— Man, was that fun! The first five minutes of the second half was about as good as it gets. The ball movement, passing up a good shot to get a better shot, the defense. Because let’s be honest: The halftime lead should’ve been much bigger than 10. To come out and stretch the lead to 18 (and get the crowd right back in it) was huge. You know you’re doing things right when you’re forcing your opponent to call timeout not 3:30 into the half.

—Timeouts! Love everything Gates is doing. Especially love how he manages the game. The timeout with 14 minutes left when up 15 (15!) was brilliant. It came a mere 1:20 after the TV timeout. But something didn’t feel right to him. Another timeout with 7:29 left, up 13. (13!) Yeah, the TV timeout was coming at the next whistle, but he wasn’t going to gamble on when that might come. And then Hodge hit a 3-pointer six seconds later. Too many coaches hang onto their timeouts like they’re precious metal so they have one or more to call when down 7 with 42 seconds left.

—The plays coming out of timeouts: more genius. Look no further than the 3-pointer drawn up for Hodge at the end of the first half, which stretched the lead to 10.

—It was just a week ago that some were saying it time to sit Gholston. And Hodge. And Honor. Too funny. I love the way Honor controls the tempo. (Remember when getting the ball across halfcourt was an adventure?) He understands the game situation and what Gates wants.

—Kobe was a beast, and when Kobe is a beast, this team goes to another level.

—Diarra needs to slowwwww down. Love his energy, but he was so excited he was borderline out of control. Gates saw it. Only played him six minutes. Bet he will use this one as a teaching moment.

—The best development of all is that this team can play better. There were a handful of sloppy passes in the second half when ISU was hanging around, including a couple of failed alley-oops . More teaching opportunities.

—That crowd! Repeating a comment from a couple of weeks ago, an environment like that has an impact on the home team, the opponent, the officials and recruits. What an atmosphere. Everyone even got the black & gold stripes right. Bravo!

Its just Purdue vs the field right?

I have a TAPS parking pass for all remaining games this season. Will sell together or by game. This is the parking garage across Stadium but it is a much flatter walk than coming up from Reactor. Email me an offer if interested.

Mbrock981@gmail.com

Very athletic…yikes Boilers look pretty good

I do some work for Every True Tiger Foundation in St. Louis. We are the St. Louis arm of ETTF. If you listened to Gabe’s interview with Nick you heard about the need for corporate sponsors, large donors and the monthly recurring smaller donors. We are looking for individuals who can donate 10K or more a year and corporate sponsors. We have already raised 1.4 million from St. Louis Mizzou fans since August. If anyone is interested or knows someone, please reach out to me at md1819@att.com. There are benefits like hosted tailgates, meet and greets with the coaches and a few other perks. Please do not derail the post because you hate NIL. The St. Louis group is not being paid and is doing work because we love of Mizzou and want our teams to succeed. We realize the current environment is not ideal, but we must play by it to be competitive. Thanks MIZ LOU

Are awesome. Encountered several over the years, including today. I can’t think of a nicer bunch. K state fans, on the other hand, are the biggest bunch of cry baby, vaulted vision of self fans there are. Just watching the gators get demolished and every shot at the crowd and they’re all crying like the refs are out to get them. Anyway, hoping the cyclones with the little 12!

First time watching his team play and i like their style of play. They do some full court pressing, aggressive trapping in the halfcourt and they get out and run on offense. Half court offense looks decent, doesn't have the shot makers though.

That was impressive. I'd still say the Illinois game is the best Missouri has played this year. But Saturday was close.

*For 28 minutes, the Tigers absolutely shredded one of the country's best defensive teams. They had 64 points and were shooting 60% from the floor with 11:58 to go. They were on pace for close to 90 at that point. The shots quit dropping and they let off the gas a little bit in the last 12 minutes, but those first 28 were about as good as it gets offensively...against a team that had only allowed 75 points once in regulation and came into the game as the No. 8 team in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency.

*The defense wasn't bad either. There was one lapse in the first half when the Tigers led 15-8. They gave up back to back wide open threes and you thought "Here comes another 88-84 game that's closer than it needs to be with four minutes to go." But it didn't happen. Iowa State shot just 44% for the game and made only six threes. The Cyclones are hardly one of America's best offensive team, but still. If Missouri holds the opponent to 61, Missouri is going to win virtually every time.

*It seems stupid to say that one guy can make everyone else shoot better, but when D'Moi Hodge makes his first three-pointer, Missouri seems to light the nets on fire. He's 11-21 from three in his last two games and has a shot at SEC player of the week honors. And holy hell he's got some of the quickest hands I've ever seen on defense.

*Kobe Brown was possessed today. He just played with a different energy. He was all over the place. Attacking on offense. Going after every rebound with abandon. I asked him if that kind of energy is sustainable for 40 minutes. He said it should be and that's how he needs to play all the time. He also said he thought he got a couple of rebounds because Iowa State simply assumed the ball was going in every time Missouri shot it.

*Dennis Gates handling of the roster continues to be masterful. Mo Diarra had been the breakout player the last few games. He played 5:38 today. But who cares? The guys Gates had in were rolling. Why mess with it? At halftime, DeAndre Gholston was having another of those "maybe you can't play him in the second half" days. He ended with 10 points and made a couple big plays in the second half.

*Ben Sternberg and Jackson Francois played. Against the team that leads the best conference in college basketball.

