Missouri men’s basketball entered the Southeastern Conference tournament with its most regular season wins since the 2012-13 season. The Tigers exited with their best result since they joined the SEC that same season.

Despite falling to top-seeded Alabama in the semifinals, Missouri advanced the furthest it ever had in an SEC tournament with a win over Tennessee on Friday.

“I’m proud of our guys, proud of who we are and what we stand for,” head coach Dennis Gates said. “But more importantly, what we were able to accomplish.”

Here are a few takeaways from a historic week for Missouri men’s basketball:

The Tigers valiantly battled a team that had previously dominated them

The last time Missouri played Alabama, the Crimson Tide was not only high, but it looked like a tsunami. The Tigers were overmatched in an 85-64 defeat on Jan. 21 that saw Missouri shoot a paltry 3/28 from 3. 

While 7/25 isn’t a whole lot better, Missouri’s quality of play certainly was. The Tigers forced 17 Tide turnovers, seven more than in their last meeting. They held Alabama star freshman Brandon Miller to just 4 points in the first half as well as the entire Tide squad to just 2/15 shooting from beyond the arc. 

“We wanted to make catches more difficult instead of them getting in-rhythm shots,” graduate guard D’Moi Hodge said. “I feel like they rushed open shots knowing that we were trying to run them off the line.”

An acrobatic one-legged corner 3 by Hodge with just a few seconds remaining pushed Missouri within 2 at halftime.

“My team had confidence in me to knock that shot down,” Hodge said. “I’m happy they had the feeling I could knock that shot down.”

However, the Tide got hot in the second half, and Miller scored 16 points in the final 20 minutes. Missouri couldn’t create much offensively, especially inside the arc.

“They’re a very long, athletic team, so it’s tough to penetrate the paint,” senior forward Noah Carter said. “They’re No. 1 for a reason.”

Despite the loss, the Tigers were proud of their efforts in Nashville. 

“We felt like we could have won the championship,” Hodge said. “We fell short, but we definitely knew that we could make it this far.”

Missouri’s speed and aggressiveness can be a huge problem in the tournament, especially if it draws a slower-paced team 

One of the defining traits of 2022-23 Missouri men’s basketball has been speed; blazing, scorching, white-hot speed. Its goal is to turn regular basketball games into track meets. While some teams crumble in the midst of chaos, the Tigers revel in it. 

Defensively, they switch almost every screen. Getting a hand in a passing lane is of the utmost importance. Does it require impeccable communication? Yes. Does it falter sometimes? Certainly. But for what the Tigers have lacked in rebounding and interior defense, they’ve made up for in forced mistakes and transition points.

Against Tennessee, Missouri forced five Volunteer turnovers before the first media timeout. Tennessee’s 14 total turnovers were the most they’d committed in a game since Jan. 17. Although they only scored 16 points off of those turnovers, the Tigers made the Vols (277th in KenPom’s adjusted tempo) play uncomfortably fast.

Getting out in transition also alleviated some of the burden of playing against Tennessee’s top-ranked defense in the half court. 

“It’s tough to play defense when you can’t get back,” senior forward Kobe Brown said after the game.

A big reason why the Tigers were able to keep the Crimson Tide in check until later in the second half was because of their defense. At halftime, they’d forced eight different Alabama players into at least one turnover, and by the end of the game, only sophomore center Charles Bediako and freshman forward Noah Clowney were the only players who didn’t commit at least one turnover. 

Offensively, the Tigers stayed aggressive in both games, often taking the first open shot available. While that occasionally created short and unsuccessful possessions, Missouri needed it to keep itself in both games. 

Speaking of bold shot-taking… 

Nick Honor, D’Moi Hodge and Kobe Brown were nails down the stretch against Tennessee

Hodge, graduate guard Nick Honor and Kobe Brown have lengthy resumes of playing with stone-cold mentalities. Honor has numerous game-winners to his name since high school, including one earlier this season against Mississippi State. While neither Hodge nor Brown has decorated histories of buzzer-beaters and game-winners like Honor does, they are most definitely go-to options in crunchtime.

That mentality showed itself when the Tigers needed them the most down the stretch. With the Bridgestone Arena crowd (made up mostly of Tennessee fans) on their feet and shouting as the clock ticked under two minutes, Honor converted two key baskets, including a huge 3-pointer to put Missouri up by 3 with 1:45 remaining. 

“The key play to me was Nick Honor coming to the timeout and saying ‘Coach, give me a ball screen,’” Gates said. “We gave him a ball screen, and he was able to knock down a big three-point shot.”

Something Honor does often is punish defenders who go under ball screens beyond the 3-point line. He did it again against Tennessee. 

Hodge came up clutch not just on offense, but defense too. Right after Honor’s 3, Hodge forced a Tennessee turnover on the ensuing baseline inbounds pass, deflecting the ball off Tennessee freshman Julian Phillips’ hand to regain possession. He then drilled a 3 to put Missouri up 6. 

After Tennessee pulled back within 4, Hodge clanked a 3-point attempt; thankfully, Brown was there to clean up the miss, as he put the Tigers back up 6 with a putback lay-in. Later, Hodge put the game out of reach with a pair of free throws.

This was another marker of immense progress for Missouri basketball

At the beginning of this season, the media picked Missouri to finish 11th out of 14 teams in the SEC. Winning a game in the SEC tournament, let alone getting to the semifinals, was a distant thought to many in November. 

Even when the Tigers smashed all expectations en route to the fourth seed in this year’s conference tournament, history was not on their side in terms of making a run once they got there. Since joining the SEC in the 2012-13 season, Missouri had never made the semifinals of the SEC tournament. 

Even in the three seasons in which they made the Big Dance, the Tigers were bounced early in the conference tournament. Tennessee presented a difficult matchup in the quarterfinal, and even though Missouri had taken the regular season matchup, it took a DeAndre Gholston buzzer-beater from half court to do so. The Volunteers were also the betting favorites in this game. In summary, there were a bevy of externalities that said Missouri should not have made it to Saturday’s semifinal. 

To put the cherry on top of a wonderful tournament, Missouri and Gates reached an agreement to extend Gates’ contract through the 2028-29 season and increased his annual guaranteed salary from $2.5 million to $4 million. The extension was most certainly a reward for his immediate impact on Missouri men’s basketball’s program, said Desireé Reed-Francois, director of athletics at MU. 

“We are on an upward trajectory with Coach Gates leading our men’s basketball program,” Reed-Francois said. “We have seen the program’s immediate results through wins on the court, record-setting numbers in the classroom and creating enthusiasm in our community. Coach Gates has talked openly about his goals of winning championships and hanging banners in Mizzou Arena, and I believe we are on that path under his leadership.” 

Despite coming up short of an SEC tournament championship, Missouri is rolling into March Madness with positive momentum. As the Tigers prepare for the tournament, they know that history has its eyes on them.

“We just want to capitalize on our opportunity and be the one team from Mizzou to make history,” Brown said.