Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates led off a big media day where we got to ask questions of coaches and athletes from the swimming, gymnastics, wrestling and volleyball programs as well on Wednesday. I’m planning to do more full stories for the other programs across the next week or so, but first we’ve got the second basketball Said and Unsaid of the season.
Here are a few of Gates’ quotes that I thought were most telling.
When asked about second-half issues
What Gates said: “We’ve worked on some things, and I think, from a mental standpoint, an organizational standpoint, I have to continue to prepare our team the best way I can. It starts with me and doing that, giving them better organization, giving them better assignments, I think can help and it can help settle whatever’s going on internally. You know, I would love to script it how I want to script it, but we know good and well, I can’t control certain things, but I want to make sure our players are in preparation doing better coming out of that.”
What went unsaid: This question was asked as a followup to Gates saying he thinks the team needs to do a better job of putting two halves together.
I was hopeful there would be a more direct answer when he brought up the second-half issues himself, but oh well.
I’m not really sure myself if there’s one answer to what the issues are in the second half. It’s not like the team comes out of the break and instantly starts turning the ball over or getting dominated on the boards or anything like that. Against Eastern Washington it was just that they let the Eagles hang close enough to take advantage of a bad shooting stretch. Memphis was an inability to break a press, Howard went crazy from the 3-point line.
It’s not one thing, and last year it kind of was. Just over and over again last season, the offense would go dead cold for 10-minute stretches or longer. That hasn’t been a problem yet. So honestly, I can’t tell you what Gates needs to focus on to fix the issues right now, but I was hopeful he would have something a little more direct than preparation.
When asked about what he's been encouraged by through three games
What Gates said: “We can play in different styles of play and I say that in the half-court setting because we have the strength, athleticism and ability to get to the free-throw line. And also we have the shooting ability where you guys saw, throughout these guys’ careers, you can have any guy get hot from Marques Warrick to Caleb Grill to Jacob Crews to Trent Pierce and even to Tamar Bates. I think those are the five guys that can really get stuff done.”
What at went unsaid: I just found it interesting who he pointed out there. He mentioned five guys and one of them has started three games and one more has started at all. Warrick and Crews are barely playing and Pierce’s minutes have dropped every game since his big moments in the first half against Memphis.
It feels like if those are the guys you think can be big for your offense, shouldn’t they be consistent players? I know there’s more to basketball than offense, but when offense has been a key issue at times, that decision just confuses me.
Otherwise, I agree about the free-throw line part. The addition of Mark Mitchell and the development of Ant Robinson especially have added forces attacking the basket in a way the Tigers hadn’t had the past two years under Gates. They’re doing a much better job getting to the line, which is helping mitigate issues with shooting.
When asked about Aaron Rowe and Nicholas Randall signing Wednesday
What Gates said: “Aaron Rowe is a young man I truly believe is electric between the lines. He does a tremendous job pushing the pace. Quick, athletic, has skills and versatility. The thing is, he’s a local kid and when you have a local kid coming from the city of CoMo, the support is there. His future is very bright … Nicholas Randall, a kid from St. Louis, … He would have been Missouri Player of the Year (if he hadn’t transferred to AZ Compass his senior year) and I think when you look at what he brings to the table, he brings versatility, he brings size, he brings a championship pedigree, he brings toughness and he brings the city of St. Louis.”
What went unsaid: Gates keeps bringing in big recruits. Both of those guys are four-star prospects and add to the group of five freshmen who came in this year.
If, and it’s a big if nowadays, the Tigers are able to hold onto the guys from last year’s class and this year’s sophomores in Robinson and Pierce, you’re looking at an incredibly talented roster next year that Gates built off of high school recruiting first.
Plus, the new NIL rules in the state have made recruiting Mizzou’s backyard easier. These guys can start signing NIL deals now that they’ve signed instead of waiting to get on campus. Football has done a really good job of recruiting guys from Kansas City and St. Louis, now basketball is, too.
Hear directly from Ant Robinson.
Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss the press conference and so much more.
