17 year old linebacker at Homer
Walteze Champ 6’ 230lbs

I know it's early in Coach Gates' tenure, but I thought he had a fascinating way in dealing with questions that I didn't like from the media. I'm mainly interested in @GabeD's take on ranking the coaches who do the best job dealing with questions that they don't like from the media.

I thought Gates' method of saying he didn't understand a question, which in actuality I think he did, as a way to give that media member an opportunity to ask the question another way. That method gives him time to pause and answer in a way that is not too emotional. I know he interpreted one of the questions as saying that his players might have been uncoachable, though I don't think that was the intention of the media member's question. However, I liked that method rather than giving a regrettable response out of anger. I was curious on how others interpreted this.

That led me to ask how Gabe would rank past basketball and football coaches that he covered in terms of handling a press conference. I know Drinkwitz can be prickly when asked a question that he doesn't like, but curious about your take.

Summation:


I mean, anytime you lose to the imaginary clog-wearing birds to the west, it's bad. That goes without saying. But getting worked to nearly the tune of 30 while hearing that mindless bird-chant in our barn is particularly galling...always.

All of that said, the real story is this: Dennis Gates put together 10/13ths of a roster (well, 11/13ths if you count re-recruiting Shaw, as one should) in a couple of months. He has his team playing a fun style of ball to watch, and, as it appears with increasing likelihood, one players of note have fun playing. Today, not withstanding. And it was a good reminder that the level of competition the squad has faced to date is Glass Joe in the old "Mike Tyson Punch-Out" game (real ones know).

But make no mistake, there's still a loooooooong way to go in both talent acquisition and culture-building. Today showed that in stark relief. To reach anywhere near its maximum potential, Kobe Brown, for instance, cannot go for 4 points and 6 boards in 20 minutes. And writ large, it'd be great if the team collectively learned how to defend a simply middle ball screen and/or finding hot shooters in space. Because the defense we saw today was downright Kim Anderson-rific or Cuonzo Martin-tacular.

Still, there's much about which to be intrigued, if not downright excited, moving forward. My interest is piqued to see what Coach Gates (along with a heavy nod to assistant Coach CY) can put together on the recruiting trail.

Lastly, I thought coming into this season, given the wilderness in which the program has traveled over the past several seasons, a successful campaign might include things like being in contention for an NIT bid and/or finishing in at least the middle third of the conference. And those goals, while seemingly much more lofty and optimistic after today's bare-assed canoe-paddle spanking, are still on the table.

Today sucked. Here's to better days, kids.

Doing his thing. Only a state championship on the line

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He just hit the portal. Was a 4 star coming out of HS. And a local kid. Tavorus Jones and him would be a nice duo.

-Gates starts off talking about the time he came to Wichita State as an assistant at Nevada - he knew it would take a lot to win tonight. He said his team didn't an excellent job of executing the game plan.

-Gates said he was impressed by the amount of conversations and suggestions his players had during timeouts. "Sean East was a coach, Tre Gomillion was a coach."

-"Our guys did not panic."

-Gates said Kobe got out of rhythm dealing with Wichita State's double teams and getting into foul trouble. He went with the rotations that worked. "But Kobe became a staff member. He was in there talking right with them."

-Gates said Isiaih Mosley is working through some personal things and said he wants to give him his privacy. But said it's not a behavioral issue and noted Mosley was helping on the bench as well.

-Gates credits his assistants for making defensive adjustments down the stretch.

-"That game was a high-level game. This is the best game I've been a part of in a long time."

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11 seed same bracket as ku

After each victory this season, the team and all the staff have stayed to sing the alma mater with the remaining students (Antlers plus a few others) and the cheerleaders. The football team did this also--but not after wins.

Tonight, nothing changed for this team and staff. They stayed, facing the students with their arm around each other.

For many of you, this may fall into the category of Kim Anderson telling his players to sit up straight, but, to me at least, it symbolized the culture Coach Gates is building. After the end of the first half, they meet at center court together, arms around each other, before the go to the locker room. They do the same after the game and stay to sing--win or lose.

Serious question

Cuonzo didn't recruit well enough and he got fired for it. He underperformed and didn't win enough. I get it.

But some of you act like Mizzou hasn't won a game in 10 years and wasn't ranked in the top 10 just 2 years ago in 2020 and made the tournament.

