Mizzou coaches, players talk NCAA Tournament matchup with Miami

Missouri men’s basketball will go for its second NCAA Tournament win during Dennis Gates’ tenure as head coach Friday night, and the Tigers get to play in front of a Show-Me State crowd at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Gates was available to the media Thursday alongside players Mark Mitchell and Trent Pierce at a formal press conference, and the rest of MU’s players also talked to the press in the team’s locker room ahead of its open practice.

Here’s what the Tigers had to say ahead of their

first round game against Miami.

Head coach Dennis Gates

On facing Miami in the first round: “Two programs similar in identity, great coaching staff at the University of Miami. Great players. Our guys are definitely excited. No different than our opponents will be excited. It is going to be a nip-tuck game, I truly believe, trying to figure out what that separation point will be will bring us there.”
On the connections between MU and Miami: “A lot of relationships. Obviously a former assistant coach former head coach Charlton Young. Marcus Allen, who was just diagnosed with cancer, on that team, but also the relationship of Mark Mitchell and Coach Lucas, who was on the staff at Duke when he was there. And Ant Robinson and Tre Donaldson, high school career crossed paths in the city of Tallahassee coached by the great Charlie Ward.”
On making the tournament despite the team’s slow start to the season: “There’s no school in this Tournament right now that has dealt with the cards we have been dealt with. So I am proud of my staff for how we have handled our team, because we went through a lot of injuries, and we had to put things back on the track so to speak to move forward. While other teams may have been in the stages of development because they had their core together since the beginning of November, we hadn’t had a core until January.”
On if he views the Miami game as a home game: “I don’t view anything as a home game because it is not at Mizzou Arena on Norm Stewart Court. I can’t project the ticket sales. We look at it as the NCAA Tournament. And NCAA Tournament is all about neutral sites.”
On if he talks to his team about the significance of the tournament: “We talk about it in June. We prepare for it. We build teams around it. It is part of our recruiting conversations. When you look at the big picture you talk about your seasons as it relates to the summer. Obviously preseason, leading into that month or two and a half before the games, and then regular season play.”
Continued: “And what those obstacles present and the identity of your team will change and you will see guys lead, you will see guys become vocal, you will see guys grow right before your eyes, but there’s no doubt we talk about the entire course of the season, and these guys have been in tournament play.”
On if he draws on his NCAA Tournament as a player at Cal when talking to his players now: “I don’t talk about my playing career. I talk about winning, and I talk about winning championships. I know how to win. That’s where I summarize it to. I am not standing on a soapbox talking about I had 30 this game and 15 this game. I don’t think I ever scored 30 anyway.”
Continued: “But I don’t talk about that, right? I don’t talk about that. I talk about winning. Winning behavior. And silently, I measure winning and losing behavior and eradicate certain things that need to go. I use it in my intuition. When I can foresee something coming, I use it in my adjustments that I have to make in game.”

Mark Mitchell

On how Mizzou reset after Braggin’ Rights in St. Louis to reach the tournament: “After we played here, we went home and we met as a team, we met with the coaching staff and psychologist, and really just kind of talked about what does it look like going into SEC play for us. I think that really helped us just kind of get things off our chest. And the frustration we had, and it really helped moving forward. That’s kind of why we are here where we are now.”
On his role within the team: “Just someone the guys can look to on and off the court as a leader with my experience. My abilities on the court, I think I just kind of fall into that role. I think I have done a pretty good job of being someone the guys can look up to whenever.”
On how the team can reset after three straight losses: “As Trent said (see below), just focus on the details. Can’t dwell too much in the past. Basketball is an up-and-down game. Sometimes it is not going to exactly go your way. It is game of margins, game of possessions. So just find ways we can close some of those possessions better, close some of the margins, I think we will be in a really good spot.

Trent Pierce

On his reaction to seeing Mizzou would play in St. Louis: “I see it as a game for us to redeem ourselves here.”
On how Mizzou reset after Braggin’ Rights in St. Louis to reach the tournament: “You can choose to go either one of two ways: Either go up or get down and sulk. We got back from Christmas break, took some time off away from each other and the coaches and everything. We reevaluated what we wanted in the season. We knew we were going to come out and attack the second part of the year and we did that.”
On how the team can reset after three straight losses: “Focusing on the details. We know the losses are other games, and focusing on other things, moving forward from them, not sulking in those losses, not allowing it to hold us back but pushing forward and forgetting about those.”

Anthony Robinson II

On playing against his high school teammate, Miami guard Tre Donaldson: “Oh man, it’s going to be kind of crazy. Us being from Tallahassee, many people from my area don’t see this, so us being on this stage is going to be awesome. But, you know, there’s going to be no love, it’s going to be like practice and we’re going to be going at each other.”
On seeing Mizzou would play in St. Louis: “I saw St. Louis [as a possible tournament location] and I was like, ‘Man, it might happen.’ And when I saw it happen, I was kind of shocked that we were playing in St. Louis. But it’s definitely going to be fun.”
On making his second March Madness appearance: “It’s fun; don’t take it for granted. Being able to see my family be at the game and be on a stage like this is incredible.”
On what he learned from playing in last year’s tournament: “Physicality is a little different in the tournament, and just knowing how to play, the speed of the game and just the jitters.”
On if last year’s tournament loss provides motivation: “We try to not think about last year; [it’s] a whole new team. But you definitely want to get back to winning in this and just show what we are capable of.”
On the feeling ahead of the game: “I feel like we belong here, and we have something to prove here. So it’s not our first go-around, and we have something to prove.”
On the team’s mentality: “Do what we do. We’re not trying to be overwhelmed with the stage. And being close to home, you just lean on each other and you’re gonna fight to the end.”
On Mark Mitchell: “As a person, he really doesn’t want all the spotlight and is low key guy. But he’s a great teammate and he always wants the best for us. As a player, we’re just going to play off of him. He’s playing out of his mind and we’re not gonna go away from it.”

