Everything Dennis Gates, Chris Beard Said After Mizzou's Win Over Ole Miss

Transcripts from the press conferences of both head coaches after the Missouri Tigers moved past the Ole Miss Rebels.

Jan 25, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates calls a play during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The No. 22-ranked Missouri Tigers moved past No. 16 Ole Miss Saturday night, marking the fifth victory in the Southeastern Conference for Missouri and the third straight loss for Ole Miss.

Missouri head coach Dennis Gates and Ole Miss head coach both gave a press conference following the game, here's a full transcript of what they had to say.

Dennis Gates, Missouri

Opening Statement:

Coach [Chris] Beard is a great coach. And when you see a team with four straight ranked opponents on their schedule, they were able to defeat a good Alabama team at Alabama. But they lost two straight after that, we all saw the Texas A&M ending as well. Those things are tough. Obviously coming in here, we wanted to give our very best, obviously coming from the Texas Game. And I thought our guys did that. There were similarities with the defenses. That toughness, that he's [Beard] instilled n his program, you can see it. They are very, very good at defending the ball. I thought our guys were able to get into some creases, although we had a negative assisted turnover ratio. You have to understand the analytics of it. We were able to get a plus six marginal on offensive rebounds, with the extra possessions. So in my eyes, it was a 10 assist 10 turnover game because we had extra possessions. But these two [Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill], they carried us. They made big play after big play, and they were definitely doing the same in a huddle with their leadership. So I'm proud of these two

On what Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates bring to the team:

"Their maturation, their emotional, not intelligence, but their emotional literacy. I think these guys have gone through so many battles that you kind of take it for granted what they bring to the table. Look at the stress and how they handle it. Look at the situations and how they handle it. They handle themselves, and they lead in a way that I am very proud of. That's why they we're named captains. It was my expectation that they grew and they grew. It wasn't in between the lines that that I wanted to push, it was more so the part of being an extension of the coaching staff and an extension of me."

On celebrating legendary head coach Norm Stewart's birthday in the game:

"Norm's never satisfied when I talk to him, first of all. He'll say congratulations, but he'll, he'll pick me apart. Now I'm just telling you. So I like the constructive criticism and a relationship that we have where he's not afraid to hurt my feelings or tell me the truth. You need that. You need it. But when it comes down to what we're doing as a program, he is definitely proud of that. We get to play on Norm Stewart's court. We get to play in Missouri, where norm Stewart has a statue standing right out outside. I think when our fans think of Mizzou basketball, they think of the coaches that have come after himbut they think of Norm at the end of the day, and I'm proud to have that friendship with him. He and his family. The one thing that I would say is the tough plays that we were able to make, forget the scouting report or forget the stat sheet, these guys laid it on the line. And that's that's what Norm would be proud of the most, I believe."

On Trent Pierce being able to play well defensively in spite of struggling on offense;

"He just played through it. We don't want both sides of the basketball to impact the others. So offensively, if the ball's not falling, I don't want our guys to be impacted defensively and their energy should never dip in a negative. I want those guys to just get back to what our expectations are. And defensively, if they make a mistake, we want these guys to just focus on the other things on the other side of the basketball. The energy is in the ball. We have ball movement. Guys are unselfish. It just speaks volumes. If Tamar can sit here and say the plays wasn't drawn up for him and they were drawn up for someone else, and he ends up scoring the first basket, usually in those games, it just talks about the unselfishness that our team has. And more importantly how they are connected. It's very difficult sometimes to get guys on the same page, but when you have leadership, internally, meaning with the players in the locker room, when coaches aren't around and they are messaging directly how I would message, it makes it a lot easier, and we have to continue to play with each other."

On winning the rebound battle and what the difference was compared to prior games with rebounding:

"Our guys focusing on it. Sometimes when you do drills in practice, players can just go 50%, 25%. 30%, or sometimes you don't even want those drills focusing up in practice. I think our guys do a great job. Me and our staff do a great job of prescribing what we need to prescribe. And these players, no matter what drill it is, they're giving their very best, and they're doing it in a way that you can visibly see it. And ultimately, from the standpoint of having a Josh Gray, having a Mark Mitchell, having Trent Pierce, it rubs off on Tamar Bates, who was challenged this summer about his rebounding from me. And ultimately, we know what Caleb Grill does on the rebounds, and I think Ant Robinson took a piece of that and he had seven or eight defensive rebounds."

On scoring in transition and scoring 13 points off of turnovers:

" Just our guys being able to get up and down the court. I thought defensively, our rotations were tight. We didn't get out of the stance. Did we jump out of positioning sometimes? Yes. But our guys did not give up on each other and that's the most important part. They're connected in a way that you can see running lanes, securing the loose ball and being able to advance the basketball in transition."

On the response in the locker room after the loss to Texas:

"The locker room at Texas, I want to credit Peyton Marshall. Peyton Marshall had the loudest voice in that locker room and he was pretty much talking as if it was me. And I credit our team for listening and empowering that young man who sees the game the way that he sees it. He didn't play at all that game. But for him to have the prescription of what happened and how we can improve before I even got in there. And when I began to talk, he said, 'Coach, I already said what I have to say.' And these guys responded in a way and our practices after that resembled such. Our film sessions resembled such.

So when these guys get lost in the debrief, it's hard to watch yourself, but when these guys are sitting there getting lost in a debrief, in the locker room post game, then in film session, it makes it easy for a coach to come out with a game plan and understand that it'll get executed."

On balancing crashing the glass while also being prepared to drop into transition:

"You just got to pick your poison. I think our guys run routes that are very indicative of stopping the transition, but you got to get the ball first. That's what this league is about. So our staff does a good job. Kyle Smithpeters does a great job, he's in charge of rebounding. Ryan Sharbaugh is in charge of defense, and those two guys are doing a good job of pushing our team, making sure that they see clips and edits of ways we can get better offensively, rebounding the basketball and defensively.

