Everything Dennis Gates, Tony Perkins Said to Preview Mizzou's Matchup With Ole Miss

The No. 22 Missouri Tigers take on the No. 16 Ole Miss Rebels at 5:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, Jan 25. Both squads are coming off tough losses that went down to the wire and both would love to grab a ranked win this weekend.

Ole Miss fell to the Texas A&M Aggies, who sit as the No. 13 team in the country currently. It was a close battle but a late triple from A&M's Manny Obaseki pushed the Aggies in front, securing the much-coveted SEC road victory.

On the flip side, the Tigers found themselves in an ugly battle with Texas. They will look to improve and rectify what went wrong in that game against the Rebels at Mizzou Arena.

Here's everything head coach Dennis Gates and senior guard Tony Perkins had to say to the media ahead of the ranked matchup.

Dennis Gates

Opening Statement

"Excited to get back on our home court. I think when you look at the games, the previous games, the previous night of SEC play, what's indicative is the losing team led for 119 total minutes and 20 seconds out of a total 120 minutes and it just went down to the wire. When you have those types of games, you got to make sure you're concentrating in your practice plan and making sure you're going through situations, scenarios and that's what we've been doing."

"I have a great staff that continues with that does do a good job of researching the different scenarios, situations throughout the season to make sure we're leaving those on a turn. So to get back in this rough SEC play at home is definitely exciting."

On Ole Miss's Defense

"When I look at our opponents, I look at Chris Beard First of all and the staple of defense that he emphasized on and obviously the toughness that each player, each individual player playing with, they switch one through five. They do a great job staying out of rotation. They're great at poking and ranking and sort of stripping."

"It's not very confusing, because Texas did the same thing, and we know that there is a level of Chris Beard's defensive philosophy for Rodney Terry was his assistant. So for us, it's kind of a similar game plan. They do a great job getting in those passing lanes and their steel rates create their offense."

On Preparing for Ole Miss's Versatile Scoring

"They're great guards. [Sean] Pedulla, [Jaylen] Murray. You have [Matthew] Murrell, [Jaemyn] Brakefield. They are great players. They have experience at a high level, they are tremendous compliments of each other. With that being said, I do believe our depth is a lot greater than our opponents, the majority of them in the SEC. So for me, they have four guys that can get into double digits without a doubt, that's what they're averaging what they're averaging."

"You cannot underestimate [Dre] Davis who played at Seton Hall last year. You can't underestimate [Mikeal] Brown-Jones, [Davon] Barnes, those guys are still capable of getting into double figures and you just got to let the game probably defensively and allow the scouting report to rise up top."

On the Texas Game

"It was just a heavyweight fight where two teams were just giving their very best. You know how a tug of war takes place, and then that line in the middle goes from side to side to side. But then in the crust of the competition, it's a standard field and that's that's what that game started off as, and unfortunately, the score looked upon it as two field goals and a safety for one team and then it was two field goals for us. It was eight to six at the eight or nine-minute mark. That's a sign of two teams that are really understanding what type of battle is taking place. We didn't give them anything. They didn't give us anything, and ultimately, at some point, it breaks and it's still a little bit of ebb and flow of inconsistencies on both teams."

"Now, both teams got to the free-throw line without a doubt, but we still ended up making a couple of shots. Both teams did with people in every category. But what we can't do is we got to execute at that free throw line to that second shot. We can't leave two shots out here, and that's the complexities."

On Playing Two Similar Teams Consecutively

"This is the second, third week of March. That's how our conference tournament is going to look. These games are preparing us for that. The best part about it both teams expected it. We know how good this conference is. 13 out of 16 teams have been ranked this year. Now I would like to know the percentage of 13 out of 16, but I want to know the percentage of that happening in public conferences. That's one of those stats that I think our fans and people out outside should understand."

