What Dennis Gates is Focused on for the Last Week of Regular Season

After a wavy stretch, the head coach of the Missouri Tigers is emphasizing two points with his team.

Missouri head coach Dennis Gates watches his team face Vanderbilt during the first half at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, March 1, 2025. | Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The No-14 ranked Missouri Tigers have set themselves up to be a team built for post-season entertainment. Missouri can beat just about anyone, as it showed in wins over No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Florida.

But, the Tigers are also pleny succeptible to bad nights, losing against unranked Arkansas and Vanderbilt teams in the last two weeks.

It's a team with the right amount of unpredictability to be a bracket buster, for better or worse.

Missouri (21-8, 10-6 Southeastern Conference) has gone 4-4 in its last eight games.

The wavy trip through the final stretch of conference play has head coach Dennis Gates focused on one trait as the team prepares for its penultimate regular season game — a road matchup with Oklahoma.

"I think your identity as a team is consistency," Gates said in a press conference Tuesday. "And that's my concentration and message to our guys. We know what's on the line is is March. It's March and it's conference season, and everything that we do and say has to match."

Less than a month ago, Missouri took down Oklahoma 82-58 at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 12. Oklahoma took away some usual parts of Missouri's identity, limiting the Tigers to only four makes on 12 3-point attempts.

But, this allowed forward Mark Mitchell to drive into lanes inside, scoring 25 points.

"We just took what the defense gave us," Gates said of Missouri's last performance against Oklahoma.

Feb. 12, 2025; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers forward Mark Mitchell drives to the basket against the Oklahoma Sooners at Mizzou Arena. / Amber Winkler/Missouri On SI / Amber Winkler/Missouri On SI | Amber Winkler/Missouri On SI

With Oklahoma now having time to study the 24-point loss and taking time to improve, the lay of the land for this rematch is different. Oklahoma has been battle tested in the three weeks since, taking on No. 2 Florida, No. 21 Mississippi State and No. 17 Kentucky since the first matchup against Missouri.

With Oklahoma looking to build a strong enough resume to avoid being shutout of the NCAA Tournament, Wednesday's matchup, on paper, has more on the line for the Sooners than the Tigers. A win for Oklahoma would act strong evidence for growth the Sooners have made since early February.

 "I think the second matchup in  just is all preparation. Teams get a feel for each other," Gates said. "Teams obviously gets a sort of reinvigoration of redemption. But the most important thing is that when I look at our conference, it's about what you do before the game. Are you recovering how you need to recover from the standpoint of the emotional and mental toll that the season can put on your players?"

Missouri will look to bounce back from a loss against Vanderbilt, taking on Oklahoma Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.