Mizzou remains focused on ‘growth’ ahead of final regular season stretch
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
No. 14 Mizzou Men's Basketball has an opportunity to match program history in Nashville.
The Tigers (21-7) are hunting for their 11th SEC victory of the season at Vanderbilt (19-9) on Saturday, March 1, which would tie the program's highest conference win total in its SEC era. MU has posted 11 SEC wins in a single season twice (2022-23 & 2012-13).
The team's final three regular season games have plenty at stake. Mizzou is currently tied with Tennessee for the final double-bye in the SEC Tournament, and the Tigers are aiming to keep bolstering their NCAA Tournament resume with three more matchups against quad one teams.
However, MU's mindset has not changed since the offseason. Mizzou is keeping an emphasis on 'growth' to attempt to reach its peak performance ahead of the postseason.
"The thing that I always talk about is, and you guys know this, us peaking at the right time, and I still don't think our team has played their very best yet. That's one thing. The other part of how do you keep your team engaged is consistently putting an emphasis on growth, and that's where you've seen our team gradually grow. Our emphasis since June was to have a steady pace of growth day-in and day-out, being proud of our work after practice, staying in the moment, not looking too far ahead, not too far behind and our players, our staff has done that," Gates said. "Now, as we get into March, the crux of what we've all been preparing for since June, it's to make sure we're in a gradual progression of growth, and that's what I ask for most."
You can watch the full press conference with Coach Gates in the video player above.
Mizzou's high-caliber offense sits in the spotlight of the team's success this season. The Tigers own the No. 7-ranked scoring offense in the nation, posting 84.3 points per game. Gates' group is also a top-20 team in the country in bench points per game (36.32 PPG), field goal percentage (48.94%) and scoring margin (13).
MU's defense also deserves its due. Not only is the team close to cracking the top-50 of Ken Pom's defensive efficiency rating, Mizzou is also tied for fourth place in steals per game (10.0 SPG) and has the No. 16-best turnover margin (3.9) in all of NCAA Division-I basketball.
"I think our level of communication is great. We're good defenders when we conceal the possession with rebounding, so that's an area that we've been able to increase and get better at. The other thing is minimizing fouls. When you play great defense, and then, it ends in a foul, you're constantly putting your guys at a disadvantage. The clock goes back to 20, or whatever it's at, or they end up at the foul line, and we can't afford to be in those situations."
As the calendar prepares to flip to March, Mizzou's first game of a month defined by madness is a rematch with Vanderbilt. With a win on Saturday, the Tigers would sweep their season series with the Commodores, following their nine-point home win over Vanderbilt on Jan. 11. However, MU's next opponent has posted some quality wins since mid-January, including victories over Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Additionally, Vanderbilt has a 13-2 record on its home court, so the Tigers are ready to face the challenge of leaving that building with a win.
"Rule number one is taking care of the basketball. You can't win games on the road, not taking care of the basketball, and we got to do a better job of drawing fouls and not giving up foul shots. We have to keep that category as close as possible," Gates said. "They have great players. I think, when you look at Nickel, he went 7-for-10 from three-point range [on Wednesday], and they also have capable guys. Jason Edwards is an unbelievable college player who's averaging 17 [points per game], but they have experience, they have toughness, they have defensive prowess, they're very quick with their hands and Coach Byington has done a great job."
Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Memorial Gymnasium.