*Most times, I end this talking about what Missouri needs to do to make the NCAA Tournament. I'm done with that now. As I wrote, I now expect it. One of the biggest things the selection committee looks at is "Can you beat teams that are in the field?" Missouri's beaten four of them this season at a minimum (that doesn't include teams that might win some of these one-big league tournaments). All the Tigers have to do the rest of the way is beat the bad teams they play. They've got two games against LSU, one against South Carolina, one against Ole Miss. Win those four and either a road game at Georgia or a home game against either Mississippi State OR Texas A&M and they're going to be in. That's it. They don't need anymore upsets. They just have to win the games they're going to be heavily favored to win.

The fact that it's not even February and I'm guaranteeing you guys Missouri is going to be playing in mid-March is nuts. I thought the bubble was the ceiling for this team. I was very, very, very wrong. It's now the absolute floor. Dennis Gates should get votes for the SEC Coach of the Year. Mizzou basketball is back and it's in good hands (by the way, the guy that brought a top ten team into Mizzou Arena today was the last basketball coach Desiree Reed-Francois hired and that can't be a bad sign). It's a hell of a lot of fun. Enjoy it. I'm gonna spend the next 24 hours figuring out how the Chiefs can earn back naming rights for their stadium.



*

Hilarious visual

First, Dennis Gates is the man. My boy @coonja76 reached out to me last year while Cuonzo was still coach and told me about how impressed he was with Gates as a coach. However, I was super busy and blinded in my support for Coach Cuonzo that I didn't pay any attention to his post.

Bro, was spot on with his remarks on HCDG. DRF hit a homerun with this dude. He's very engaging, he's thoughtful, he's a player's coach, he can recruit, he's humble, he listens to his players and asst coaches, he's changed the culture of this program. He really gets the nuances of how to create a winning culture, which is in the small details.

This team is so fun to watch. I know you guys be riding my boy Gholston's ass, but that spin move was flat out ridiculous. He, just like the rest of his teammates all have shortcomings, but as a whole, it works. Mosley's defense has been much better than I thought it would and his iso play seems to be in the flow of the game. On one of his 3 pointers yesterday, the move he made was sick. He did a subtle crossover reverse jab that created 5 feet of space.

I really like this matchup with Iowa St and hope it can become another annual game. I think the SEC is good enough to where we can play a few more P5 non-conference games and the results not matter as much. Damn, this is fun...MIZ

Starting off rough for Auburn.

Did he not play any minutes or did I just miss seeing him in the game?

I wanted to share some stats/info that I've been keeping but was waiting for the right opportunity.
Needed a good sample of games to be played and was waiting on a good related comment from HCDG.

The comment from the post game (which Drew mentions in his write up) is that MIZ still gives up too many "runs" on defensive end, can play better, hasn't put together a full 40 minutes.

The sample size begins with Wichita St and goes thru Iowa St (14 games).

The stats. I keep a running total of points scored by MiZ and the opponents for each game broken down into 10, 4 minute segments. These segments, although not to the exact second, are the under 16, under 12, under 8 and under 4 minute TV timeouts. And then the last 4 minutes of each half. So 10 total segments. (It's the old basketball coach in me.) Based on the difference I give it a rating.

I use a counting system based off the following rating. (Full disclosure, I borrowed the word Ugly from @StuBlack).


Here is the info that goes what Coach Gates was referring to.


He is working on, and moving toward, the team understanding that if they do NOT give up runs (7 or more points in a 4 minute segment) they have a much better chance to win games against any opponent. Everyone will agree that this is just common sense. The hard part is getting your players to understand, in the heat of a game, that they need to be more aware of these runs. Decision making, shot selection, and team discipline. I think this is a key element to our season so far and moving forward. Thought it was interesting enough to share. MIZ!

Dari with a shout-out on the unis, loved them and throwback to the Norm days. Pat Bradley said I played against those teams, they were tough. "They wanted to fight you then go play a game" hahah love it

SOLD

-I have no idea why Iowa State stuck with that 1-3-1 zone for as long as it did but Mizzou exposed it over and over and over and over and over again. They stretched the Cyclones out and swung the ball till someone was inevitably open. And then they hit their shots. Mizzou being a top-10 offense in the country is not a fluke.

-Dre Gholston was a lot better in the second half than he was the first. And I think what's important about it is he didn't really change the way he was playing. He kind of just stuck with it -- shooting open 3s, pump-faking when the defender closed out, driving to the lane and figuring out what to do once he got there. Perseverance paid off.

-The defense slacked off a little once Mizzou got a big lead and wasn't nearly as good as it was in the first. It helped that Iowa State is a slow-paced team and isn't well-equipped to make comebacks in a hurry. But Mizzou might not get away with that type of effort against other teams.

-Mo Diarra didn't play in the second half, not sure why. My best guess is Gates liked how the small lineups were playing.

-As @GabeD likes to say, D'Moi Hodge has no conscience. I definitely think part of that shooting slump had to do with his mentality -- like he was thinking too much about his shots going in. He's playing free now, which is when he's at his most dangerous.

-I'm very disappointed Aidan Shaw couldn't get a good pass on either of the lobs they tossed to him. My enjoyment of the game goes up by 84% when he crams one down.

-This was the Tigers' most impressive win of the season. I think they're essentially a lock for the tourney at this point. I mean, they've got four wins over ranked teams, three of them by a double-digit margin. I think the ceiling at this point is a 4 seed, but that would require beating Tennessee and/or Auburn on the road -- not impossible but really hard to do. More realistically, they end up as a 5 or 6 if they win the games they're supposed to. Even if they go 4-6 the rest of the way, I don't see them missing out.

Thank you for firing the abomination that was Cuonzo ball. She’s looking to be one hell of a hire.

@bgramfan1 was closest with a 79-65 pick. DM me your address I’ll send you your Billiards card

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