No. 21 Missouri & Oklahoma will rekindle 100-year-old rivalry Wednesday. Here are the keys
Mizzou men’s basketball suffered its first home loss of the season Saturday and looks to bounce back against a familiar foe.
The No. 21 Tigers (17-6, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) take the court against Oklahoma (16-7, 3-7) at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Mizzou Arena, reigniting a rivalry that dates back to both teams’ respective residencies in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
“The history part of Oklahoma versus Missouri starts back to the Missouri Valley Conference, the Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight, Big 12 and now the SEC,” coach Dennis Gates said, “and when you have that historic value in competition it brings excitement for the crowd. And I’m excited for our crowd to see this matchup again. We’re going to need them in this building.”
Missouri is entering the matchup with back-to-back losses in Week 14 against then-No. 4 Tennessee (85-81) on the road last Wednesday and then-No. 10 Texas A&M (67-64) at home.
“Respond — I think that’s one thing we always do, even in the losses,” graduate forward Jacob Crews said. “It’s like (a) combined seven-point loss against two of the top-10 teams. ... We had them on their toes. We had the lead.”
The Sooners hold a 115-97 all-time record over the Tigers, with the first meeting between the two teams resulting in a 50-20 MU win on Feb. 16, 1916, in Columbia.
Although Mizzou exited the Big 12 Conference to join the SEC on July 1, 2012, the rivalry between the Columbia squad and Oklahoma remained prevalent with the two teams facing off three times since.
The Sooners swept the Tigers in all three meetings: an 82-63 win in the second annual SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Dec. 5, 2014; a 77-66 victory in the consolation game of the Hall of Fame Classic on Nov. 26, 2019; and a 72-68 triumph in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 20, 2021.
The last time Missouri defeated Oklahoma came in the form of a 71-68 win in Big 12 play Feb. 6, 2012, at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Then-senior guard Marcus Denmon led the then-No. 4 Tigers in scoring with a game-high 25 points, shooting 9-for-16 from the field and 4-for-9 from 3-point range. The Hogan Prep product added a rebound and two steals to the effort.
Junior guard Steven Pledger posted the team-high 22 points for the Sooners to go with five rebounds, an assist and two steals in the loss.
This season, senior forward Jalen Moore and freshman guard Jerimiah Fears carry the bulk of Oklahoma’s offensive load, with the former averaging 17.7 points and the latter tallying 15.5 more per game.
“Oklahoma is a great team. They’re a great team.” Gates said. “They were undefeated in nonconference play, and every piece of the puzzle has been able to be a factor. It’s not just one person.”
Moore was named a top-10 candidate for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year award last Wednesday, while Fears has earned the SEC Freshman of the Week award twice (Dec. 2 and Dec. 23) this season.
“He’s supposed to be at Men’s Wearhouse, getting a tuxedo for his prom,” Gates said of Fears, who reclassified from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2024. “He’s a heck of a player, a future NBA player, and obviously one of the top guards in our conference.”
MU is predicted to beat the Sooners 80-73 with a 74% chance of victory, according to KenPom’s projections.
ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives the Tigers a 69.5% win probability.
Armon Gates, Dennis Gates’ younger brother, serves as an assistant coach on Oklahoma coach Porter Moser’s staff and is battling across the sidelines from his sibling for the first time since March 10, 2009.
Armon Gates, as an assistant at Kent State, helped coach the No. 6-seed Golden Flashes to a 64-61 win over 11th-seeded Northern Illinois, which had Dennis Gates on the coaching staff as an assistant, in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament in Cleveland.
“(Kent State) was running the conference in the MAC, and that was the last opportunity I had to be on the sidelines (against him),” Dennis Gates said. “My family, they’re excited about the game: my mom, dad, siblings, aunts, uncles, high school coach (and) AAU coach.”
The two also coached against each other earlier in the 2008-09 season, when Kent State survived the Huskies 86-83 in double overtime Feb. 10, 2009, in DeKalb, Illinois.
“But it’s about the players that play, though,” Dennis Gates said. “On the flip side of it, I’m excited to see my brother, I hadn’t seen him in a while. But our schedules are always like two ships passing in the night, right? And when I get the opportunity to see him, that’ll be great pregame, but it’s still competition, no different than sibling rivalries always are.”
Regarding the players that play for Missouri, Gates expressed his desire for sophomores Anthony Robinson II and Trent Pierce to play better.
Robinson has racked up two or more fouls over the past 13 contests, committing at least four fouls in six games in that stretch.
Pierce is shooting 10-for-31 from the field and 3-for-18 from deep in the past five games.
“For Ant (Robinson), its figuring out how he can stay aggressive offensively and defensively without getting in foul trouble,” Gates said. “Trent Pierce, the same thing, but more so how can he continue to spark us defensively, rebounding, getting deflections, but also not just making it about 3-point makes.
“They’re probably at their wall now, but not approaching it. They’re at the peak of it, climbing it and getting to the other side of it as sophomores. It’s just that sophomore situation that I think they’re in.”
Copyright 2025 Columbia Missourian
This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "No. 21 Missouri & Oklahoma will rekindle 100-year-old rivalry Wednesday. Here are the keys."