‘A new season of basketball’: Mizzou primed for SEC Tournament

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The real March has finally begun for Mizzou men's basketball.

The No. 8-seeded Tigers are in the midst of their final preparations for the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. Head coach Dennis Gates and his squad are set to take the court at Bridgestone Arena at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, facing either No. 9-seeded Kentucky or No. 16-seeded LSU.

"We have not accomplished a regular-season championship under my watch here and we have not won the postseason tournament. Being able to get a double-bye [in the 2022-23 campaign] prepared us and we got close, but we didn't accomplish it," Gates said. "There's no record for no team in the postseason. Everybody starts 0-0 and you have an identity, but also you have an opportunity. If you don't like your body of work, meaning the little things that may have creeped in, you have an opportunity to right those. You have an opportunity to get better. You have an opportunity, as a player, if you were in a slump to get out of that slump and reset. So, these are opportunities and in this conference there is no team that's safe to just advance just because of their seeding. I can tell you that. So day one of our tournament is going to be just as difficult as day two and day two is going to be just as difficult as day three."

You can watch the full press conference with Coach Gates in the video player below.

The nature of tournament play presents a challenge for teams, when it comes to game-planning. Over the course of just a few days, you can face a variety of different opponents, which is why it's important to lean on your own core values and identity.

He added that finding success will also come down to playing their best brand of basketball and limiting the self-inflicted wounds. One of the biggest self-inflicted wounds you can have comes from turnovers, which has been a struggle for the Tigers, as of late.

In the penultimate game of the regular-season, Mizzou turned the ball over 19 times against the Oklahoma, which led to 25 points for the Sooners. Then, in the finale against Arkansas, the Tigers had a pair of critical turnovers in consecutive possessions during overtime.

"I work my behind off every day and I'm going to continue to do that. I'm gonna watch as much film to prepare our team, meaning enough film on ourselves from practice to games, as if I'm playing against me. So, there's a lot of self-scouting that goes on, trying to get into the mind and ahead of the opponent of what they're thinking you're going to do or at least what weaknesses they see," Gates said. "From the mental and emotional part, I have to be the best I can be for my team to make sure we withstand different obstacles, we make sure that the right disposition is on the court at the right time, that you almost catch lightning in a bottle."

From a game-planning standpoint, the good news is that Mizzou's already faced both Kentucky and LSU in the regular-season. In fact, the Tigers found their first win in Rupp Arena in school history, this year, in a 73-68 win over the Wildcats. However, they followed that up with a disappointing 78-70 loss in Baton Rouge, just a week later.

"They're both physical teams. Like, we were playing Kentucky, it came down to the wire and we took the lead at the very end of the game. Then, LSU was a real physical game. I just remember coming off that game pretty sore, pretty beat up. So, just some physical teams and be ready for a fight," guard T.O. Barrett said.

You can watch the full press conference with Barrett in the video player below.

While Tiger hoops boasted a 15-3 mark at home in the 2025-26 campaign, the group also saw some struggled on the road, going 5-7 in away games and 0-1 in neutral site contests.

With March being all about neutral site games, that's something Mizzou will need to figure out quickly.

"We've had some good wins on the road, as well, that I'm proud of. It showed us who we could be consistently, as well as we had some home defeats that didn't get us too far down. So, I want our team that kind of stay in the middle to make sure we know what the reasons were and now we can talk about those reasons, execute those reasons. It's almost like getting an opportunity to take the test again, so to speak," Gates said. "That's what this SEC conference is about. There's not one team that you've beaten that can't beat you. There's not one team that you've lost to that you cannot beat. You got to do it. When a when a referee throws that ball up, you got to be prepared to be the most resilient team, the most connected team that you can be for that duration of 40 minutes. You got to get the scouting report from jump ball to the end of the game with consistency. Basketball is not meant to be played perfect, but you got to recover from the mistakes when they do show up."

Mizzou will take the court at Bridgestone Arena for SEC Tournament action at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.