No. 15 Tiger hoops primed for showdown with No. 4 Alabama
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The No. 15 Mizzou men's basketball team has finally reached the home stretch of the regular-season. With March looming on the horizon, there may be no stretch of game more important this season than the one that lies ahead for head coach Dennis Gates and company.
As of now, Tiger hoops is 19-6 on the season with an 8-4 mark in Southeastern Conference action, coming off of its fifth Quad 1 win of the year at Georgia over the weekend.
Over the course of the next three weeks, the Tigers will have an opportunity to not only boost their NCAA Tournament resume, but also secure a coveted double-bye in the SEC Tournament in Nashville. Coach Gates said, during Tuesday's media availability, that one of the team's main goals is to play on Thursday in the conference tournament and to avoid that first day of action.
The top four teams in the conference will claim that day off and MU has a clear opportunity to get there.
Sitting at No. 5 in the conference standings, just a game behind both Texas A&M and Florida, Coach Gates and his squad can make some headway in the next few weeks. Matchups with No. 4 Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and No. 17 Kentucky are on the books to close out the season. Wins in those games would not only boost their conference standings, but add to their already extensive NCAA Tournament resume. However, the team said it is not looking too far ahead to March Madness or anything of that nature, as they know this stretch of games is critical.
"The job isn't done on what we want to do, on what we want to accomplish. We want to win an SEC Championship and there's enough games out there for us to possibly do that. The next phase is having that double-bye, one of four finishing in that top position to play on that Thursday," Gates said. "The big part of the season is making sure we improve how we need to improve. I've seen that gradually take place in our team and our program, individually within our guys. I still think we have room to grow. We're doing a good job, our staff is doing a great job, but our players are not complacent by stretch of the imagination. They're not going to look at something as complete because it's not."
You can watch the full press conference with Coach Gates in the video player below.
First up on the schedule is a Wednesday night date with the Crimson Tide at Mizzou Arena. Alabama will come into the matchup fresh off of an Iron Bowl loss to No. 1 Auburn over the weekend. But, overall, head coach Nate Oats and company still sit atop the Southeastern Conference in multiple categories, including scoring and rebounds.
Head coach Nate Oats and company are set to bring a high-powered, fast-pace offense to the court at Mizzou Arena, led by the duo of Mark Sears and Grant Nelson. Sears ranks No. 3 in the conference in scoring this season, boasting an average of 17.8 points per game, along with 4.8 assists. Nelson is second on the team in scoring with 12.6 points per game to compliment a team-leading 8.3 rebounds per game.
Those will be two guys that Coach Gates and company will key in on ahead of Wednesday night's showdown.
"I think [Mark Sears] is deserving of First-Team All-American honors, he and Auburn's Johni Broome. When you remove those two pieces from their teams, everyone looks at Broome as that person, but I look at Sears as that person, too. The importance that he is to Alabama is important. His veteran leadership, his ability to make plays and he's a great player. We're always going to respect him that way. We'll see what adjustments we'll have to make in-game, but there's no doubt about it that he's gonna come in wanting to have a good game because he is that person for his team," Gates said.
During Tuesday's morning's press conference, Gates emphasized that his team needs to stay true to themselves against the Crimson Tide. They are not going to change the way they play to slow down Alabama's game. He said his guys will, instead, continue to play with confidence and unselfishness.
Tiger guard Caleb Grill said one of the keys to the game will be defending the 3-point line.
"They get up a lot of three's but we also have to do a really good job of cleaning up the rebounds and not letting them get second-chance opportunities. I think if we can contain their 3-point shooting and limit maybe some of their open looks and then clean up on the glass, I think we can put ourselves in a situation to hold them to less point than they can score," he said. "They score 100 points any night if they're on fire or getting those second-chance opportunities."
You can watch the full press conference with Grill in the video player below.
Mizzou has every capability of competing in a shootout with the Crimson Tide, if it gets to that point, though. MU is No. 19 nationally with a scoring offense of 82.6 and No. 14 with a scoring margin of +13.6.
Guard Tamar Bates has led the charge on the scoring front for the Tigers, with an average of 13.4 points per game. His attack is closely followed up by Mark Mitchell who has 12.90 points per game and Grill who has notched 12.8 points per game this season.
"Both teams score. Both teams play with a pace. Hopefully the ball falls for us and I hope it doesn't fall for them," Gates said. "We have to do things to keep them off free throw line, we have to do things to disrupt their shooters, be able to get a hand up without fouling. I think what we've done is not foul too many 3-point shooters. We had one last game that I wasn't happy about, but we got to do a great job of not fouling shooters," Gates said. "We still have to defend the ball-handlers because they're great at driving to the paint and drawing defenses and kicking out. Those are things we have to do."
No. 15 Mizzou and No. 4 Alabama will tipoff at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19 in Columbia.
