Everything Dennis Gates Said After Close Win Over Jacksonville State

A full transcript from the Missouri Tigers head coach after their 10th-straight win.

Dec 14, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates reacts to play against the LIU Sharks during the first half at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The Missouri Tigers avoided a scare in one of their final non-conference games Tuesday, edging out a 83-72 victory to move to 10-1 on the season.

Jacksonville State led 68-67 with 5:59 remaining before Missouri went on a 13-0 run to seal the victory.

The Tigers did lose the rebound battle 39-to-28, an area head coach Dennis Gates was not pleased with.

Below is a full transcript of what Gates said after the win.

Opening Statement:

"We knew Ray Harper's team was going to come here with toughness. That's an identity he's coached so many games with in his unbelievable coaching career.

I want to first credit our fans for showing up. They definitely made a difference tonight as our team navigated not trying to hit home-run plays defensively or offensively, but just playing within themselves and knowing that patience was eventually going to allow us to break loose like we did in the second half.

I delayed that zone for a reason. I didn't want to give them too much time to adjust. And I think our guys definently showed up in away that was honorable. Because that was definitely not an easy game. That was not an easy team to play against

But for the most part, we lost the rebounding war, and that's something we got to fix."

On Jacob Crews' 19-point night:

"I want to credit this part of Crews's success with patience, but also this time of the year. Where you can concentrate, not on academics, finals are over. But you can just really put in the work, slow things down. Again, he's in transition and I'm excited with what he did tonight and definitely that's the Jacob Crews that I think will continue to show up and help us."

On Missouri's 14:3 assist:turnover ratio:

"Unbelievable ratio. And I think that's where you have to understand. When you only have two turnovers in 39 minutes of the game, that's where you can make up that possession difference in analytics that allows a team to out-rebound you and then you come up with with some extra possessions somewhere. And those extra possessions for us came form our offensive rebounds, our steals, but also our ability to not give that ball back. We ended up 12 turnovers, and that's 8 more possessions that we were able to get that bridged that gap a little bit. So I would take that and say that they had halved the offensive rebounds, meaning possessions. But more importantly, our guards did not rebound the ball. There was a lot of long rebounds, 50/50 loose balls, that our guards either overran, collapsed our defensive shell. It's not on the bigs. It was on the guards. And our guards didn't come away, like they came away with the ball in the last two, three minutes. Especially when we chased it down."

On having to adjust to Jacksonville State swarming the paint offensively:

"I think our zone [defense] helped that. It helped keep the ball in front of us. That's a good team. Ray Harper is a great coach. And what he was able to do was keep us in rotation. We wanted to stay out of rotation, and I was able to do that in the last eight or nine minutes by staying in a zone that allowed our guys to be stationary, and that way, we were able to not leave guys open for three pointers, which, one of the nation's leading scorers [Jaron Pierre Jr.], we held them to four points in the second half. But the end of the [first] half, the situation was to foul, and we did not foul. We had a foul to give. We did not foul, and we gave up a three. I'm not happy about that, but those things didn't happen in the second half. The only thing that happened in the second half was our inability to secure the rebound, and if we're able to do that, and I credit their ability to go get it, we got to be able to block out and be able to secure rebounds."

On the incident in the second half where officials reviewed a flagrant penalty on Jacob Crews:

"I don't know. I don't have words with other coaches. So I did not have a word with Ray Harper at all . With the referee, now I have words with I think the referee. I told him that that's a technical foul. When a coach goes on the court to a referee and not his player, that's what took place in that situation. But they looked at the film, Jacob [Crews] grazed his eyes a little bit, and he was not facing the opponent. So because it wasn't a play on the ball, that's automatic flagrant, and rules and regulations of college, if Jacob was facing the kid and tried to swipe and inadvertently hit him in the face, it may have been a different type of flagrant."

On the team's response in the final minutes, leadership:

"I love the leadership that our guys show. Jacob and Mark [Mitchell] definitely delivered, but Ant Robinson was able to do some things, Tamar Bates did not have a great game when you look at offense and all those other things, but what he did have an unbelievable game of leadership, and that's what I'm proud of. I ended up starting Trent [Pierce] in the second half because I didn't think Bates was giving us what I thought. And then I think when he subbed in, that's when he was pretty much getting my attention, saying 'I got to go back in' and at that point, I knew his level of focus was going to be different and his leadership was going to be different. So it was a team win, man. And I'm proud of our guys.

I also want to say congratulations to Josh Gray. Josh Gray was able to walk across the stage in South Carolina yesterday, and that's what this thing is about, man, young people, and it was important for him to do that, so he was able to do exactly that, and he was away from practice, and I like the way his teammates, but also he responded by being away, but also learning the game plan and different things like that. So Josh Gray was able to walk across that stage, and I'm proud, and I'm proud to be his coach."