Mizzou hoops to host Texas A&M Saturday after road split

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Mizzou men's basketball team will be back at home on Saturday to host Texas A&M after splitting a pair of games on the road. The Tigers upset No. 6 Tennessee as part of the away trip, but also took the biggest loss of the season on Tuesday at Auburn falling by more than 30 points.

"We didn't respond the right way without a doubt," said head coach Dennis Gates. "When I look at the debrief, it was a tale of two teams, we were two totally different teams and we did not take care of basketball. That offensive stat that stands out is not always shooting percentage, but it is positive assist to turnover ratio and we spent a lot of time on the defensive end and not being able to protect our basket."

With the team returning to Mizzou Arena for another tough conferences opponent on Saturday, Gates said the goal is to regroup from the loss, debrief and improve off of the mistakes.

"We have to regroup, lick our wounds and be prepared because no one is gonna have a pity party for us," Gates said. "Texas A&M doesn't care what happened.Their job is to come here and play their very best and try to get a win and my job is to get our team prepared as best as possible and recover from those mistakes, recover from a game like that and respond the proper way."

Texas A&M is second in the SEC with an 11-2 conference record, currently on a four game winning streak. Despite the record, the Aggies are not ranked, but Gates said he believes the Aggies are a Sweet 16 and beyond team.

"They should be in the top 20. I've never seen a team that's in second place not ranked and I'm confused at that," Gates said. "I encourage us to look deeply at how good Texas A&M is and give them proper respect because they're a good team and they beat some good teams at their home court. It's one of those games that is going to be scrappy, it may get ugly, it's going to be a lot of fouls, but hopefully it's in our favor."

Mizzou last played the Aggies on Jan. 11 in College Station losing 82-64. Guard Nick Honor said his team has grown a lot since that matchup over one month ago.

"I know they're the top of the league, but we feel like we're at that level as well," Honor said. "We have a lot more to prove, but throughout the year we've proved that we can bounce back and we can be a top team in the country."

Tipoff for Saturday's game at Mizzou Arena is set for 5 p.m.