Everything Dennis Gates, Mark Pope Said After Mizzou's Loss to Kentucky

The No. 15-ranked Missouri Tigers couldn't end its home schedule with a win Saturday afternoon, falling to the No. 19-ranked Kentucky Wildcats in a 91-83 loss.

With the SEC and NCAA Tournament approaching, Missouri's seeding will be affected after losing four of its last five games of the regular season. Though Kentucky was more than worth competitor, it wasn't the ideal way for the Tigers to end Senior Day.

Below are full transcripts of what both Missouri coach Dennis Gates and Kentucky coach Mark Pope said after the game:

Dennis Gates

Opening statement:

“The consistency that they have shown throughout the year is the reason why we finished in this building, 18-2. That's the reason why we finished 18-2. Everybody, collectively, gave their very best. And when you can create a magical environment, it's because of our community, it's because of our institution, it's because of our tradition, and we want to continue to build on that. Obviously, the outcome of this game adds to the two. Obviously we wanted to do better. We didn't. I thought we had great opportunities. We cut the lead in that second half to about four or five. They cut it right back up to 10 with free throws, and those are things that we got to execute defensively, but also on the other end, we got to come away with another foul, or even execute on the line. And I don't think we did that to the best of our ability. There were open possessions; probably about 8.8 of their points specifically never got defended because of our mistakes and turnovers that made up some dunks, those are self and filthy wounds, obviously from the free-throw line. We fouled late, but you know, they still won that area, being able to go 26-for-33 on the line.”

What team has meant to him:

“I think you guys [have] seen clearly what they mean to me. You know, this doesn't happen if players don't believe in the vision of a head coach, staff doesn't believe in it. But I specifically wanted to talk to our players and tell them how proud I am of them and thank them and their families for believing in you know, just our vision, my vision as a head coach, and they've executed it ever since they moved on campus. The recruiting process is one thing, but when you allow, you know, barriers to be broken and trust to be built, that's what you saw take place. And obviously, you know, the job's not done yet. The next next stop is trying to compete for our SEC Tournament championship. To be able to win 10 games in this conference is a great accomplishment. I don't want to belittle that, but we still left a lot on the table where I thought, you know, you could have turned the corner and finished in a double bow or even competed for a championship. Things needed to happen that didn't. But I just wanted to talk to our guys, let them know how proud I am of them. This being the last time they're playing this court.”

Conversation with coach Leonard Hamilton:

“I talked to Coach Ham today, and basically he reminded me and said, we were joking, and we ended up getting on the topic of the Hall of Fame for him. He said, ‘Man, I hope Heaven is on the way into the Hall of Fame.’ That's how he approaches coaching. He tries to impact people, and he's done that for me, and leave no doubt about it, I want to impact my players no different than my high school coaches, AAU coaches, college coaches, have impacted my life. These guys mean a lot to me. I'm not afraid to tell them I love them. They're not afraid to tell me that back. I'm not afraid to put my arms around them, let them know I care, or put my arms around them and give them a headlock if they need that. But growth and development requires accountability, and these guys allow me to hold them accountable in every facet of the name of a head coach. I'll always be their head coach no matter what. They'll introduce me to their children one day as “this is coach Gates. They'll introduce me to their significant other one day and say, ‘this is coach Gates.’ And we'll be able to continue to share stories, but that the book isn't done yet for this season. We want to continue to make some great memories, and we will.”

Difference of defense in recent stretch :

“What are you seeing from the defense that you didn't see early in the year? I see a different foul count. That's what I see. How we won was on the foul line. The last three years of the SEC season, we were last place in drawing free throw fouls and shots. I did an entire research project on it. We were always, even in my first season here, at the bottom half of that. So when we looked at this season, when I looked at our players and I saw the physicality and their talent, I said, this is an area where this team will be able to improve. If we don't get to this foul line, execute at the foul line, we won't give ourselves a chance to win. If we are plus teams in free throw shooting against opponents, we will win games. Now that has turned around, and we see teams living at the free throw line a little bit more. I credit Kentucky, because I think at one point seven of their nine field goals or something, was from three at the beginning of the game. So they made some great shots. They executed. Our defense, we did a good job defensively, but just because of the foul count part, because we had to foul end of game, trying to figure out if there was no miss or not. That's why that number is so high. But we can't go 14-for-21. When you look at Oklahoma, they were number one in the conference and shooting free throw percentages. Obviously at Vanderbilt, they did a great job as well, and we didn't. Our game before that at Arkansas, it was 37-to-17. We're at a point of the season where mistakes have to be minimized, and the mistake of the points off turnovers.”