Cuonzo didn't get the job done here, but the revisionist history that this team hasn't competed or been good since Frank Haith is wild to read.

Honestly curious to hear the reasons some of you completely neglect to mention the competitive teams in 2020 and 2017 and pretend we haven't won 20 games since 2012.

24 years ago we got the right guy. We were so convinced we had the wrong guy we fired him 8 years later.

Now he is one of the top 5 basketball coaches in the world.

I dont think Mizzou can be good at sports anymore. Even when we get the guy, we implode.

Julian Juju Lewis

kid just threw for 500+ yards 5TDs in the 7A State championship game.
His Team lost 70-35 to Mill Creek.
It was a ridiculous game. 4 TDs scored in 44 seconds in the 1st qtr.
Juju has 80+ FBS offers.
His coach was Trevor Lawerences HS coach. Juju is ridiculous. Mill Creeks Defense has 14 players with P5 offers including Caleb Downs committed to Bama.
There was a scout from every SEC school in attendence.

Gates is getting a lesson right now… he seems like the type that will understand that and learn from it going forward..
But the AD needs to be aware that while lessons are great and we need to have them from time to time . It is also something that we need to give. It is time for athletic programs to start giving some lessons… I think we are all tired of taking them.
2023 is going to be a year of expectations for the fan base.. Football and Basketball need to be better, competitive and relevant.. I don’t expect to win in low rents next year… but I don’t expect to get blown out either. Come 2025 … we need to bury ku at Faurot.
Our last decade spent being a pupil needs to come to an end. 2023 will be a very important year.

Not a fan. 26 minutes tonight and did nothing all evening. I don’t know what coach sees in his game but he should not have been out there tonight.

The closer this game got, the worse I felt. The more I looked at the nine teams Missouri had played before today, the worse I felt. I talked myself into a game that was going to be great because I wanted this game to be great. I wanted the next chapter in a rivalry that's given us so many memories.

It was never going to happen. Not yet. Missouri just isn't ready. Kansas is a legit top ten team. Missouri won 12 games last year and has 10 new players. Add to that that Missouri didn't play well and Kansas played its best game of the season (Bill Self's words, not mine) and you get 95-67.

Missouri couldn't shoot at all. The threes weren't close. The layups at least were close. Even the free throws weren't any good.

Missouri can't defend at all. If they steal the ball from the opponent before the opponent gets into its offense, it is good defensively. If it does not, it is bad. The warning signs had been there. Kansas has the guards to execute and they executed their asses off. And a team with a whole bunch of defensive flaws got exposed.

Today was a measuring stick. Not in that I thought it would prove Missouri was a top ten team. But if it could play well, if it could compete, if it could maybe pull off a miracle, maybe we could talk about a return to the tournament in year one. We can't talk about that right now. It doesn't mean we won't be able to talk about it later in the season, but it's not time yet.

I understand your frustration on the Isiaih Mosley situation. I'm frustrated too. I know it looks like we're not doing our jobs. We're trying. We don't have any idea if he's going to play on any given night any more than you do. And Dennis Gates isn't going to tell us. And so we show up every night and find out along with the rest of you. If it continues, I think Gates is going to have to give you guys a better answer than he has so far. Hopefully it doesn't continue. Gates insisted Mosley will contribute. Hopefully it's soon for everyone's sake.

Missouri shot 40%, Kansas shot 57. Missouri lost the turnover battle by 7. It lost the points off turnover battle by 13 and it lost fast break points by 15. Mizzou will have trouble beating average teams with numbers like that. Kansas is not an average team.

Tonight was rough. It was mostly rough because you hate that team so much and you wanted to beat them so badly. You convinced yourself it might happen because you wanted to believe it. I did too. The analogy I used on our postgame show was that you spent all year thinking you might get an X Box for Christmas and you got a pair of boxers. They might be nice boxers and it might be the best present your parents could afford and it's not their fault because they really want Christmas to be great for you. But boxers suck and you can't help being pissed off about getting them.

This team has UCF and three more top 15 teams in the next four games. Two wins in those games will be good. I know you want more. This program isn't quite ready to give you more. If they can go 2-2 over the next four, there's a lot to like and feel good about this year. They aren't there yet. It was our fault for letting ourselves believe they could get there this fast.

Tough day for everybody. On to the next.