Everything Dennis Gates, Mizzou Players Said After SEC Tournament Loss to Florida

The Missouri Tigers trip in the Southeastern Conference Tournament came to an end Friday night, suffering a 95-81 loss at the hands of the No. 2-seeded Florida Gators.

Florida jumped out to a 15-2 lead in the first four minutes, and despite some late attempts, Missouri was never able to close the gap.

The Tigers now look toward Selection Sunday to find out where they'll be headed for their first matchup of the NCAA Tournament.

Missouri head coach Dennis Gates, along with guards Tamar Bates and Anthony Robinson II spoke to the media following the loss to Florida. Below is a full transcript of what they had to say.

Opening Statement:

"Great atmosphere, SEC tournament. Played a great basketball team in the University of Florida. They are a one seed in my eyes, and they obviously played like it.

We've learned a lot throughout our 33 games that got us here, but I'll say this, we've had 18 quad-one games, out of the 33 and that's fourth most in the nation. And that is a stat that I think is indicative, and is something that we all have to keep in context. Seven quad-one wins. Each win was very difficult. Each win taught us something about ourselves, and I believe the No. 1 team in the country, Duke, I think we're tied with them. Is that right (a team spokesperson confirms to Gates) Yea, we're tied with Duke with the number of quad-one wins this year.*

This is incorrect. Missouri's seven quad 1 wins are tied for the ninth-highest in the country.

We finished sixth obviously in the conference, and that's an accomplishment for us. We still left opportunities out there to finish higher. We're only one of two schools nationally with three top-five wins. If we would have gotten one tonight, I thought that would have put us in a great position. But I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of our program, and we'll debrief how we need to debrief."

On adjusting to Florida’s Walter Clayton after his strong first half:

BATES: I think we just did a better job of executing the game plan, making him see more bodies, contesting more of his passes. So he wasn't able to just easily hit the short roll when there was a pick and roll. And then when he got off of it, whoever was guarding him did a good job of denying him and making sure he didn't get the ball back. And he didn't play for a little bit in the second half. I think he cramped up or whatever. But for the time that he was in that second half, we did a better job of executing the defensive game plan on him.

ROBINSON: He was cramping a little bit. But I think we focused on coach's game plan more and made it a little bit more difficult on him with ball pressure and things of that nature. So, yeah, we just executed coach's game plan.

On Missouri grabbing 18 offensive rebounds and scoring 20 second chance points:

BATES: That definitely helped us stay in the game and close the gap because most of them resulted in either free throws or a quick stick back layup. So, I mean, getting offensive rebounds is something that we emphasize. We emphasized it all season. So, I mean, we were able to execute that tonight. And it's just about a willingness to crash the offensive glass. And when we do, most of the time, we get double digit offensive rebounds, and it goes in our favor.

Having to play without forward Mark Mitchell:

Robinson: It was tough not having our leading scorer out there. But you know we're 18 strong and this next person up. So we believe in each other. We want everyone to be successful on our team. And our connectivity off the court is what believes in 18-strong game. We want everyone to be successful on our team.

On Florida limiting Missouri’s 3-point shooting game:

BATES: I could tell just from how they were playing us and guarding shooters, whether it was a ball screen or in transition, they were okay with us playing one-on-one, or more so, two-on-two. Like, if it was a big guarding and they were just hugged up on all the shooters, and like close enough to touch to where whether if we relocated or not, they just weren't gonna leave whether it was (Caleb) Grill, (Jacob) Crews, myself, (Tony) Perkins, Ant(hony), I mean, they just their game plan was just to play one-on-one, two-o- two, and not leave shooters because we did shoot the ball really well against them the first time around.

On how the season prepared them for the NCAA Tournament:

ROBINSON: With our schedule, we played a lot of great teams in this conference. I believe it, prepared us for this next season we have. And we're just going to follow what coaches have to say and game plan and go forward with that.

All of the remaining questions were directed to Gates

How Florida has played different since Missouri’s first matchup with the Gators:

I'm not gonna give that gameplan out because the next game, in my eyes, I wanna see the SEC successful in the NCAA tournament. So I'm not gonna give what I think of any team in this conference away to somebody else.

But I would say this, respectfully, that's a great question. It's a great question. I really mean that. That's a great question. I'm not trying to be rude to you, but I do like to respect our opponents, especially when I know that somebody will be preparing for them outside of this conference, and they'll listen to press conferences.

What I would say is they shot the heck out the basketball.They were shooting 80% for a long period of time, and it seemed like they wouldn't miss. There was no mistakes that they made. They are balanced. They can play in different styles. You have an All-conference First-team point guard, who should be a first-round draft pick (Clayton), who should also be mentioned as a National Player of the Year candidate because, ultimately the University of Florida is a title contender. I'll say that again. The University of Florida is a title contender. They're the only team in this historic conference who did not have a losing streak. 15 out of 16 teams had a losing streak. The University of Florida is the only team in this conference that did not experience a losing streak.

That's a sign of a team that can play in April, and only four of them can play in April. But that is a team that can play in San Antonio.

On how Florida’s rotations have changed since first playing the Gators:

That's a good question. They're playing different. They've gotten better, but they were a great team when we played them at the beginning of January. They were a great team when we went into Florida in Gainesville and beat them.

