MBB Presser Notes: Auburn

What Dennis Gates told reporters ahead of Mizzou’s first SEC contest of the 2024-25 season.

Mizzou basketball’s SEC slate begins on Saturday. In other words, the gauntlet is upon them.

Not only do the Tigers open against No. 2 Auburn, but the rest of the SEC schedule will likely be more difficult than ever.

Ahead of Mizzou’s voyage down south, head coach Dennis Gates took questions from reporters. Here’s what he had to say.

Opening statement: “Definitely excited about our non-conference historic run in our SEC. It speaks volumes to the depth of our teams. Whenever you have a group of coaches and players go 185-23, it says something. Whenever you have in the AP polls, four of the top six being from our conference and five of the top 10 being from our conference, or even seven of the top 13 being from our conference, or 10 out of the top 25 being from our conference, it lets you know that we are a double-digit, bid league. What I do hope is that the committee is paying attention to that, because our records in-conference is not going to indicate, as we beat each other down, is not going to indicate how good our teams are.”

On being able to turn Auburn over (AU only average 8.8 turnovers per game): “That’s one of their strengths. They get shots before turnovers. The things that we can control, we’ll control. We don’t know when turnovers take place. We just got to put ourselves in the right positions to at least make it a little bit more difficult (for Auburn) at the end of the day.”

On his team’s ability to handle hostile road environments: “When you look at the Memphis game, that second half, the first half, I thought we did a good job. Second half, I thought we didn’t execute how we needed to execute. When it comes down to both games (Illinois as well), it gave us what we needed in terms of high level competition. Kansas game did that as well, and let’s leave no doubt about it: We had teams coming here on our court and putting us in in tough situations, and we saw certain guys stand up and step up to the plate and answer the call.”

On Johni Broome: “He’s a First Team All-American, I think potential Player of the Year player, a person that I thought has continued to move their program forward.”

“The one thing that I would say that stands out with Auburn and Broome, they’re not happy with how their season ended, and I want you to think about how Virginia bounced back when they lost to UMBC, I believe back in the year before they won the national title, Auburn has that taste in their mouth, and they’ve been playing that way. If you look at the disposition of their team, led by Broome, and he’s been playing a certain way, with a level of focus. And ultimately, when it comes down to the game plan, guys like that, he’s playing unselfish basketball. He could easily average 25 to 30 points a game if he wanted to. And I just think that speaks for the depth of the team, the level of unselfishness he has, but also the job coach (Bruce) Pearl has done with his program.”

On whether he prefers to play a similar or different style of basketball than his opponent: “It depends on a couple things. It depends on the whistle, first of all, the opportunities to get a higher field goal percentage, or even behind the arc, and those percentages allow you to play a little bit more free and obviously with pace. What I do know is they have depth, and we have depth, and what we don’t know is which players will be able to step up and answer the bell. I think they have one of the best benches in the country as well, and I think we do too. So it’s going to be a slug fest.

“I feel for the referees, because they’re going to they’re going to miss calls, and they’re going to make great calls. I just hope that those calls that sometimes are missed don’t hurt us as much, especially on the road. And I think ultimately, when you have a team like ours that’s getting to that foul line, that we can still manifest those free throw opportunities on the road.”

On beginning the SEC gauntlet: “Both teams are going to be excited. This is SEC play, the best conference in the country. I think you guys probably retweeted or read it. It’s funny, when you look at the rankings of all 360-plus (Division I) teams, and then the first 16 teams on the (toughest) strength of schedule is all SEC teams. That that is remarkable. So I think in this historic moment…I expect every road game to be sold out. I expect every home game to be sold out, because this is very historic of what’s going on. And if you are average fan, you’re gonna want, no matter what the adversity is, to get to the game, you gotta be able to get there, because the brand of basketball that’s happening in the SEC is remarkable.”

On how the non-conference schedule helped Mizzou: “Seeing who we are at the Memphis game, growing from that. Our guys so, so much wanted to get that back, and they were able to get it back in certain ways, the adversity we face down from at halftime to California, the adversity we faced in the history of our Kansas game, no one gave us an opportunity to win against the number one team in the country. I don’t care what’s going on now, they were the number one team in the country. And in addition to that, I thought we had several opportunities to win the game against Illinois, and the ball didn’t bounce our way regardless of what took place earlier in that moment. So we played against different styles, different coaches, and now, it’s just time to focus on the SEC, focus on recovering from game to game. There’s going to be situations where you get delays, you get frequencies of weather change that’s going to disrupt somebody’s travel. Now, it’s about the players getting back and getting rerouted, refocused, so that the games can take place, and no one’s worried about what happens before you get there. It’s about getting there and obviously giving your very best. So the schedule has definitely prepared us. It gave us an opportunity to figure ourselves out, have an identity, and I think in the summer, you guys didn’t know how it was all going to come together. And now, that picture is getting more and more clear. And we get to reset everything. No team has a record. We’re all 0-0 when it comes down to conference play. And may the best team win on that given night, and I hope we’re on the other side of that meeting the good side of it moving forward.”