Entering the month of March, Missouri basketball looked like a much different team. They had defeated South Carolina by 30 points on February 25, with star players Mark Mitchell, Caleb Grill and senior leader guard Tamar Bates motivated for the toughest stretch of the season.
Over the last three appearances, however, the performances have been uninspiring. The Tigers fell in back-to-back games to unranked Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, and put forth an embarrassing effort at Mizzou Arena against Kentucky on Saturday.
While the results have been less than ideal ahead of an excruciating SEC tournament this week, Missouri head coach Dennis Gates believes that “history” is on their side.
“If you look at the entire conference, you guys were shocked that we hadn’t had a three-game losing streak when everybody else in the conference has,” Gates said to the media after the Kentucky loss. “But other teams have had three, four games.. Hell, Texas A&M was on a four-game losing streak until they beat somebody, and they ended up beating the No. 1 team in the country to disregard a five-game losing streak in this conference. But they still remain top-25, right? Now think about that.. SEC teams going through three- to five-game, or three- to four-game losing streaks staying in the top-five, staying in the top-25. That’s unheard of. But what it says is, this is more difficult than anybody thinks.”
#Mizzou HC Dennis Gates on ending the regular-season on a three-game losing streak: “When you look at the history of the NCAA Tournament, some winners have finished right where we are.”
He says its speaks to the difficulty of the SEC that most others team have hit a three-game… pic.twitter.com/JxZMNQXoga
— Nathalie Jones (@NathalieABC17) March 8, 2025
Missouri basketball will return to form in SEC Tournament
It’s fair for Gates, as well as other SEC coaches, to feel a sense of a fresh start ahead of the conference tournament this week.
“When you look at the history of the NCAA Tournament, some winners have finished right where we are.”
That said, the Tigers have a very daunting road to the Big Dance. They will await the winner of LSU and Mississippi State in Round 2, where they will try to impress the committee.
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