Tigers excited to go dancing in the wild west
Nick Honor hasn’t been to California in a long time. Despite playing for three different teams over the course of five seasons, the graduate senior point guard hasn’t played in the Golden State once in his college basketball career. The last time he was out west was when he was playing on the Nike EYBL circuit in high school.
Missouri’s starting point guard will return to California next week, along with the rest of the Tigers. The team was selected as an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, earning a No. 7 seed and slated against No. 10 seed Utah State in the first round, taking place on Thursday in Sacramento.
“I'm very excited about our program, our players, our administration, everyone affiliated with the city of Columbia,” Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates said. “It takes a village for these days to happen, and it's a lot of people behind the scenes that may not get the credit and I want to thank them as well. Our guys, you know, as a staff, we're going to figure out who Utah State is. They're a great team as well as every team that got selected and earned this right to play in the Big Dance.”
Honor said the team returned from the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn., Friday night after getting eliminated by Alabama, 72-61. He said most of the players wanted to be able to relax, which was impossible to do until they found out who they’d be matched up with and where they were playing. Luckily, the Tigers had their name called early in the Selection Sunday show, the hosts announcing the teams in the South region first.
Gates said he’s just thankful Missouri got in. There were a lot of good teams across the country that didn’t make the cut. It’s a reason why he’s advocated for the field of 68 to expand.
The head coach isn’t all that familiar with the Aggies specifically, but does have respect for Utah State’s head coach, Ryan Odom. Ryan’s father, Dave Odom, was previously the head coach at Wake Forest from 1989-2001 and at South Carolina from 2001-08. Gates said he talked to Dave less than a month ago.
“We're excited to learn more about them as they are going to learn more about us,” Gates said. “That's the best part about Selection Sunday, both opponents get to start from scratch on who the opponent is. And we just have to do our homework and we'll continue to do so.”
It’ll be the Tigers’ first trip to the tournament since 2021. For nine of the players on the roster, it’ll be their first time ever playing in the Big Dance.
Gates doesn’t want them to get too caught up in the experience, though. He’s said all along he wants his team playing in the national championship game, and it’ll take a high amount of focus to get there. Selection Sunday, which the coach considers a national holiday, was just another step toward that.
“Like Coach Gates says, we just want to play on April 1 and April 3,” Honor said. “We feel like we've been disrespected all year. We fell short of our goal in Nashville, so that adds even another chip. So we're just looking forward to obviously seeing some new scenery out there in California. But it's a business trip at the end of the day, so we're all excited and ready to play.”
Mizzou tips off inside Golden 1 Center in the California state capital against the Aggies on Thursday at 10:40 a.m. PT/12:40 p.m. CT.
“Hopefully we get some good weather out there,” assistant coach David “Dickey” Nutt said with a wink.
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