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Tigers discuss reactions to postseason awards

There’s no question the Tigers felt slighted to some degree on Monday.

When the SEC head coaches released their postseason awards, senior forward Kobe Brown was the only name from Missouri that appeared on the list, getting voted to the all-conference First Team and being named the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Head coach Dennis Gates had hoped senior guard D’Moi Hodge would be considered for the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award. Hodge not only missed out on the accolade, but was left off the five-man All-Defensive team entirely.

Gates was also in the race to be the league’s Coach of the Year. The USA Today network released its postseason awards at 5:06 a.m. on Monday, which had Gates receiving the honor. But when the SEC released its official award winners eight hours later, Gates’ name was left out, with Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams and Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse sharing the laurel instead.

Did Gates’ players think he deserved to be Coach of the year?

“I’m so glad you asked me that,” senior point guard Nick Honor said during a press conference on Tuesday. “Yes, I believe Coach Gates should've won Coach of the Year. Just what he did in one year, you know, turned things around. And also, I believe D'Moi Hodge was snubbed a little bit. I won't get too deep into that.”

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The team didn’t want to distract from Brown’s accomplishments. He made the All-SEC First Team on the USA Today, Associated Press and conference coaches' ballots. He’s been the team’s leader all season long, averaging 15.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. They felt his recognition was well-deserved.

“I'm proud of him,” freshman forward Aidan Shaw said. “That's my guy. So when he wins, you know, we all win. So we all support him.”

“He wasn't thinking about these awards at all,” Gates said. “His unselfish spirit would say, 'It belongs to the team.' He thanked them consistently … He would trade all that for a first-place finish in the regular season. And that's where his mind's at and that's where his heart is.”

But Hodge and Gates missing out definitely came as a surprise. The team felt both had a strong case. Hodge led the SEC and broke Mizzou’s single-season record with 83 steals. Gates led a team that was predicted to finish in 11th place in the preseason poll all the way up to fourth place in his first year taking over the program. Hodge could’ve been the first Tiger to make the All-Defensive team since Dru Smith did it in 2020-21, or the first-ever SEC Defensive Player of the Year in program history. Gates could’ve been the team’s first SEC Coach of the Year.

Gates said he understood the decision. There were plenty of other great players and coaches across the conference that didn’t make the awards list, either. He thinks that if he and Hodge wanted to receive that type of acknowledgment, they needed to prove more.

“There's never a time where, you know, everyone can get an award,” Gates said. “It's not a trophy league (where) everybody's just getting awards and we got 50 people, 50 young men, on lists. No, you have to earn it. We gotta do better and, obviously, we didn't do better. That's how I see it.”

Those milestones will have to wait, as the Tigers play in the quarterfinal round of the SEC tournament on Friday at 2:30 p.m. There’s still a lot more the team can accomplish as it heads into the postseason.

Missing out on a few awards might’ve made them realize that even more.

“I think, for several reasons — you guys probably know — but we'll have an extra little chip going into these tournaments,” Honor said. “It's basketball at the end of the day and I'm excited to see our guys. I feel like we're ready and we just gotta be ourselves.”

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