Are Missouri Tigers expecting to be ranked? Says coach Dennis Gates, ‘They don’t care’
Let’s take a look at Mi basketball’s 2024-25 resume so far.
The Tigers are 15-3 (4-1 Southeastern Conference), their best start since the program’s final season in the Big 12 (2011-12). They upset then-No. 1 Kansas at Mizzou Arena last month, and this past week they stunned No. 5 Florida in Gainesville.
Then, on Saturday, they picked up their fourth consecutive SEC victory, beating John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks 83-65. The Tigers trailed the Hogs for all of one minute of game time.
At 4-1 in the SEC for the first time in program history — one season removed from going winless in conference play — Missouri is tied with Alabama and Ole Miss, behind only Auburn, in the league standings.
All things considered, coach Dennis Gates’ squad may very well move into the Associated Press Top 25 when new rankings are released to start the week.
But the Tigers don’t care. Their sights are set beyond polls, toward performing when it counts in March. According to Gates, that’s been No. 1 in their minds since June.
“I talked about us being ranked by the end of December or January,” Gates said. “The guys immediately said, ‘We don’t need to be ranked, Coach …’
“They don’t care. Our goal, at the end of the day, is to be in San Antonio, Texas” — a reference to the site of this year’s Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
If the Tigers do crack the Top 25, it’ll mark their first national ranking since the end of the 2022-23 season, when their final ranking was No. 23. And this season’s hot start is all the more remarkable considering last year’s 8-24 campaign.
“I think it’s experience,” Gates said. “It’s a player-led program, our guys are executing to the best of our ability, our staff is doing an excellent job in scouting reports.
“I’m just thankful they’re allowing me to coach them, coach them hard, push them, and they’re pushing each other as well.”
As Gates wore a headset for his postgame interview on the SEC Network, his players gathered around him, facing the camera. Several made a “Shh” gesture.
Kansas City native Tamar Bates, who scored 15 points and — like teammate Caleb Grill, who scored 17 — surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career on Saturday, made clear the message the team was sending.
“We’re just not going to do too much talking,” Bates said. “We know what the media says about us around the country, all these TV channels or whatever, we’re not really talked about and we don’t really care. We just going to keep showing up, and doing what we do.
“Our message has been consistent in terms of us knowing what we have in that locker room and being confident in it,” Bates added. “Like I said, we’re not going to talk.”
Gates is adamant the Tigers have yet to reach their peak.
“This is a group that has not complained ever on any situation, whether it’s been 5 a.m. wake-up calls for conditioning, whether it’s been double-days for practices, whether we’ve down all defensive or offensive practices — these guys have not blinked a single time,” the coach said. “The amount of resilience that shows is ultimately a great sign that this team has even more room to grow.”
The Tigers’ next challenge arrives Tuesday in the form of an SEC road game against the Texas Longhorns — the programs’ first meeting since 2012. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. in Austin.