So, we gave up 20 plus second-chance points last game, and we didn't want to that same thing to happen tonight. So being able to give up three, that lets you know our guys harp was in the right place."

On limiting the Ole Miss defense:

"A motion team needs activity to stop them. When I say activity, look at the hand placement, we tried to mirror the basketball no matter what pivots the opponent was using and that kind of gives us a couple seconds of recovery when there's five moving parts offensively and they're a motion team. So I thought our guys did a great job of taking away vision. We limited them to three 3-pointers in the first half. That's the vision we wanted to take away.

The other part of it was those late three pointers that they got, they earned them, and we couldn't do nothing about it. They made tough shots. But our guys being able to give deflections, being able to recover in that way, helps our defensive positioning, because ultimately, we have the length, we have the athleticism. Those are ways that it doesn't show up in the scouting report or in the stat sheet and I thought our guys was able to get their hands, or even put Ole Miss in a situation where they was apprehensive."

Chris Beard, Ole Miss

Jan 25, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Chris Beard talks with guard Sean Pedulla (3) during the first half against the Missouri Tigers at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

"We're aware of that. Missouri does a great job of putting pressure on the defense. Tonight, the free-throw line was their best friend, and again, they had two special performances with those two guys [Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill] shooting the ball like that. As the opponent, you're going to have something special going on to win the game.

I thought our guys fought. Basically played even in the second half. We did a pretty good job late. Just kind of playing it to the bone, giving us a chance. Won a few games like that over the years. We just kind of hang around. Had to use our time outs in the second half to kind of stop the bleeding so we didn't have any late.

But again, just congratulate to Missouri. Got to the free-throw line tonight. Had two special performances from two the best players in the league. We didn't get the free-throw line. And without Dre Davis tonight and without Matt Murrell being full speed, just too much to overcome."

On defending Grill and Bates:

"Now, first give the two players credit. They're really good players. I think, from our point of view, we did make some mistakes. We had a couple of hand down, man shots, you got to at least contest the shot, that's going to lower their percentages at least a little bit.

So I would hesitate from saying it was all our mistakes. I'm one of these guys that not going to sit up here and tell you about why we didn't win a game. We didn't win today because Missouri was the better team. They out-rebounded us. They got to the free-throw line significantly more than us, which is an indication that they were the more aggressive team. And again, two special performances by two the best players in the league."

On what changes when Dre Davis is unavailable:

"He's just one of our best players. He's a lot like y'all best players are for you guys here, somebody we really depend on, on the defensive end and the offensive end. So, he did everything he could this week to give himself a chance to play all the way down to trying to go through pre-game warm ups. He's just banged up right now, certainly not an excuse. Every team in the country is not full speed, but for us tonight, it's going to be a lot to overcome when again they get to the free throw line like they did, they have two special performances on offense. There was too much to overcome for us tonight.

I thought our guys did a good job hanging in there though, on a night where I don't think Missouri ever really separated on it still the end, we kept hanging around. There was some pivotal plays in the game, and got it down to four at one point, and then they went on a four or five-0 run. And I thought our guys did a good job playing it all the way to the bone, playing it all the way to the buzzer or horn or whatever it is. So again, congratulations Missouri today. I don't think there's a lot of teams in the league that will beat them on a night where they accomplished about four things on that stat sheet that were too hard for us to overcome

On having to get back on track after a third straight loss:

"This is the SEC. A two game winning streak, it's free breakfast burritos in the morning and people want to throw you a parade. A two game losing streak, you feel like the sun won't come up tomorrow. So, it's short term memory. It's just staying the course. Same thing we do after wins. We just get back to work. Right now, we're a little sly. We've played three the best teams in the country and so it's understandable in this league. So just gotta keep working. It's a long season. It's an 18-round fight. We gotta play better. And most important, we just gotta stay the course."

On how scoring performances like the ones from Grill and Bates impact an opponent's defense:

That puts a lot of pressure on us defensively, because the other three guys on the floor are good players, so it's not one of these deals where we can just talk about those two guys. Look Missouri has real SEC talent. They've got depth, appears to be, they've got a good chemistry. I know they got a great coach. You guys got a good home court advantage here. So when two of your best players go 10 points over their scoring average or more and the 3-point shot is like shooting on a Nerf goal when I was a kid on the back of my bedroom door. It's going to be hard. So what do you got to do on these nights, we've got to overcome it with something. We need to have a special performance. We need to get the free-throw line. We need to out rebound our opponent. We need to turn our opponent over 20, 22 times. I mean, something's got to happen in the game to overcome how well Missouri played tonight."

On Missouri's rebounding performance:

"I think you've got some some guards that are strong, physical offensive rebounders. I think it's set up nicer strategy. I think guys kind of know what shots going up is an advantage for the offensive rebounder. think they kind of do it by committee, If I'm not mistaken. They don't have a player averaging 12 rebounds a game, but they've got a lot of guys right around that over four rebounds. So they put a lot of pressure on you. They can play different ways. You're basically playing a power forward at the five spot, he's a special player. And then you've got two seven footers who can come in the game. And so this is a good team. We'll see how it plays out. I was interviewed a few times this week. I think this is one of the best teams in the country. It's not coaching speak, It's what I believe.

We all know about this team last year and all the adversity they had, they just kept fighting and scrapping. So, you know, the DNA is here now. He's healthy. He's got depth. He's got some good players. There's a reason they beat Kansas at home and there's a reason they're off to a great start in the SEC. So good game. Congratulations to coach Gates and Missouri, they played really well tonight.

I thought our guys scrapped and fought, it was a two-posession game late for a lot of the second half we just, we needed that burst and we never got it."