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COLUMBIA, Mo. — We all wanted it to be a thing so badly.
The notion that Mizzou could hang with Kansas on the hardwood not even nine months after Cuonzo Martin was fired for an exhausting 12-win season was always far-fetched. But then several things happened that planted the seed—that ill-fated, false seed.
New head coach Dennis Gates installed a more exciting brand of basketball. His team didn’t lose to the UMKC equivalents that graced Missouri’s early non-conference schedule. The Tigers raced out to a 9-0 start. And even though we knew the strength of that schedule was lacking, it got our attention when respected rankings systems like KenPom projected a mere three-point loss to the Jayhawks while giving the Tigers a 40% chance to win the game.
We looked on nervously as Vegas followed suit, with most sportsbooks listing Missouri as a mere 3.5-point underdog heading into Saturday’s game at Mizzou Arena. Vegas didn’t build all those big shiny skyscrapers by getting these kinds of things drastically wrong, right? There were so many signs pointing toward the Tigers keeping things respectable against their most-hated rival.
Well, the game arrived and the Tigers did not. Despite the raucous fan support that saw a jam-packed student section bellowing its fiercest rendition of Mr. Brightside (ad-libs and all) a solid 90 minutes before the scheduled tip-off, Missouri fell woefully flat in the first Border War battle at Mizzou Arena since 2012. The Tigers fell 95-67 in a result that was only marginally better than last year’s beatdown in Lawrence.
After opening his postgame press conference by praising the sold-out crowd for its tremendous support, Dennis Gates tried to pinpoint some of the issues that led to his team’s uninspired performance.
“I thought Kansas did a great job of forcing us into ill-advised shots that we normally would not take in transition,” Gates said. “We usually would try to get to the foul line, get to the basket. But more importantly, I thought our missed shots led to us being discouraged.”
The shooting was indeed poor across the board for Missouri on Saturday as it shot 30% from three-point range, 40.4% from the field and 65.2% from the foul line. A frustrating number of bricks were laid by the Tigers from point-blank range, which likely contributes to Gates’ point about the team allowing their missed shots to discourage the group. But if missed shots caused the Tigers to lose confidence in themselves, one has to wonder about the mental impact of their non-existent defensive effort.
The Jayhawks missed their first two shot attempts of the game before seeing their next 11 field goal attempts fall through the net. Eleven! In a row! It’s almost incomprehensible to see that stat typed out, but it was hardly surprising if you watched each possession unfold.
At the postgame podium, the Kansas players spoke about their focus on spacing the floor and practicing patience to exploit the holes in the Mizzou defense. Well, it worked. The Jayhawks picked the Tigers apart, finding the open man for easy dunks, layups and several wiiiiiiide open three-point looks for freshman guard Gradey Dick.
Missouri’s aggressive switches defensively had led to troubles in closing out opposing three-point shooters with frequency across the Tigers’ first nine games, but against inferior competition, it didn’t ever really cost them. It did on Saturday.
So did the turnovers, which hadn’t really been an issue for Missouri prior to Saturday. In fact, the Tigers built their early-season reputation on playing a fast tempo that produced turnovers for their opponents, leading to fast-break opportunities. Against the more athletic and disciplined Jayhawks, however, Mizzou lost the turnover battle 21-14 and allowed 28 points off its own failure to protect the basketball.
“I’ve got to watch the film and challenge our guys in a way that is healthy,” Gates said. “We’ll have our debrief and I think our guys will be prepared to learn the lessons that this game will teach us.”
There hadn’t been a chance for the Missouri head coach to show it until Saturday, but Gates has a compelling way of convincing you that things are going to be okay. He kept his focus on the process of improving as a program in the “infant stages” of its rebuild.
“What I challenge my guys each and every day is how can we use every situation we encounter—good, bad, ugly—to continue to galvanize and get on the same page so that we can have, in April, the outcome that we want?” Gates said. “It’s the big picture. Not just in these small little spaces. But I’m not happy about the outcome. Our players aren’t happy. Our fans aren’t happy. But we have to learn from it. And we will.”
Gates’ desire to use a result like Saturday as a learning experience is to be expected. For better or worse, he won’t have to wait long to put his plans to fix things against elite competition into practice. The Tigers will have another challenge down in Florida when they face UCF next weekend. Then comes the Braggin’ Rights Game against Illinois, followed by opening SEC play against Kentucky and Arkansas.
Saturday was only the beginning of that gauntlet. And if the punch in the mouth happening when it did allows for Missouri to expedite this process for growth to lead to more respectable results against the talented teams upcoming, perhaps it minimizes the dread that accompanies this kind of loss to that kind of rival.
But for now, it pretty much just sucks.
“These guys are hurting right now,” Gates said. “I do know that. It’s not Noah’s fault. It’s not Nick Honor’s fault. It’s our team’s fault and it starts with myself. I have to continue to analyze, I have to continue to challenge, I have to continue to assess our program so that we can continue to head in the right direction.
“I’m excited about where we are. I’m not excited about today.”
Mizzou fans woke up Saturday excited about the day. They showed it in creating a palpable buzz around campus and in that arena leading up to the tip. But once the ball went into the air, it didn’t take long for the Tigers to reveal they weren’t quite ready for a moment of this magnitude.
