Said and unsaid: Dennis Gates’ Dec. 6 media day
Missouri coach Dennis Gates met with the media Friday ahead of Sunday’s Border War matchup with kansas.
Here are a few of the quotes I found most telling.
In his opening statement
What Gates said: “The Border War is not just a normal game, we never treat it that way. Our fan base is going to be excited. The history of the two programs back in the Big 8 days into the Big 12 days and even now as we represent the SEC, is still alive. Ultimately, when you look at former coaches, former players, former students, former employees, their memories of Mizzou basketball revolves around this game. That is understood. Our guys understand it from a historical perspective, our guys have been prepared to know what it means to our fanbase and also what it’s going to mean to them.”
What went unsaid: Hey look at that, Gates didn’t get talked into calling it the Border Showdown, that change just isn’t going to work.
This was something I’ve been pretty interested in the past couple of years. These schools went a long time without playing and sometimes that can lessen the impact of the matchup on new players. Outside of Tamar Bates, Mark Mitchell and Aidan Shaw, none of the current players really would have grown up with this game being all that important to them.
The point I’ve been wondering about becomes less of a factor as you get into Year 3 of the matchup being revived, the players who have been here have faced kansas again and understand it. But with a handful of transfers and guys who were in their key college basketball-watching ages in the 20-teens when this matchup wasn’t being played, do they get it?
Sounds like they do.
Also, this was literally the first thing Gates said. So he clearly wanted it to stand out.
When asked about the memories of coaches and students about this matchup
What Gates said: “I lean on Norm Stewart for my stories and we all know how Norm Stewart feels. I think when it comes down to the history of this program, you got to lean on guys like that who have seen it, who have built it. He has a statue and the court named after him. So out of respect for coach Stewart, I’m always going to lean on Coach Stewart because ultimately those are the shoulders I stand on. … But also I do talk to Mike Anderson, I talk to Kim Anderson, I talk to Frank Haith, I talk to Cuonzo Martin, I talk to every former coach who has coached here, including some of the assistants. That’s a great perspective to have.”
What went unsaid: So this kind of goes along with my first point, making sure Gates understood the importance of the rivalry as well. He’s talked about it the past couple of years before the games, but he’s a Chicago guy who played at Cal and has coached at a number of schools outside the states surrounding Missouri before joining the program.
Coaches understanding the importance of rivalries has always been interesting to me just because they’re in a different position than fans and players. Who knows if a coach is going to end up on the other side of a rivalry one day?
They’re much more transient, I guess. I don’t know if that’s exactly the word I want there, but I couldn’t think of a better one.
Most coaches don’t last long where they’re at, there are the obvious outliers with Stewart being one of them, but the majority are here and then they aren’t within a few years.
So how could they fully understand the magnitude of what games like this mean to fans who have followed the team for decades? Or students who grew up watching and now spend oodles of money to support the school they attend? It’s just different.
But talking to those who came before, those who helped make the rivalry into what it is, is probably the best way to get a full grasp of what the matchup means.
So good on Dennis for doing that work.
When asked about the importance of getting to the free-throw line
What Gates said: “We’ll see how the whistle is blown. Ultimately I’m going to demand consistency … The flow of the game, is it going to be consistent from the very beginning to the very end. Or will there be a change of how they allow us to play or not? I don’t know, but that’s the in-game adjustment.”
What went unsaid: OK, I added this one because Gates went off on a rant on this answer and when I move on, you’re going to see just how far it went all in one train of thought.
But here specifically let’s look at some stats.
Mizzou, shockingly after watching the past two seasons, is third in the country in free throw attempts with 31.6 per game. That’s behind only Rhode Island at 32.0 and Winthrop at 31.8.
That’s a product partially of playing undisciplined teams, that’s also why Rhode Island and Winthrop are that high. Bad teams give up more free throws, so when you consistently play bad opponents, you take more.
But the Tigers also got to the line 38 times against Cal, so they’ve shown they can do it against major-conference teams, too.
The other team in this matchup on the other hand, ranks 344th (out of 355) in the country at just 13.5 attempts per game.
I don’t know what’s led to that low amount, I haven’t watched any of kansas’ games this season yet. I’ll spend some time tomorrow watching game film to prepare for what I’m going to keep an eye on on Sunday.
So, just based on trends, Mizzou should shoot about 17 more free throws Sunday, I doubt that’s how it will play out, but I think that’s what Gates is looking for.
OK, let’s see where this answer goes.
Still when asked about the importance of getting to the free-throw line
What Gates said: “Just think about the SEC/ACC Challenge, our conference is in a new day of college basketball and I don’t think the respect is going to be there until you have four teams in the Final Four from the SEC. We have that potential in this conference, but each program, each coach, they coach a different style … We have 12 teams that I think can legitimately get into the NCAA Tournament, will they allow that to happen? Will they pick a 7-11 conference team? That’s what’s going to happen, you may have two teams 7-11 make it to the NCAA Tournament. Will the committee allow that to happen? Are they going to watch these games the way they need to watch them and select these teams? That’s what this conference provides, but also when it comes down to the results of the conference challenge, it was 14-2 I believe and Auburn should have definitely beat Duke. I think ultimately, Auburn is one of the top teams in the country, Alabama is one of the top teams in the country, we have Tennessee, one of the top teams in the country, so on, so forth. But there’s a lot of teams that are between 15-20 that could be ranked, that aren’t ranked. Are the voters the same as the committee? Why’s there a difference? It should be one poll. Just one poll for the whole year. Just give me one poll. Give me a real poll. Or is it opinion? I love the involvement, but how we get to that is sometimes opinionated and not everybody watch everybody’s game. And records do not indicate how good or how bad teams may be. At this phaze, teams are very good and we have a lot of great teams in our conference. There’s no doubt about it. This may be the first time you have every team go to a postseason tournament, hell, our last-place team might go to the NIT. That’s what I think about our conference. But again, we’ll see. We will see.”
What went unsaid: Not much. Just … alright.
I think Gates might be a little upset his team isn’t ranked.
Remember, that all came out of a question about getting to the free-throw line. I’ve mentioned before but Gates does this sometimes, he has something he wants to talk about and he WILL talk about it whether it’s asked or not.
I wanted to give you all a better glimpse into the press conferences because sometimes you get a rant like this out of nowhere.
That’s all I’ve got from this press conference.
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