’s insane.
But, if the Tigers survive through Texas A&M, then a matchup with Alabama at home, No. 24 Vanderbilt on the road and No. 12 Kentucky are the only ranked matchup in the final eight.
So yes, every game is huge and every game is difficult, but if the Tigers can survive this stretch, and they’ve already pulled out one win to start it off, then they are well set to ride some momentum into the end of the regular season.
Could you tell there was a common theme to the questions and answers at this week's press conference?
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