Jayden Stone

On coach Gates: “He’s kind of like a father figure for me. I know the past couple of weeks, it’s been a little rocky between the both of us just understanding one another and trying to figure out ways to get the best out of each other. But he’s just so patient with me and always clued into how I’m thinking, how I’m feeling, and now I’ve made a mentor for life.”
On what the team has learned from its close losses heading into the postseason: “Obviously, any loss is always a lesson. We try to allow the wins to generate more of an influx of confidence, so we’re just always learning from it. We’re trying to reciprocate what we take away to the next game.”
On Mark Mitchell’s performance the last two weeks: “He has such a great deal of gravity out there. He’s one of the best players in the country; we all feel that way, I’m sure he feels that way. So yeah, just trying to find ways to get him the ball to an extent where he doesn’t have to force it, just kind of generate as many easy buckets for him as possible, because he has to work quite hard for his shot. He’s a great player, and [it’s] a testament to his hard work and the way he is as a player.”
On what people should know about Miami: “[They’re] kind of similar to the way we play: smash mouth, likes to dominate the paint, loves to get rebounds. So we’ve just got to kind of look in the mirror at ourselves and say who’s going to be the better man on the night?”

Trent Burns

On how Mizzou’s last three games helped prepare it for the tournament: “Oklahoma was obviously on that bubble, so we know what desperation’s going to look like in this tournament. We’re prepared; every day is do or die. So we got to see a bit of that desperation and what it’s going to look like game to game, so we’re prepared for it.”
On what needs to change for MU heading its matchup with Miami: “Take care of the ball down the stretch, make the right plays. We’ve been put in those situations, it’s kind of hard to replicate those in practice, but now that we’ve been through them we’ve learned from them, and we’re ready for them in March.”

T.O. Barrett

On how Mizzou can draw some of Miami’s attention off of Mark Mitchell: “Hitting shots, making the right plays. But ultimately, their attention will never be away from Mark Mitchell, man.”
On what he learned from playing in the tournament last year: “I always knew how serious the tournament was, but the energy that comes with playing in the tournament is much different. Everybody’s back is against the wall, so just knowing that everybody’s going to give you their best shot times 10.”
How his experience leading up to a tournament game has changed from last year to this year: “Just being ultra prepared, trying to be ready. I know I’m playing now; last year, I didn’t know if I was going into the game or not. So just being as prepared as I can, as possible, to help this team win.”
On what to expect from tomorrow’s matchup: “It’s going to be a physical game; it’s going to be a dogfight. Two teams that like to play in the paint.”

Assistant coach Kyle Smithpeters

On going up against a stylistically similar team in Miami: “You want to get any team out of rhythm, make them do things they’re not good at, make them do things they’re not used to doing. I think we have a great group of guys from a physical standpoint — length, size, athleticism — that have done that for a large part of the year. Now, we’ve got to be more consistent at it, as we’ve seen down the stretch. But that’s the whole great thing about the NCAA Tournament: hey, they’re 0-0, and so are we.”
On what he’s told Jayden Stone and Shawn Phillips Jr., who both made their first NCAA Tournament in their final years of eligibility: “We’ve got to make it seem like it’s a regular game; but as you can see, as we all see, that’s not going to happen. It’s the NCAA Tournament: you’ve got to embrace it, you’ve got to take it head on. You’ve got to understand, yeah, there’s absolutely a bunch on the line here.”
Continued: “But hey, man, go out there and have fun. Enjoy the moment, soak it all in and just play hard and have fun. That’s all you really can do to try to take some of this off because the anxiety of it, the anticipation of it, can wear you really, really thin. Because it is different no matter how you look at it.”
On T.O. Barrett and Trent Burns: “It’s just consistency: can you do it every single night? And that’s what our big preach has been to both of them is not just stay ready, but keep working on those little things. Worry about the right things and not worry about points. Guard, play defense, rebound, keep people in front of you. And if you can keep their minds thoughtless, thought free… I mean, hey, we were all 18 to 20 years old, man, what went through our minds at those ages was much different than when we were 20 [to] 22. So we’ve just got to try to keep the game simple for them and make sure they understand that anything they’re doing can be a very positive aspect for us.”
On Mark Mitchell’s past few games: “Anytime you see the ball go in the basket, your confidence level is going to go up. I’m just proud about the way Mark is doing it: he’s getting to the foul line, he’s getting to the basket, he’s hitting shots from the outside. You know, he’s doing it in various different ways; he’s still passing the ball. He’s probably one of the most versatile players there is in college basketball.”
On what he expects the environment to be like tomorrow: “We see Mizzou Arena left and right. I mean, I’m really hoping this turns into Mizzou Arena east over here…I know we’ve got a lot of Mizzou fans, got a lot of people coming in, and it means the world to our guys, it means the world to us. I think back to Mark [Mitchell] talking about Mizzou Arena being some of the loudest games he has been part of in everywhere he has been, and that just says a lot about how passionate the Mizzou fanbase is and how excited they are to get this thing rocking and rolling. We’re ready to have hopefully a great run and get this done, and move forward in the tournament.”