‘We got to play our best basketball’: Mizzou prepares for bout with No. 20 Arkansas
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou men's basketball team will hope to ride the momentum from a dramatic upset over No. 19 Vanderbilt, on Wednesday night, into Saturday's matinee against No. 20 Arkansas.
The meeting with legendary head coach John Calipari, comes as Tiger coach Dennis Gates and his squad are still looking to build up their NCAA Tournament resume. As of Friday, ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Mizzou as one of the Last Four In, following the team's win over the Commodores.
Sitting at 18-8 overall and 8-5 in SEC action, the Tigers will have a big test on their hands against an Arkansas team that is coming off of a double-overtime loss to Alabama, on Wednesday. In that narrow loss, guard Darius Acuff Jr. had a career night, allying 49 points against the Crimson Tide.
"[Acuff Jr. is] a tremendous talent," Gates said. "For me, just seeing a guy of that nature being able to see the game in slow motion. During the process of high school, you can see how advanced he was and being able to penalize defenses and orchestrate what he wanted, whether it's coming off ball screens, getting to the rim, shooting the mid-range, knocking down threes in-transition. He's one of the top point guards in the country, if not the best. Tremendous insight far beyond his years."
You can watch the full press conference with Coach Gates in the video player below.
Mizzou hoops will roll into Fayetteville fresh off of an 81-80 win over No. 19 Vanderbilt, on Wednesday. Despite how tightly contested that game was in the final minutes, Coach Gates' crew actually had a 21-point lead with about nine minutes to play in the second half. Of course, the result was a win, but it didn't come without some anxiety for Tiger fans.
However, MU has grown accustomed to close games in league action, this season. In fact, excluding the win over South Carolina, all of Mizzou's Southeastern Conference victories have come by an average margin of 3.5 points. Coach Gates said that trend isn't indicative to players not being able to play or coaches not being able to coach, like it was in the past, but more so to the depth of the conference.
"[Those close games] give you resolve," he said. "I think our first season we won several games in the same way, with less than one or two possessions, and this year is a sign, right? The pancake has two sides, but is very thin. On one side of those games you can you can say, man, we lost or you won. I would rather be on the side that that allows us to win and then figure out the lessons. We gotta learn to go out and go get another one, but it's part of every team's schedule, a close game, but in our conference, and I've mentioned this before, there has been 41 or 42 road wins by opponents and everyone is not safe."
The rival Razorbacks will have to contend with an MU offense that has seen some highs and lows in the 2025-26 season, but relies on the play of forward Mark Mitchell, guard Jayden Stone and forward Trent Pierce. That trio averages double-digit scoring this season, with Mitchell averaging the team-best 16.9 points per game.
However, fans may also be seeing the re-emergence of guard Anthony Robinson. The junior has battled a bit of a scoring slump through SEC action, averaging about five points per game through 10 games in league pay. But, he's coming off of back-to-back double-figure outings in the team's loss to Texas and win over Vanderbilt.
"I'm very proud of [Anthony] Robinson. Again, we started this press conference talking about resilience and he has resiliency. He's able to show it, he's not a quitter. His parents, his grandparents have not raised a quitter. Things may go a little off, but he gets back on track, right? He's still having a good season," Gates said. "I mean, that's how I look at it, but we're comparing where he's at to where we want him to be, from the external standpoint...You can get better and still have the same stat line and that's okay. He has the same stat line, if not better in certain categories, than he did last year."
Up next - Mizzou will tip off against Arkansas at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Fayetteville.
