After a successful year one that saw Mizzou advance in the NCAA Tournament, Dennis Gates’ second year in Columbia was as some would say, underwhelming. The Tigers won their final game of the 2023-24 season on December 30th before losing every conference game on their schedule. This year, with a more talented and deeper group of players, Gates is looking to get his program back on track.
That started on Saturday as Mizzou took on Lincoln (MO) in an exhibition matchup before their season officially tipped-off on Nov. 4. As expected, the Tigers took care of business on the scoreboard, but the only way the final score was going to be the story of the game was if Mizzou played terrible. That wasn’t the case, as the Tigers dominated from start to finish beating Lincoln by a score of 90-45.
It wasn’t unexpected but Mizzou managed to get each of their 15 scholarship players some significant run except for Tony Perkins who Gates said didn’t play for precautionary reasons. Perkins did warm-ups.
Every Mizzou scholarship caliber player that entered the game played at least seven minutes. In terms of scoring, Duke transfer Mark Mitchell and Caleb Grill led the way with 22 and 20, respectively.
The story of the game, however, was not just the different lineups Mizzou tried out, but also the things they tried out in the schematic part of the game. The Tigers in the first half alone played three different defenses. They started out in a simple half court man-to-man, but also displayed a 2-2-1 zone and a legit press where they were trying to force turnovers and not just slow Lincoln down. The latter has not been something that Mizzou has done often during the Dennis Gates era.
The Tigers will now turn their attention to some other Tigers south of Columbia as Mizzou travels to Memphis for what should be one of the best opening night games of the college basketball season. Memphis came to Mizzou Arena and won 70-55 a season ago. Tip-off will be 7:00 p.m. CST on Nov. 4 as Mizzou looks to get their first regular season victory of the year 2024.