Feb 19, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats and Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates embrace after the game at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Dennis Gates and the No. 15-ranked Missouri Tigers continued to roll through the Southeastern Conference Wednesday night, taking down No. 4-rated Alabama Crimson Tide.
The win puts Missouri just one game out from the No. 2 spot in the conference with the conference tournament just three weeks out.
It was a statement win for Missouri, and a disappointing second-straight loss for the Crimson Tide.
Below are full transcripts of what both Gates and Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game.
Opening Statement:
“Electric atmosphere. Two top-15 teams duking it out. I thought our players did a tremendous job preparing. I credit our staff, they continue to show up every day and do a great job, and our guys execute everything to the best of their ability. And when you have that seamless transition of information going from coaches to players onto the court, you know we’ve got future head coaches on the staff. I’m just being honest with you, and I’m proud of them.
I credit our crowd. It was electric inside of Mizzou Arena and our guys just continued to feed off of it as you can see the first couple minutes of the game. As well as the end of the game, I thought Jacob Crews did a tremendous job sparking us when Alabama cut it to six twice, and our defense was able to get through the test of time. And there was several loose balls we didn’t get, but I just focus on the on the ones that we did get. And our guys executed and played on self, especially these two [Caleb Gril and Mark Mitchell]”
On what the win says about Missouri as a team:
“Whenever you can score 110 points in a game, no overtime, it says we’re continuing to take the steps we need to take, one at a time. And I’m proud of the direction we’re going in as it relates to getting better. I still don’t think our team has played its very best, and they would say the same. But we’re going in a direction, steady, slowly, patiently, and we’re not we’re not leaving details behind and you can see our team growing.”
On why he told fans not to rush the court:
“We don’t need to be getting fines out there. But the safety, and I hope that becomes a normal thing. And when you are excited, which I credit our crowd for being, I just didn’t want us to rush the court and get a fine. That’s kind of how I see it. Ultimately, they showed up, and I thank our crowd, I wasn’t trying to take any fun away from them, but I hope they’re ready for next week as well. I kind of want them to keep that energy up and obviously continue to do the things that they do to impact the game.
On the defensive game plan:
“We we’re just gonna continue to do what we what we did. I credit Alabama, they did some great things and cut the league. They gave us their best punch. I just thought our guys were counter punchers. And we’re sort of in a defensive mode and was able to punch back and again. There were several plays that allowed us to respark or reignite our momentum. And these guys just continue to make plays on both ends of the court, and they played the game unselfishly.”
On how his team did in transition:
“Well, from a defensive standpoint, that’s what sets it up. We were forcing them into 11 first half turnovers, and then obviously in the second half we created some opportunities. The other thing is, we were able to get 21 points off turnovers and move the ball just because they scored, we knew this team was going to score. That’s what they do. They put the ball in the basket. What I’m unhappy about is the and-one fouls that we gave up in the paint, as well as the opportunities to execute within our defensive changes. I thought transition, they exploited us late in the game, but we settled back in and was able to get in a shell and get numerical advantages, five versus five, or five versus four.”
On an Indiana media personality criticizing Tamar Bates:
“I don’t approve of anyone directly attacking a great leader, a great young man, a dude who has never gotten in trouble. A guy that has done everything I have asked. I don’t know who he’s talking about. He may be confusing somebody for somebody else, but sometimes that happens, and what I’m proud of is you hadn’t seen Tamar Bates respond on social media one time, and he keeps his focus because he’s grown from his experience at Indiana. He never says, ‘I wish I never went to Indiana’ Tamar Bates says, thank you to Indiana. He has great friends. His daughter’s Godfather was his teammate [at Indiana]. So from the Indiana experience, we’re able to see this version of Tamar Bates, and I am absolutely proud of who he is as a man, what he stands for, his leadership qualities. I just want to sometimes make sure that our guys are told the thing they’re doing well, it’s not about those types of tweets.”
On Trent Pierce’s performance:
“He’s a very versatile defender. He has size for position. He spaces the court, he’s able to rebound, get some deflections. I’m proud of his growth and what he’s been able to do. He’s probably down on himself about going 1-for-5 from the free-throw line, but for the most part, he follows the game plan and does a tremendous job. Those assists, he had five assists, and that’s a very good job from a guy with that size, that skill, that ability. So I’m proud of his stat line, and I’m proud of the growth he’ll continue to make.”
On where Mark Mitchell has improved the most:
“Mark has gotten back to his old self. A versatile McDonald’s All-American, leader, unbelievable teammate. He’s gotten back to his old self, and he’s allowed me, and our staff, and his teammates to push him. Mark leans on other people first. He’s very unselfish, but he knows what his teammates demand from and he knows when his coaches demand from him. I’m going to continue to demand what I need to demand, so that he can continue to be the spark, and obviously the person that we need him to be. There’s no better, versatile player out there I would rather have than a Mark Mitchell. He shows that in a very unselfish way, and he takes what he wants, you know, in-between the lines. The one thing that people need to understand, he has a high, high basketball IQ. A very high basketball IQ. And when you have a high basketball IQ, and you can pour into other people, you’re never in a selfish spirit. You’re able to continue to give the right passes on time, advancing the ball. It never sticks until I tell him, go get a basket or his teammates demand on his specific play calls to go get one. That’s when you see him put his head down and make sure he’s able to execute.”
On the game staying on the SEC Network and not being moved to ESPN:
“I want to thank the SEC Network for keeping this game on the SEC Network and not putting it on the other networks. I think it’s good for our conference, as we’re the number one conference in the country. That was a great basketball game against two top 15 teams, whenever you have 100 and then 98, I credit Alabama and obviously the atmosphere. But, I do want to say that publicly about the SEC Network for keeping these unbelievable games on our network, because that’s what it’s about.”
Note: A small fire broke out in Mizzou Arena around the time of Oats’ presser. Fire alarms went off while he was making his opening statement, cutting his press conference short.
Opening statement:
“Obviously not one of our better defensive games. You’ve got to give them a bunch of credit, they came ready to go. They started out 12-zip, scored 18 before the first media timeout. Getting our guys ready to go is part of my job as head coach, and didn’t do a good job of it tonight. We didn’t start out the game well … I mean shoot, to give up 110 points. I think we gave them 1.39 today on our defensive end, that’s pretty elite offense.
We gave them 21 points off turnovers, they’re top five in the country in steal percentage. Give 12 steals, they scored off them. We didn’t do a great job preparing our guys for their pressure, and they do a good job. But you kind of look at some effort stuff. I mean, Caleb Grill hits an open 25 points, but he had 10 rebounds. Nobody had more rebounds than him on our team. (Mouhamed) Dioubate’s the only guy that had…I mean Dioubate had 10, nobody else had more than four. So for our entire front court, to have three and two Jarin (Stevenson) had four.
For their guard to out rebound us that bad, I just think they wanted this game a little bit more tonight, which is a little bit disappointing. We still had a lot riding on this game, we were still in full control of our own destiny with the league championship. Everyone out, we no longer are, and Missouri deserves a lot credit for it. So, they have a good team, they’ve been winning a lot of big games. They’re 17-1 I believe at home now. Crowd was into it. Obviously, we helped with that, giving up the 12-0 run, but they got the crowd into it. Even when we cut it to six, with about 10 to go there.”
After the fire alarm:
“They were on fire tonight, that’s for sure. We’ve known that for about two hours.”
Published 3 Minutes Ago|Modified 3:12 AM EST