Now the big thing, the big picture is they still have their rotation. And like you mentioned, you have those intangibles. You got No. 7 (Urban Klazvar) stepping up, playing a little bit more. You have guys settling into their roles, and you got Micah (Handlogten) back.

Micah is a first-round draft pick. He is a very good player. And for a kid to have sustained that injury, he decided not to redshirt because he knew he was ready. The staff and doctors, I'm sure knew he was ready. And they were obviously saying something in practice to know that he would come back and have the impact that he has. He is very, very tall and very, very mobile and very, very athletic. And he has a knack for the ball, you look at his analytics, offensive rebounding, he is one of the best in the country, and he was that way last year. And he was that way at Marshall, as well. His dad's a former NBA player, and that kid will have a bright future, in my eyes.

But you look at their balance, man. Their balance is tremendous.

On winning on the offensive glass:

I'll credit my players on this now. Our guys pursued the basketball. They did a great job pursuing the basketball. I thought we settled into the minimization of shooting 3s, and we attacked the pain, so we collapsed their defensive shell a little. But it was just players making plays and the ball sometimes bounces a certain way, and we were in the right spots.

I wish we could've executed a little bit more on those offensive rebounds, but we were plus nine and we were only, plus five points. So if you're plus nine in offensive rebounds and only plus five points, they still defended our attempts. They still didn't foul in certain situations. Now, analytically, most people don't know, sometimes you don't get free-throw shots and makes a part of your second chance points. So we did get to the free-throw line and that number adds to that. But I'm just talking about raw field goals. We made 30 field goals. 30 field goals is a lot of field goals to make and still lose. We just couldn't overcome their hot shooting, and we were always that negative 10 that they started with. That entirety set us back for the 35, 40 minutes, of the game because they came out blazing and did not miss those shots.

Having to play without Mark Mitchell:

I had to make a decision, and you guys seen the statement that was released.

He had a good walk through and a good workout. A literally good basketball workout. Now big picture, or short term. I think for Mark, he wanted to play, I had as a coach, to make a tough decision.

And I made this decision with Kobe Brown. We had No. 1 Alabama coming into CoMo in Mizzou Arena, and Kobe sustained a ankle tweak, and I had to make another decision. Right? So I'm not afraid to make the decision that I need to make for the safety of our student athletes.

Mark wanted to play.He wanted to be out there with his team. I did not let him play. I, coach Gates, did not let Mark Mitchell play. He wanted to play. It's on me.

And big picture is, he get a couple days, have some more practices, and I just didn't wanna jeopardize anything moving forward. And that was important to me.

On the direction of the team entering the NCAA Tournament:

At this moment, we won't know anything until Selection Sunday. Because, as you know, the tournament is about matchups. It's about paths. It's about the madness that actually upsets teams in that journey. We're gonna be honored to have our name called in that. I sat here last year, and at that moment, I started building for this year. And we had that in mind, that in the forefront, making sure that we sat in Mizzou Arena on selection Sunday, watching our name being called. I think our guys accomplished that goal unless something happens in a committee meeting, and they don't think, because it still hasn't been called yet. So you have the skeptical part of it. I just hope our name is called.

We'll be honored to represent our conference, and hopefully be one of 14 teams. But, when you have the big view of our program and players committing how they've committed to just my vision, they may not have seen April, in mind. They may not have seen San Antonio in mind, but I remind our guys in every first meeting where the final four is at. And that was something that we spoke about in June when everybody said in our team building meetings with Dr. Carr (the team’s psychologist). And at that point, we saw the level of unselfishness and potential, and I thought we had a chance.

We just had to put it together the right way. And I credit our staff. Our staff is a great staff. We have head coaches on the staff, and we cover each other's blind spots. And they move the group just as I do, and our players respect them.

So, I don't know if the fact that we're not a No. 1 seed means that we can't get to the Final Four historically. The Final Four has been all kind of numbers and seeds, and it's about matchups. It's about getting on a winning streak, but you gotta move one game at a time. You cannot underestimate your first opponent, and we're not gonna underestimate anyone. We respect the tournament, and we'll respect who's on our bracket.

Did the team get what it needed to out of the SEC Tournament?

We did not get the trophy. We don't get the opportunity to raise a banner. Our season 3A ends early. We wanted to be here playing on Sunday, and we're not. So we did not accomplish a goal.

But as it relates to the silver lining, we'll see what it does. But I do know we were able to win a game yesterday against a tough NCAA tournament team. And today we played a game without a All-conference player. I thought we did pretty well. Last night, our All-Conference player only played ten minutes, 25 percent of the game. A quarter of the game.

And our guys moved forward. We had unsung heroes. Aidan Shaw played unbelievable basketball. Josh Gray rebounded the heck out the ball. Tony Perkins and Tamar Bates had great games, but collectively as a unit, we played some great basketball.

So we saw ourselves do that in a neutral site, which is great, and we'll be at a neutral site, playing basketball somewhere. The next part of it is the psychological part. We'll wait around. We'll work on us in these next couple of days.

And I just thank our fans for coming here supporting us. I thank them for what they've done throughout this season for us because they did make a difference. And we'll be able to answer that question when our season's over. And, hopefully, it's not over anytime soon.

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