On uncontested points:

“Backcourt turnovers that led to uncontested layups. Whether we were running away from an outlet or trying to make a move. I thought certain situations, Caleb Grill, who was dribbling a defender, bumped him inadvertently facing the other way. That's an automatic foul. That's an automatic file that was not called, and that's okay. Things happen. Referees aren't 100% nor our coaches, nor our players, so those situations that I speak of led directly to layups. Those were points off turnovers. They had 10 in the first half. We gave them six uncontested in the first half, eight altogether for the game. The other part of it is, think of the situation where you have a foul. Sometimes those are turnovers. If you think of it just a foul uncontested, they score off the free-throw line. So those situations, early on in the game made it a little bit more difficult with their shooting percentage, the percentage that they had, and obviously our guys being able to fight back. I think they held the lead for 20 to 30 minutes, and all of it happened in the last 30 minutes of the game. The first 10 I thought we played well enough, but we didn't when we held them to seven points with 10 minutes. We wasn't shooting free throws, and I thought we got fouled in some situations that should have led us to double digit free throw count. Yeah, the ball is not going to always go in. But ultimately, I just thought our guys, you know, put themselves in a situation where, you know, the other team has executed more on the line.”

Defense against Kentucky’s attack:

“They had 10 offensive rebounds. We had 14. You know, that's a plus. I mean, four, but at second chance points we got 15. So it was a part of our offense. We held them to four points off second chance, which was great. But now you add the free throws and the fouls and different things like that, that's where we weren't able to, I guess, pursue the basketball. Just think about that stretch where we got deflections, we got loose balls. That ball rolled from half court all the way down. He saved it miraculously. As someone it had to go through two of our guys and sometimes the bounce of the ball, we just didn't execute. And I thought our crowd was behind us. We could have probably blown the roof off this place, if we had executed defensively and stayed out of rotation. But our guys, we won the second half, we lost the first half by too many, and those too many was points off turnovers.”

On Josh Gray’s performance:

“Well, when you see the difference of these games that we've played, you saw Josh Gray's presence early in the first five to 10 minutes with his defensive ability. It may not show up in the stat sheet, but it shows up in presence. Obviously, that gives us a bigger lineup with Mark Mitchell at the four versus a Trent Pierce. Trent Pierce has been playing good basketball. He just has to take the next step. And for he and Ant, again, I issued the challenge to those two early, probably about three weeks ago, and they responded. They played better. We played better. They're hitting that wall again, and we just need consistency out of those two guys. And when you see that we're a completely different team.”

On avoiding mental fatigue:

“No fatigue, no mental, emotional fatigue or anything like that. Our guys have done a great job. If you look at our minutes distribution, they've been below 30 minutes. And when you can do that with your depth, you obviously extend health. You extend the possibility of having mental or emotional fatigue that has not crept into our program. What I do see is that our guys, you know, instead of sort of targeting guys, we've been the target. Hell, I never thought we'd get the floor rushed on up, we got rushed on against Vanderbilt. You know, that's a change in the garden over here, and that shift emotionally and mentally inside of a season is a lot different than other teams have had to go. No one put us in a position, what were we in the preseason? Fourteen, 13? What we finish? Seven or eight on a tie breaker with three teams. No one, if we said that to you guys before the season, y'all would laugh at me, just like y'all laugh at me when I say we hadn't reached our peak yet. We hadn't, but I think our team has earned the respect from other programs and other fans and all college basketball that's what I look at, and respect has changed. So now our responsibility as a program has to change, our emotional capacity has to continue to grow, and that's where you look at those opportunities. And our guys have done a great job, man, I'm proud of them without a doubt."

