How Mizzou hoops went from Illinois fiasco to atop SEC standings (four games in)
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mizzou recovered from 91-48 loss to Illinois and moved into a five-way tie atop SEC.
- Return of Jayden Stone and Trent Pierce supplied 40 combined points.
- Boot-camp practices and free-throw focus stabilized play and late-game execution.
Mere weeks ago, you may recall, the Mizzou men’s basketball team absorbed a hideous and downright foreboding loss in St. Louis.
The 91-48 shredding at the hands of Illinois was MU’s third loss in five games and second blowout defeat in a rivalry game. Just 15 days after an 80-60 loss to Kansas, the Illinois outcome made all the more suspect the 10 wins MU had amassed against an otherwise velvet-soft non-conference schedule.
After that game against the Illini, Mizzou’s Dennis Gates owned the loss in that vague sort of way coaches tend to do that kind of thing. But he also made it a point to say that “one game doesn’t define us” and smiled as he said, “I can’t wait to get healthy as a team” — referring in particular to the injured Jayden Stone and Trent Pierce.
Despite his apparent conviction, it was hard to appreciate what he was conveying. At least not from the outside looking in.
Then came a different sort of 12 days of Christmas, as administered by a Grinch in the form of Gates. In that span between games, Gates recently said, he was the biggest jerk “known to man” as he was grinding his team through practices.
And now, well, it turns out he might have been onto something when he fixed his gaze forward that night in St. Louis.
Mizzou on Wednesday at Mizzou Arena stiff-armed Auburn 84-74 for its third win in four Southeastern Conference outings ... putting the Tigers in a (quite early) five-way tie for first place in the league.
Albeit in the wake of a disappointing loss at Ole Miss, MU (13-4) extended a reset that began with an improbable 76-74 victory over then-No. 22 Florida in the SEC opener followed by an exhilarating late rally to win at Kentucky.
Call it coincidence, but Stone and Pierce were keys to the victory.
Or as Gates put it when asked about what he’d said after the Illinois game: “Well, look at the stat line, right?”
The duo combined for 40 points while Mark Mitchell poured in 20 (along with five assists and five rebounds) and T.O. Barrett pitched in a career-best 13.
Stone led MU with 22 points, a career-best against a high-major opponent, and six rebounds. He’s averaging 16.8 points in his four games back since he suffered a fractured hand that kept him out for seven games.
(Stone’s final points came on a breakaway dunk with 13 seconds left, apparently leading to some back and forth with Auburn players in the final seconds and compelling Gates to run right to Stone on the court after the buzzer to seemingly admonish him. That wasn’t all clear in the immediate aftermath, so Gates wasn’t asked about it postgame.)
Hitting five of seven 3-pointers, Pierce scored a career-high 18 points and is averaging 10.8 in those same four games since he returned from a lower-body injury that had kept him out through the entire non-conference schedule.
And safe to say Pierce, a 6-foot-10 junior, isn’t fully in game shape yet.
If he had his way, he might have played fewer than the 28 minutes he was in. At one point, he looked toward Gates wanting a break … and Gates intentionally looked away pretending not to see him.
More seriously, though, Gates repeatedly patted the arm of Pierce and said how proud he was of his growth over the last three years — physically, emotionally and mentally.
As for the team’s recent growth, I asked Gates how much of it has been about getting those players back and how much was the boot camp between the Illinois and Florida games.
The answer seemed to be both at once.
“Being able to have that break was a blessing in disguise,” he said.
Not only because of how he drove the team but also because it was more complete in practice itself with Stone — a graduate student in his first season at MU — and Pierce returning.
Those practices, Gates said, were the first times Stone and Pierce had even played together. And that apparently served a few purposes toward rebooting.
“We didn’t know who was practicing sometimes,” Gates said, “and that kind of hurt us.”
Mizzou still is missing senior forward Jevon Porter, who was averaging 17.5 minutes, 6.2 points and 4.0 rebounds before missing the last five games with a leg injury. His timetable for return is unclear but was not initially expected to be long term.
His absence leaves MU at what Gates considers 95%. Not quite full-strength, but close enough to whole to change the complexion of practices ... and improve enough to revitalize the season.
All of that enabled MU to withstand a late push from Auburn (10-7), which had averaged 94.3 points in SEC play and cut the lead from 13 to four with 1 minute 46 left.
Part of fending off Auburn was Mizzou making six out of seven free throws down the stretch, reversing at least for the time being a maddening trend: To that point, MU had made just 58 of 96 free throws in three-plus SEC games (15 of 24 earlier in this game) and was 335th in the nation in overall free-throw percentage (66.3) entering the game.
That issue had been a point of emphasis, still and again, after the Tigers made just 12 of 24 in a 76-69 loss at Mississippi. As Gates succinctly summed it up earlier this week, “They’re free throws. They’re free. So take advantage of them.”
Now they’re taking advantage of an opportunity that was hard to see coming.
As Gates opened up his postgame news conference, he underscored the night by saying “proud of our response.” He might have meant it in terms of the stretch run Wednesday. Or maybe in the sense of the Mississippi loss.
But no doubt it spoke for something else, too: an apt rejoinder to the plight MU seemed to be in only weeks ago.