MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — Dennis Gates took the podium at SEC Media Day on Wednesday to talk about Missouri’s upcoming season. Here’s what the Tigers’ head coach had to say:
Mizzou not concerned with preseason polls
The Tigers were predicted to finish in ninth in the conference in the SEC media poll released on Tuesday. It was two spots higher than where the team finished in the poll last season.
But Gates was quick to point out that preseason rankings are often very inaccurate. Last year’s poll featured zero teams that were picked in the correct spot and some teams were off as many as by seven or eight places. Missouri, for example, was voted to finish 11th but ended up with the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament.
Gates thinks it’s just a reflection of how good the league is.
“I'm curious on what that will look like after the season. And it'll be musical chairs and I just hope we continue to get better,” Gates said. “We're just at the infant stages and our players are going to continue to give their very best and I'm excited about the personality of our team.”
How the Tigers might be different than last year
Missouri has several newcomers joining the roster this season, and Gates knows the team can’t approach everything the exact same way this year. It’s one of the reasons he brought in the number of seasoned transfers he did.
“We have more players. I think we have more depth than we did last year,” Gates said. “We have tremendous experience, in-game experience, something that I look at, overall experience, life experience is something that I look at. That team last season was able to be galvanized through a different scheduling philosophy. The scheduling philosophy this season is going to cause this team to grow up faster, and it's going to be a lot of ebbs and flows, meaning some ups and downs, we have to go through. Hopefully, it will curify who we are and calcify who we are as a team and help our identity so that we can have a successful SEC year, but also a post-season.”
How Nick Honor and Sean East II fit together
Speaking with media after Mizzou Madness on Oct. 6, Gates said that, after reviewing film from last season, he wanted to find ways to get his graduate senior guards on the court together more often. However, stats from last season show that the team was better in the minutes it had just one of Honor or East in the lineup.
Gates said the stats don’t always account for the exact situation players are being put in. He feels confident the team can be effective with both players on the floor.
“When you look at the numbers, I think sometimes you look at that and you don't look at the growth,” Gates said. “Nick Honor is a better player, Sean East is a better player than what they were last year. I think when you look at the pieces of the puzzle that was on the court with them, they're all different and they're all unique. But I think ultimately when you have two experienced guards, like them on your team, you gotta find out ways to continue to play them. Nick Honor averaged close to 30 minutes, Sean East averaged close to 24, they played 14 of those minutes together. And when you play 14 minutes over a 40-minute game with two guys, I mean, that's essentially some good minutes that they played. So I'm excited about where they are.”
Where Missouri is at as a basketball program
MU has picked up a lot of momentum with the success of last year’s team that went 25-10 and reached the second round of the SEC tournament, creating excitement for this season and results on the recruiting trail, as the Tigers’ Class of 2024 is currently ranked No. 1 in the country.
Gates made it clear he’s not doing it on his own, crediting Mizzou’s former head coaches, athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois and university president Mun Choi for helping him steer the team in the right direction. He’s looking forward to seeing what else they can accomplish.
“We've never been to a Final Four. Is this year's team a Final Four team? I don't know, but I guarantee you at some point we're going to act as if that's our destination. We're going to try to make sure everything that we do is for that reason,” Gates said. “It's not for the stats, not for anything else, but to give us the best possible way to leave a legacy, a legacy that our fans believe in, a legacy that I truly believe can happen. I'm excited about where we are. So when it comes down to the success, I share it with everybody. I share it with our entire stakeholders, meaning those that have come before me, our former players. They put their arms around our players, our program. They've been more connected than they have been in a long time.
“If we keep the momentum going in that direction, the sky's the limit. I just don't know when that will happen. Our schedule is hard. It's difficult this season. There's going to be ups and downs. I just ask for the consistency that we had last year from our players and from those that touched our program to be there for us during the ups and downs. Last year we played Kansas. It was not a good outing. But the consistency allowed us to grow. The consistency of having Mizzou Arena a certain way, a certain sound, allowed us to see what it meant to everyone. I truly believe that helped us. I'm looking forward to the same obstacle, whether they be for the positive or negative. But we have to get through them. We have to teach these young people how to step forward through adversity.”
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