It would have been a good thing to keep the train rolling, but in at least a few small ways there’s a sense of relief that the season is over. At least for me.
It’s been a struggle.
Letting go of what I thought this team could be before the season started, and what that might look like was something I struggled with all season. What Missouri ended up being was a difficult thing to watch at times, and rarely were they enjoyable and fun. It was a deep contrast from the pace and movement they played with a year
ago.
Winning always makes things better. People always complained about how Tony Bennett’s Virginia teams played with their plodding pace and low score games, but he won. So it makes it better. The same with Ben McCollum and his Drake and Iowa teams. They’re slow, and boring, but they win.
In order to win this season, Dennis Gates smashed the brakes. The old way wasn’t effective, after a 20 point loss to Kansas, and a 43 point loss to Illinois, Gates and his staff knew they needed to change what they were doing if they were going to make a run at the NCAA Tournament. That change involved a hyper-focused offensive attack revolving around Mark Mitchell, and a pace that would keep games close allowing for the Tigers to make one or two plays… enough to capture a win.
That approach worked, mostly. Mizzou beat Florida and Kentucky to start SEC play. But then the guard play struggled some more, so Gates had to make another change. Elevating T.O. Barrett to the starting role, and relegating Anthony Robinson II to a reserve. That change netted them another momentum change, with it they got to 10 wins in conference play. Plus beating Vanderbilt and Tennessee netted them enough good will with the selection committee to nab a 10 seed.
But while making the NCAA Tournament each season remains something of a baseline for this program, it should stand as more of a building block going forward. The keys to going from a regular in the NCAA Tournament and a team that regularly wins games and makes it past the first weekend is another riddle for this staff to solve. This team was built to compete in March, and it fell well short of that goal.
There were mostly high hopes around the fanbase for the team this season, but outside expectations were far more tempered. Mizzou fell short of our expectations but they seemed to meet what those outside the fanbase, and Columbia media, thought this team could achieve. A lot of people pegged the Tigers as a tournament team at the start of the season, but few had them contending for an SEC Championship.
So what comes next?
A bit of a reckoning, if you ask me.
Beyond the roster changes we’re going to inevitably see, Gates has to ask himself if he’s building a program and roster that will compete for SEC Championships, and eventually National Championships. He’s stated that as his goal, and I think he’s got the coaching chops to get there, but he’s going to need to take another step forward to get there.
If you account for just the performance in SEC play, the Tigers were the 49th best offense, and the 49th best defense in the country through the end of the season. But after steadily improving the defense the last three seasons, the efficiency rating overall dropped from 68th last year to 80th this season.
We’ve seen Gates solve problems in the past.
In his first year he took the league a bit by storm with his wide open offense. The next season the league caught up, and the Tigers injuries left them well behind the rest of the pack. So Gates adjusted again. He made sure he built a team that would get to the free throw line a lot… and despite what last night felt like, the rebounding has improved each year.
But has it improved enough to get them beyond where they’ve been now 2 years in a row? A upper, but still middle, of the pack SEC team?
That type of finish is fine as a baseline. I think this season was a poor season, overall. I’m sure publicly Gates will tell you it was a good season, his team navigated challenges and still won 20 games and made the NCAA Tournament. If you haven’t figured this out by now, I’m not sure what I say next will have much effect, but what Dennis Gates says publicly is a version of coach speak most of us are accustomed to. What he does is far more telling for how he feels about this program.
What comes next is a rebuild
And how Gates rebuilds will tell you a lot about how he feels.
Missouri is losing Mark Mitchell, Jayden Stone, Jacob Crews, Shawn Phillips, and maybe Jevon Porter as well. All of those guys are gone, at least, due to eligibility expiration. And not to seem cruel, but as much as we cheer for anyone who dons the Missouri Basketball jersey, what Gates needs is to have a serious conversation with his staff about whether the rest of the roster is good enough to deliver what he wants.
If you want an SEC Championship or a Final Four, the Tigers haven’t been good enough rebounding the basketball or defensively to get there in any of the four years. He’s had two seasons of offense that was good enough, but if you want to be at THAT level you need to be top 20 in both, and the defense has been no where close.
So watch what they do.
For the first time since taking the job, Gates has had a General Manager for an entire offseason. Tim Fuller has been entrusted to do what this program hasn’t been able to do for most of the last three offseasons, and that’s be fully prepared for the market in the transfer portal.
You have an elite shot maker coming in with top 5 recruit Jason Crowe. The plan should be to build around him. He needs complementary talent around him. He needs a fellow guard who can be a consistent scorer and keep the defenses from focusing solely on stopping him. He needs wings who can bang in shots off kick outs. He needs some dynamic forwards who can rim run, and collect misses and dump offs for easy buckets. He needs teammates who will defend hard.
If you think there’s the framework of that currently on the roster, you bring those guys back.
Next season is a pivotal one for Gates. Not that he’s going to go into it on the hot seat. It’s not at that level at all. But there is a moderate level of grumbling over how the last two seasons have ended.
The truth is everyone loses at the end of the season. In the SEC 15 teams lose in the conference tournament, and in the NCAA Tournament 67 lose their last game. There’s something to be said for being one of those 67.
But after two years of getting there, can you do more?
Gates has three tournament trips in four seasons. That’s good for Missouri, after what we’ve dealt with as fans for the better part of the last 15 years. He should be commended for raising the expectations for the program to no longer be a forgotten team at the bottom of the league. But something tells me he’s as dissatisfied with this ending as we all are. There’s always another year, another game, another season. Next year starts now.
So Rest In Peace, Mizzou Basketball 2025-26. Our relationship was complicated. But I’m still hopeful for the future.
