After leading upset of KU basketball, Mizzou basketball guard named SEC Player of Week

Missouri guard Tamar Bates was named Southeastern Conference player of the week on Monday.

Bates had 15 points and three steals in the Tigers’ 98-93 victory over Cal on Dec. 3. The graduate guard followed that up with a historic performance in the Border War rivalry against No. 1 Kansas on Sunday.

The Kansas City product led the game in scoring with 29 points in 34 minutes of play. Bates scored 18 points in the first half, pacing the Tigers to a 39-25 halftime lead over the Jayhawks.

Bates also was named the March Madness National Player of the Week by Andy Katz and was honored by Dick Vitale, being named to his Weekly Stars team.

Missouri’s 76-67 victory over Kansas, its first win against the Jayhawks since 2012, ignited a court-storming celebration by Tiger fans. The SEC later fined Mizzou $250,000 for the incident, marking the school’s second offense. The first occurred in 2023 when fans stormed the football field after Harrison Mevis’ walk-off field goal secured a win over Kansas State.

Typically, fines for court-storming are paid to the opposing team. However, since this was a nonconference game, the fine will instead be directed to the SEC Post-Graduate Scholarship Fund.

Despite the victory, the Tigers were left out of the Associated Press Top 25 rankings released Monday. Missouri received 119 votes, the fourth highest among teams outside the rankings.

Copyright 2024 Columbia Missourian

This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 7:57 PM with the headline "After leading upset of KU basketball, Mizzou basketball guard named SEC Player of Week."