Mizzou turns the page from stunning loss to Jackson State
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou men's basketball team is focused on not letting one game define the season, after Jackson State stunned the Tigers with an upset at Mizzou Arena, on Sunday.
Head coach Dennis Gates said that, big picture, there are pockets of expereince in that game that you can pull from in the future. In the final minutes of that loss, MU allowed Jackson State to finish the game on an 8-1 run.
"The last two minutes gives us a real, live situation, whether it's NCAA Tournament play or even otherwise in this season, an opportunity to grow and learn. Whenever you go 1-4 from the free thrown line in the last minute, two turnovers in the last minute and obviously give up three field goals, you put yourself in a bad spot," Gates said. "We regroup and watched the film. Our guys, trust me, they felt bad about it, but the thing is resetting your emotional capacity, so you can move forward because the game comes quick, it comes fast and nobody is gonna have anything sad to say to you."
You can watch the full press conference with Coach Gates in the video player below.
Tiger forward Noah Carter said that immediately after that loss, in the locker room, the team talked about learning from the loss, but also knowing when to move on.
"It only really hurts you if you let that loss seep into the next game," he said. "Right in the locker room, after the game, we said 'we can't lose to Jackson State twice.' We just got to bounce back."
You can watch the full press conference with Carter in the video player below.
Gates said that all the problems he saw in that loss, on Sunday, are fixable. One big area he highlighted in his press conference was assists. The team ended up with 19 assists, but Gates said they should have been into the mid or upper 20s in that category. The 18 turnovers that MU had against the other Tigers nullified those offensive possessions.
The second year head coach also added that his team has to do a better job getting to the free throw line and drawing fouls.
"We got to do a better job of being stronger with the ball, not trying to make home run plays, but when we had those assists and we had 18 or 19 of them, we didn't hold onto the ball as much," he said.
Mizzou scheduled a much more difficult non-conference slate in year two under Coach Gates, as compared to year one. Despite being 3-2 to start the season, Gates said that those lessons in November will be something that can be carried into March and April.
"You can practice all you want, but if you don't have those situations show up in games, you may not be prepared in conference or in March or in a conference tournament or in an NCAA Tournament. You gotta be able to put yourself in those situations. Again, we identify styles of play in our scheduling that can pose a problem, but also prepare us for our conference," Gates said.
Up next - Mizzou will host South Carolina State at the Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 22. Tip off is at 6:00 p.m.