On Preseason Expectations and the Fanbase

"So for me, we're doing something correct. We're doing something right and our fans, our students, our administration, they are locked into whatever you need. Our game-day operations, they have done a tremendous job. Our students, the student section, our fans, it's beautiful to see and it was beautiful, is the consistency of it. So for me, the expectation is every game, when you see the strength of schedule before SEC season started, that we were one through 16 as a conference, these games are going to exist like that because of how much of I would say preparation, great coaches, great players, and obviously great environments."

On Offensive Adjustments

You just tighten your screws on certain things. You don't change anything. You just tighten the screws. See what's loose and what's not. Maybe it's an angle of a screen. Maybe it's one less dribble or one more dribble. You just figure out the nuances that have gotten you here. You can't just rip up a playbook and just change everything or second-guess yourself. I'm not going to second-guess our guys. I want every single guy to take the same exact shots that they have taken at Texas because they were the same ones that they were taking at Florida. So we don't look at it from that standpoint.""

"What I look at it, is making sure that they don't second guess themselves, making sure they still play with confidence, that I still give them that nod, that bow of confidence that they need but more importantly, that they play with instinct and they were playing with instinct. Sometimes the balls don't bounce a certain way. Sometimes it's not but I don't want these guys second-guessing."

On Ant Robinson's Defense

"I can't say he was in foul trouble. What I will say is he has to learn and keep his aggressiveness up despite the whistle and understand that referees are part of the game to keep the play and he can't put himself in a compromising situation when he's playing in the first half with three, when he's playing late game with four. He still didn't foul out and he still played 27-plus minutes. I think the substitution that hurt was probably Trent Pierce and when you look at this maturation of young guys, sophomores, they have to learn how to play and play aggressive."

On Handling Adversity

"I am impressed with our player's ability to recover from mistakes but our ability to get lost in the details and debrief from games. I think that's an advantage. When you have experience, our younger guys are learning from our older guys and when you have a team that can recover, you also have the confidence from the staff, the confidence from the fan base, the confidence from the support of what's being in the building."

"Another sellout, that's tremendous. That is unbelievable and I think when you have that type of support, that's what makes it easier for our guys to continue to work as hard as they can and find and have awareness and a vulnerability to know what mistakes they've made and turn those losses into lessons and I think that's what they consistently have done."

Tony Perkins

On the Development of T.O. Barrett

"First thing I would say is you know his confidence keeps growing in different situations and learning different ways to become better and experience. Going at a freshman level and then also, then being able to come in and play with confidence, gaming every day in practice and having great battles every day practice works really well for the next game and keep playing."

On Ole Miss's Guards

"Treat it how we treat anybody else. Guard them physically, do what we do as a team things that we preach in the locker room, force them to make mistakes and get the hands out there, get the hands out the get the ball out their hands."

On Contributing Without Scoring

"I would just say, find things outside of scoring points. Obviously defensive rebounding and being harder to play a team and harder playing, first on the court."

On Ole Miss's Defense

"I don't think we're really bothered by how they defend. We just, like you said, we got a game we couldn't hit shots. Might not happen inside tomorrow. So even if it does or if it doesn't, we still got to apply the same thing."

On Responding to a Loss With a Win

"We always preach about what we could have done better every day. We focus more and more on what we need to do to, eliminate the mistakes that we made and things we can get better at so we can excel and be that better team."

The Most Impressive Thing About This team so Far

"I would just say, fight honestly. We got everybody out there, no matter who on the floor, we have to play hard, rebounding defense, won the ball, being physical. Our main goal is trying to be most physical team. We still got more to show things, as long as we keep doing that."

On the Next Step he Wants to Take

"Be a better leader. Talk more, more involved on offensive and defensive end. Push these guys that we can take another step. We got a whole other step that we can take to be a championship team. You know, conference, conference championship team. You know, win games. That's all you want to do, is win games. I think helping talk and allow everybody to believe that we lose another game. we just gonna keep winning and enjoy."

Dennis Gates

Tony Perkins

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