On entering postseason with losing streak:

“If you look at the entire conference, you guys were shocked that we hadn't had a three-game losing streak when everybody else in the conference has. Alabama may be on their first three-game losing streak if they lose today, right? But other teams have had three, four games hell, Texas A&M was four-game losing streak until they beat somebody, and they ended up beating the number one team in the country. To disregard a five-game losing streak in this conference, but they still remain in the top 25 right now. Think about that. SEC teams going through three to five games or three to four game-losing streaks stay in the top five, staying in the top 25. That's unheard of. But what it says is this is more difficult than anybody thinks. We're asking our players to continue to perform. I just hope we hadn't, as a conference, bludgeoning each other too much where we can't compete in the NCAA. And when you look at the history of the NCAA Tournament, some winners have finished right where we are. Some have finished right where we are. So we're excited about SEC tournament. It's an opportunity for us to win a SEC tournament championship, and that's our approach."

On moment with Caleb Grill:

“That was emotional. I almost cried there too. He's done everything I've asked him to do, and when you have a kid do exactly what you ask, top to bottom. No matter what somebody or some writer has written about him, he has done everything I've asked him to do. Everything. He will go down as one of the change agents in Missouri basketball. He will have a pro career. And what I look at is, he’ll have a relationship with me for life. And I mean that. I love Caleb Grill, I love our entire team, but that man has defined some odds, and you guys don't even know half the story. That's the funny part. Y'all have no clue. You have no clue. I think he can write a book. I’m going to encourage him to write a book. So if somebody in here wants to write his book, I’m his agent and I will be taking phone calls shortly.”

On Tony Perkins’ status:

“He could have gone back in, but Marques Warrick was playing well. I didn't want to take Marques Warrick, to have 17 points in 14 minutes, I mean, he impacted the game. So at that point, I knew I was going to leave him in. It was great to see Tony walk. It was great to see him cheering for his teammates. I thought he did a good job throughout the game, impacting it how he did. But that was a freak accident. I thought he got tripped, but he didn't. But his knee gave out on him, so nothing has come of it.”

On Mark Mitchell holding him back from officials:

“They knew I was fighting for him. They didn't want me to get a tech. I wanted to get a tech. So, I had to listen to my players. They didn't want me to get a tech. They repeated and said, ‘Coach, don't get one, don't get one. We okay.’ So when you have your team do that, I thought I could have gotten a tech about three or four times. I tried, but I tried to do it respectfully. I even went out on a court, almost a half court, when the referee was about to report a foul, but I clicked. He looked at me. I looked at him. He picked his whistle up. I said, time out. So I think that was kind of combative. Combated it with a timeout. He forgave me. Nobody's 100%, I don't do 100% of things in life right as it relates to being a coach, but players cover up for me. Staff covers up for me. And referees aren't going to do 100%, they have a difficult job. This was the most difficult job throughout the season for our referees to try to get it right. And when you have the level of athletes, the level of players, the situations, sheesh, we got losing records that's going to the NCAA tournament. To the NCAA tournament. Losing records. When’s the last time that’s happened? How many this year we have, and how many other conferences have had in their history? That’s a project, somebody can write a good article. All the veterans in here, let the young guys write a good article. You guys don't steal glory on that. So somebody, one of the young guys, please write that article. That would be unbelievable information, because I do think it does about the history of SEC play and where we are currently. But I want to say thank you to all of you in this room. You guys have done a great job narrating the story of this season, and obviously respectfully pushing back last season and allowing these players an opportunity to make something right. And that's a part of it. You guys have went into the living rooms of a lot of fans from St. Louis, Kansas City, to the Bootheel, all the way up North. So I credit each and every last one of you guys for what you've been able to do. And God bless your careers. If there's anything I can do, don't hesitate. We'll have some things happen in the off season. We'll have a banquet on the Thursday or Friday after the Final Four. Hopefully we'll have a parade before that. But most importantly, you guys got to understand what you've been able to do. Ladies up top, you guys got to understand what you've been able to do in this business and with the growth of social media. You know, I don't read all your stories, but I do understand, because of your stories, is why this crowd is the way it is. They want to see what you write about, so thank you.”

