Missouri Tigers basketball returns to AP Top 25; Wichita’s Grill is SEC Player of Week
The Missouri Tigers’ men’s basketball team has entered the weekly Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since the end of the 2022-23 college hoops season.
Cracking the rankings this week at No. 22, coach Dennis Gates’ Mizzou squad is 15-3 (4-1 Southeastern Conference) after beating the fifth-ranked Florida Gators and coach John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks this past week.
Earlier this season, MU beat then-No. 1-ranked Kansas in Columbia.
The Tigers are 4-1 in the SEC for the first time. Last season, they didn’t win a league game and went 8-24 overall.
This season? Gates has Missouri off to its best start since the program’s final year/season in the Big 12 (2011-12).
The Tigers are also ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll, checking in at No. 24.
Senior guard Tamar Bates, from Kansas City, said following the team’s win against Arkansas that he and his teammates weren’t concerned about being ranked.
“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’re 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.”
Gates said then that his hardworking players weren’t ones to complain.
“This is a group that has not complained ever on any situation,” he told the SEC Network in a postgame interview, “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 amount of resilience that shows is ultimately a great sign that this team has even more room to grow.”
This season’s Missouri team is led in scoring by another Kansas City native, junior guard/forward Mark Mitchell. He’s averaging 13.8 points per game.
Bates is close behind at 12.9 and grad-student guard Caleb Grill is averaging 12.5. Sophomore guard Anthony Robinson II is the Tigers’ fourth and final daily double-digit scorer to date, averaging 10.5 per game.
Grill, the sharpshooting Wichita native, was honored on Monday as the SEC’s Player of the Week. He averaged 19.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.5 assists in Missouri’s wins against Florida and Arkansas, shooting 66.7% from the field and 60% (9 of 15) from 3-point range.
MU plays another SEC game on the road against the Texans Longhorns on Tuesday evening in Austin. On Saturday, the Tigers play host to No. 21-ranked Ole Miss at Mizzou Arena.
MU women remain winless in SEC
The Missouri women’s team is not enjoying the same success as the men’s team this season, and coach Robin Pingeton’s Tigers lost 75-60 on Sunday at Auburn.
The Mizzou women’s squad has yet to win an SEC game this season. In fact, they’re on a conference-games losing streak that dates to last season. That skid stands at 18 games.
MU’s last SEC victory was more than a year ago: a 69-57 win over Georgia on Jan. 18, 2024.
This story was originally published January 20, 2025 at 12:15 PM.