What Dennis Gates and Caleb Grill told reporters ahead of Saturday’s game against the Razorbacks.
Entering Saturday, Mizzou and Arkansas men’s basketball are riding opposite trajectories.
The Tigers return home with tons of momentum, having upset No. 5 Florida in Gainesville on Tuesday. They sit at 14-3 overall and 3-1 in SEC play, putting themselves in position to not just make the NCAA Tournament, but to potentially earn a single-digit seed as well.
The Hogs, meanwhile, have been getting cooked in conference play. They’ve started 0-4 against SEC opponents for the first time since the 2009-10 season; while there’s still time to right the ship, John Calipari’s first season in Fayetteville is close to sinking before the calendar even turns to February.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup, head coach Dennis Gates and senior guard Caleb Grill took questions from the media. Here’s what they had to say:
Dennis Gates | Head coach
Opening statement: “We’re just going to continue to try to find weaknesses in our system and attempt to make sure that we remain consistent. I think last game, our ability to make free throws was a weakness for us, so those are things that we want to continue to concentrate on. Obviously, we lost raw numbers of rebounding by one, and we won the (rebounding) rate, and that’s important too, but that was the game that we lost, the rebounding in raw numbers, and I think that’s something that we got to get back to.”
On the importance of the Florida win for Mizzou’s NCAA Tournament resume: “I think the big picture is in our conference. You guys saw it when we began conference play, the strength of schedule, we had the top 16 spots, and our conference allows us to play games of this caliber, and you just want the opportunities to play well.”
On bouncing back from the Auburn loss: “I thought at Auburn, we didn’t play well, and we were able to, now against a great opponent on the road, get some consistency and play well, and I thought the two home games allowed us that rhythm. The big picture when it comes down to focusing, we try not to look too far behind and stay in the moment. And when it comes down to that game regulation, part of the excitement (is) you have to get back to square one. And we were able to do that and use our templates or practice plans and mentality after the Kansas game. And I thought our guys showed in practice and the focus that they had the ability to stay humble, so to speak. And we talked about it in our locker room after that game in Gainesville.”
On how adding size to the personnel has paid dividends: “I think when you look at the size, it has to be versatile. And I think we’ve addressed the versatility. The one thing I would say is the improvement of our players, right? The improvement of Ant(hony) Robinson, the improvement of Trent Pierce, the improvement of, you look at Aiden Shaw. Yes, he didn’t play, but he has been improving, and I look for him to make impacts, right? Josh Gray, his size. Peyton Marshall, his size. Those guys, Mark Mitchell, those guys do a great job.
But from from a top to bottom, pound-for-pound, I think our team has size at every position, and we got to continue to pursue the basketball offensively and defensively. This league is a very physical league, and you’re going to be in position to execute in different ways. You got to execute offensively, execute defensively, because there are some great players that make plays. And more specifically, we got to be able to get to the free throw line like we’ve been (doing), executing at that free throw line, being able to block out, rebound, and being able to hold Florida, who was the number one rebounding team in the country. We lost our raw numbers by one. I’ll say that again. But the rebound in rate we won, and that’s that’s important per possession.”
On the challenges Arkansas presents: “Every game is a challenge in this league, every single game. And to my knowledge, regardless of record, a top-25 team is coming in our building, and that’s who they are. I’m not looking at it any other way. Hadn’t looked at it any other way, but they are a great team coached by Hall of Fame coach who’s won national championships, who’s been in this position before, and he’s always responded in a way to get his team back to playing.”
On Annor Boateng’s recent lack of minutes: “Annor Boateng is a great player, and when you look at contributions, I wish our practices were televised. I wish certain things are televised. I think what you see is development. You look at the depth of our team, we have 18 kids, and we’re 18 strong, but think about T.O. Barrett’s performance in that situation, Annor’s going to have his day, because he comes in every day with a great attitude. He comes in focused on the scouting report and he focuses on unselfishness, and that’s just the character of that young man. So his talent is there. When you’re playing behind Caleb Grill, when you’re playing behind Tamar Bates, you cannot exchange in this league the amount of experience that those guys have. But it’s not a competition thing. He’s earning everything in the right way. It’s just a matter of his opportunity coming up.”
On the team’s elite endurance: “I just think these kids put so much time into basketball, especially starting in June. Every program in our conference does the same thing, and it’s a long season, and ultimately where we want to go, it began in June. It didn’t begin in November. So that’s what I mean when I speak about those terms. And ultimately, our guys continue to play through adversity, and that’s important.”
