Missouri stayed perfect at home, and took another step forward in their quest of erasing any memory of last season.
As Ole Miss worked to trim Missouri’s lead down in the second half, they were able to narrow things to a single possession just once when Sean Pedulla converted a layup to make the score 54-51. 15 seconds later Caleb Grill buried a three pointer to push the lead back to 6, within a few more minutes it was back to 9. By the time 5 minutes of game clock had passed the lead was 12.
Once Missouri answered Ole Miss’s 8-0 to start the game with a 12-0 run of their own, this never felt like a game the Rebels were going to win. They fought, they scrapped, they turned the Tigers over, but it was never going to be enough.
Dennis Gates, and his 22nd ranked Missouri Tigers were just too much, especially at home.
Even Chris Beard, widely regarded as one of the best coaches in college basketball, had to tip his cap to what Gates has done at MIzzou: “We all know about this team last year and all the adversity they had, they just kept fighting and scrapping. So, you know, the DNA is here now. He’s healthy. He’s got depth. He’s got some good players. There’s a reason they beat Kansas at home and there’s a reason they’re off to a great start in the SEC. So good game. Congratulations to coach Gates and Missouri, they played really well tonight.”
Last year Gates lost to Beard twice, once in pretty excruciating fashion. He dragged his short handed roster into Oxford and watched a 10 point second half lead evaporate to drop to 0-12 in the league.
But last year is not this year.
The DENNIS GATES REVENGE TOUR™ continues with an easy, breezy, top 25 win inside Mizzou Arena to move the Tigers to 3rd place in the league and 16-4 overall.
And Chris Beard is right, “[Missouri] is a good team. We’ll see how it plays out. I was interviewed a few times this week. I think this is one of the best teams in the country. It’s not coaching speak, It’s what I believe.”
We will see how this plays out, but the Tigers aren’t going away. They’re winning in-conference home games by an average of 12.5 points. Ole Miss kept it under 10, they’ve also beaten Alabama on the road. Vanderbilt kept it under 10, and they’ve beaten Tennessee and Kentucky at home.
The win propelled Missouri into the top 30 in KenPom, and likely boosted their NET ranking. The expected margin heading into the game was within a single possession per multiple outlets. KenPom -1, Torvik -3.6, Haslam -2.0, EvanMiya +0.3, Vegas -3.5. Beating the expected margin for the 6th time in 7 games signals the direction they’re going.
It’s obviously going to be difficult to keep this up. We’ve seen how quickly those fortunes turned at Texas on Tuesday.
They struggled to score the ball on the road, making just 4 three point shots. They only made 7 against Auburn. In the other SEC wins they made 12, 10, 11, 11, and 11. Regardless of win or loss, Missouri has also been averaging 19+ points at the free throw line so far in SEC games. Their free throw rate in conference play is 1st in conference, and… you might not believe this, their defensive rebound rate is also 1st.
The DENNIS GATES REVENGE TOUR™ involves keeping teams from collecting offensive rebounds, and getting easy points at the free throw line. If you do those two things, and just sprinkle in a few made threes it turns into a hard recipe to beat.
Back to the theme of “we’ll see how this plays out”, the next stretch of games will tell you a lot about the quality of this team. Mizzou is off for their mid-week game, but then they make the trek to Starkville to take on Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are 23rd in KenPom, and top 20 in the AP Poll. Then they turn around and fly to Knoxville to face top 10 Tennessee. Next up after the Vols are the Aggies of Texas A&M. 15th in KenPom and also top 20 in the AP Poll.
Game one is in the books, the Tigers beat Ole Miss. They held serve at home. For the Revenge Tour to keep going, a win in Starkville would be huge. Mizzou won their first trip there as an SEC team in 2013. Since then they’re 0-8 and have just one loss by less than double digits. No Revenge Tour is complete without a win in the state of Mississippi, right?
Other SEC Scores:
- (1) Auburn 53, (6) Tennessee 51
- (4) Alabama 80, LSU 73
- (5) Florida 89, Georgia 59
- Vanderbilt 74, (9) Kentucky 69
- Texas 70, (13) Texas A&M 69
- (14) Mississippi State 65, South Carolina 60 (OT)
- Oklahoma 65, Arkansas 62
SEC Standings:
- Auburn 6-0
- Alabama 6-1
- Missouri 5-2
- Florida 5-2
- Tennessee 4-3
- Texas A&M 4-3
- Mississippi State 4-3
- Ole Miss 4-3
- Vanderbilt 4-3
- Kentucky 3-3
- Texas 3-4
- Oklahoma 2-4
- Georgia 2-5
- LSU 1-5
- Arkansas 1-6
- South Carolina 0-7