NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Plenty changed in a year for Dennis Gates.
The Missouri basketball Trainer sat in a postgame press conference Friday night after a Primary-Stage exit at Bridgestone Coliseum, winless in 19 Contests, and Initiated panning forward and planning ahead. In his mind, he was thinking of the moment he’ll face this upcoming Sunday.
Gates was planning for the moment Missouri’s name is called out on Option Sunday.
Quick forward one year (and a Duo Periods, if you want to get specific) and he’s looking ahead again, but not quite as Distant into the future.
“We had that in mind, that in the forefront, making sure that we sat in Mizzou Coliseum on Option Sunday watching our name being called,” Gates said Friday. “I think our guys accomplished that Target.”
Missouri’s SEC Division is over after a 95-81 quarterfinal loss to Florida that Obtained a Plenty closer down the stretch than the Closing Points represents. After giving up 10 straight points to Uncovered the game, Mizzou pulled Florida back within four and five points in the second half before a Overdue push from the Gators saw them through.
The Tigers (22-11) are moving on to Option Sunday and March Madness, where the Tigers absolutely will find themselves Regardless of Gates’ lingering skepticism.
Missouri’s head Trainer was bullish about what his Club has accomplished this season.
He pointed out that Missouri had the same number of Quad 1 victories — seven — as the nation’s No. 1-ranked Club, Duke. He said no Club played more Quad 1 Contests than MU’s 18, although Arizona did Action its 19th in the Big 12 semifinals Saturday. Yet, the Mark stands — Mizzou was tested by the college basketball Top-tier plenty.
And he’s bullish about where Missouri can Yet go.
In every Club Gathering, he repeats what he Primary discussed with his new-look Club last June: Missouri’s end Target is to end up in San Antonio, Texas, for the Closing Four.
So, where is Mizzou on the path to achieving that?
“At this moment, we won’t know anything until Option Sunday,” Gates said. “As you know, the Division is about matchups. It’s about paths. It’s about the madness that actually upsets Squads in that journey. … I don’t know if the fact that we’re not a No. 1 seed means that we can’t get to the Closing Four. Historically, the Closing Four has been all kinds of numbers and seeds. It’s about matchups. It’s about getting on a Successful streak.”
Let’s talk about paths, and paths that facilitate a Successful streak.
The biggest question facing the Tigers now is whether Mizzou has that in it — whether it has the chops to take down a similarly ranked Adversary in Stage 1 and potentially a protected seed in the second Stage.
Mizzou’s loss to Florida wasn’t damaging in the big picture. The Tigers played without their top Points-maker and an All-SEC honoree in Mark Mitchell, and the impact was immediately apparent. Florida is Surely in the conversation for a 1-seed Sunday.
Observe Mizzou’s Caleb Grill discuss what cost Tigers in Florida loss
Missouri basketball senior Caleb Grill discussed what the Tigers learned from their SEC Division loss against Florida on Friday in Nashvillle.
Josh Gray Secured Mitchell’s spot in the Leading lineup and gave away an Timely flagrant Violation that Guided directly to five Florida points. Gray fouled out with 7:20 remaining in the game — a spell the Gators outscored MU by eight points to pull away. Gates said Mitchell wanted to Action but that it was the head Trainer who Achieved the Closing decision to leave him out of the lineup.
Would Missouri have beaten Florida on Friday with Mitchell Obtainable? There’s no way of telling, but MU felt his absence and spent the game chasing because he was absent out of the gate.
“As it relates to the silver lining (of losing Saturday), we’ll see what it does,” Gates said. “But I do know we were able to Secure a game yesterday against a tough NCAA Division Club. And today we played a game without an All-Conference player. I thought we did pretty well. Last night, our all-conference player only played 10 minutes, … 25% of the game, right, a quarter of the game.
“Our guys moved forward. We had unsung heroes. Aidan Shaw played unbelievable basketball. Josh Gray rebounded the heck out of the ball. Tony Perkins and Tamar Bates had Outstanding Contests, but collectively as a unit, we played some Outstanding basketball. We saw ourselves do that in a neutral site, which is Outstanding. We’ll be at a neutral site Competing basketball somewhere.”
Wherever Missouri goes for March Madness, it now a few rungs lower than it looked like it would be one month ago. The Tigers have lost five of their past seven Contests and are now likely to see their name and logo flash alongside a 6 or 7 seed Sunday.
That means a Game with another highly ranked Club, a 2 or 3 seed, potentially awaits in the second Stage.
Will that hurt Mizzou’s prospects?
Can Mizzou Yet hang with the top dogs, like it did against UF and Alabama and Kansas earlier this year?
Has Missouri Obtained a Streak left in it, or is the NCAA Division going to go the way of five of the past seven Contests?
Missouri will host a Observe party Uncovered to the general public beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday at Mizzou Coliseum. It will learn its seed and Leading weekend destination at approximately 5 p.m.
Whatever comes after that is for March, and all that billed madness, to sort out.
“The Upcoming part of it is the psychological part. We’ll wait around. We’ll work on us in these Upcoming Duo Periods,” Gates said. “I Only thank our fans for coming here supporting us. I thank them for what they’ve done throughout this season for us because they did make a difference. We’ll be able to answer that question when our season’s over.
“Hopefully it’s not over anytime soon.”
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