On similarities and differences between Arkansas and Kentucky when John Caliparin was the head coach: “Very similar to his (Kentucky) teams. I just think when you look at pound-for-pound players, they have some talented players, some great players, some great, great individual players. They’re a great team. When you look at rebounding, they have the size. I think this is one of his bigger teams that he’s had. When you look at the size down in the post, when you look at the individual play of guards, they have great guard play. They have wings with size, so it’s right there, and they’ve been in every game.
So for us. And like I said before, the selection committee is going to have a very difficult task, because you can’t go by AP rankings. You can’t go by anything. Will the best teams in college basketball get in the tournament and automatic bids, or the selection of bids? And I think the auto-bids take care of themselves, whether someone is a bid-stealer or no, I just think our records does not indicate how good the teams are in this conference and how good they will be come March. And I just hope that part is taken into consideration, because there’s no doubt in my mind, (Arkansas) is a top-25 team coming in.”
On preparing to face a coach with Calipari’s career resume: “I start with respect, and I watch all the games from their entire season. I’ve always respected our opponents, I’ve respected our conference, I’ve respected and I will continue to do that. So I start with respect, Hall of Fame coach. Look at (Calpari’s) resume. You look at his staff, great staff. You look at the players on the team, unbelievable talent on this team that he has that they’re bringing in here. So I start with that, and those are the things that are gradually improving through the year. I think sometimes development comes in different forms. And this team that he has, their development, they’re getting better, and they have been better. This is the top-25 team that’s coming in our gym. We’re going to need our fans to come and obviously support and make the environment as hostile as possible.”
On Trent Burns: “As you guys know, you’ve seen him in a boot, etc. The best part about anything, I don’t have to make a decision about that, whether it’s a call of a redshirt or anything like that. We don’t have to make those decisions right now. He’s out the boot, and that’s important, so he’s gradually improving. And there’s rules, regulations, when you look at medical situations, that will allow him — no different than last year — that will grant him an opportunity to still play in games. So to my knowledge, I’m still expecting him to return and help this team out from a vertical standpoint, because he is a great rim protector and we can use his IQ. But I don’t have to make that decision right now, and we’re going to continue to meet with the medical staff, we’re going to continue to monitor. But he’s in return-to-play mode right now. I don’t know if that’s going to take a week to three weeks to two weeks. We’ll have to figure it out, and it’ll be day-by-day from that point. But it’s great to see him out of the boot.”
Caleb Grill | Guard
On playing with instincts and playing “free”: “I think it’s important that we don’t play as robots. Like, for example, if you call play for a specific person, there might be breakdowns throughout the play where it creates an opportunity for somebody else. So just things like that on offense and defense, that’s the main thing is just playing the game how we know how to play the game. Just don’t play like robots. And I think we did a really good job of using our instincts on both ends of the floor, and that’s really what helped us get to a big lead and helped maintain that lead throughout the throughout the (Florida) game.”
On Mizzou achieving two wins over top-five teams: “I just think it shows how resilient we’ve been. You know, there’s a lot of last year that did not go the way we wanted to, and we wanted to make a statement this year. And I think we’ve done that so far. Now we just got to keep continuing to prove ourselves each game going forward, and play it one game at a time, and whoever’s next on our schedule, that’s who we got to focus for and do our best to beat them.”
On Arkansas: “They’re very talented team. I think they are very talented one through five. They have talented players off the bench. I think, you know, when you look at Arkansas and Coach Cal and all the players that he’s had throughout his past, and then Arkansas throughout their history, it’s a very good program. And, you know, obviously he’s a Hall of Fame head coach … I think they have NBA pros on their team, so we just got to become come out ready to play like we had the first four games in conference play.”
On rebounding: “(Kyle Smithpeters) has been wearing his Dennis Rodman shirt to get us to cut out every single day in practice. And I just think better effort in going to cut people out. I think that it’s been a real big emphasis throughout the last month leading into conference play, especially because we have some of the best rebounding teams in the country that are in our league. So for us to get better, that’s one thing that we really needed to focus on. I think as a collective, we’ve all been doing a really good job of buying into rebounding offensively and defensively, and it’s been helping us win games.”
On potentially achieving 1,000 career points (he’s at 992): “It’s just a stat at the end of the day. It’s just one thing maybe to be added for your career, but the end of the day, I’d rather be known for how many wins or how I affected a program that way, but just going to continue to do what I do. Bringing on defense, bring energy off the bench. I’m just going to continue to do that. And then if that milestone happens, great, but what I’m going to be focused on is doing what I can to provide energy on both ends of the floor for this game coming up.”
On if his toe was on the line on a late three-pointer against Florida: “I don’t know … In the moment, no, I had no idea, honestly. But I think they didn’t call it.”