Mark Pope

On first few minutes of the game:

“We were pretty rattled offensively, and it’s a credit to Missouri man. They don’t lose here. They have a terrific team. I’m maybe the world's number one Dennis Gates fan, I think he’s really special. And after what this group went through last year, for them to respond this year is pretty amazing. And they had us really uncomfortable on the offensive end to start the game, so I was really proud of our guys because we talked about in the timeout. I said, ‘Hey, it's okay, because our defense is going to keep us afloat.’ And for us to be able in that run, to just be able to trust our defense. Be like, know we don't feel great on the other side of the ball, we will eventually get there, but for these guys to step up and make tough physical plays on the defensive end to kind of keep us alive was incredibly encouraging.”

On defending Caleb Grill and Mark Mitchell:

"This Grill is, you know, I think he's a terrific player. He comes up and plays with so much energy. He cuts and runs so hard. He's so confident, so he was clearly, like everybody, he was a point of emphasis for us. And I thought between Otega (Oweh) and Collin Chandler, you know, both those guys worked so hard to kind of keep them just at six shots. Was a huge efforts, really, really important in this game."

On having a tight rotation:

“First half we were kind of managing foul issues, and so we got all the way through the rotation. We didn't have as many foul issues, and we had fresher guys. Lamont Butler didn’t play very much in the first half. So it's just kind of, there's so many variables and dynamics that go into it. I thought Colin gave, I thought the three freshmen were elite tonight. There were three or four possessions where, where, you know, we were getting late the shot clock, and they just stayed diligent and aggressive, like busting, trying to get downhill to two feet in the lane, and then finding the next guy and busted and get to two feet in the lane, and then with two seconds left on a shot clock, finally making a play. I was getting nervous. I was getting anxious. I'm like, guys the shot clock was running down. But they were, they were super poised. And the best thing was, if they were going to make a mistake, they were going to make our mistakes. I thought they were great. And in the second half, there was just a slow enough cadence to the game that we kind of got to keep it a little bit tighter. These guys are playing so good. I mean, Drew is like, you talk about a Herculean effort. I mean, he had 12 rebounds, and they were contested, violent, physical, like combative rebounds. And then Koby, you know, we were a mess in the first half. Offensively, we just couldn't find a feel except Koby is like, don't worry guys, I'm just gonna, I’m gonna just do my thing. And he did his thing. And so these guys are really special.”

On tying a program record of eight top 15 wins:

"It’s just insane. If you come to Kentucky and you can do something all time at the University of Kentucky? I mean, you think about the people who roll through and for this group now to hold that record is just insane. And then in the history of the game of college basketball, form to be tied, it’s a credit to these guys, man. It's a special group. And they've done it. It hasn't been an easy road, like we've been tested every way in health and rotation stuff and all this stuff has been a massive, massive challenge. And these guys just keep raising up to it. It’s been pretty fun.”

On winning 50/50 balls:

"Yeah, we had two of those. Otega was the lucky beneficiary. And I think Drew came up with a loose ball. Our guys were really good at 50/50 balls. I thought we were really good. We didn't win them all. And this Missouri team is like, that's their DNA. You know, the fact that we were at 10 turnovers tonight is, we came in here thinking, you know, if we can manage the turnover situation, we have a good chance to win. And our guys, we didn't feel great, we weren't flowing like we really struggled. We were a little discombobulated in the first half, and we still found a way to just stay alive protecting the ball. And part of protecting the ball is winning those 50/50 balls. I thought those were huge."

On Andrew Carr getting back from injury:

“I can't overstate how important it is. You think about what Drew did for us the first two months of the season, pre-injury, and then it got really complicated for us as we tried to deal with it during injury. And post injury, things are pretty good in our world right now. So he's a massively important part of this team, as every guy is. I mean, we're a community effort, and Drew has carried a huge load for us.”

On coaching staff:

“If I could just throw some love to our staff, our staff, man, these guys work really hard. We have an unbelievable staff. You know, tonight, coach Fox was the lead scout on the game tonight. And you know this, this gym is really special to him. I grew up, you know, the coach was my coach at University of Washington. Heard him talk about his dad all the time. Got to meet his dad, and then he actually had to bury his dad and came straight here the next day to play a game in 2014. He won that one, and he led our staff in doing a great job on the scout. glad we could get this win for coach, this a special place for him."