Memphis interim head coach Rick Stansbury was very complimentary of Missouri basketball on Friday night.
“Missouri is a really good basketball team,” Stansbury said. “They’re going to beat most people in this place.”
Stansbury’s team was not one of those people. Memphis went on the road to a sold-out Mizzou Arena and beat Missouri by 15.
Memphis had every right to rest on its laurels. Stansbury decided to talk about how talented MU is.
Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Chris Kwiecinski
That’s a sign of respect Dennis Gates has earned entering Year 2. He should be allowed that same respect as he figures out how to make a winner out of this Missouri team.
That won’t come overnight, as evidenced by the loss to Memphis, but Gates was confident in the team’s ability to figure out what’s next.
“We’ll figure out how or what we gained from this, no different as we did last season,” Gates said. “That’s where the tests come in.”
On Friday, I don’t know if Memphis was that much better than MU. Sure, Memphis won 70-55, but Missouri flattened out at home for the first time in the Dennis Gates era.
It was the second-worst offensive performance under Gates, the first being a 52-point clunker on the road at Mississippi State.
It was all going swimmingly in the first half. Missouri led by seven at the break before Memphis tied the game at 38-38 just under the 17-minute mark of the second half.
But, at the 16:18 mark of the second half, there was a glitch. Something broke. The streams crossed. Whatever happened, it froze Missouri to the tune of 3 of its last 23 field goals from the floor the rest of the way.
Missouri forward Jesus Carralero Martin drives past Memphis’ Jordan Brown during a college basketball game at Mizzou Arena on Nov. 10, 2023, in Columbia, Mo.
The Tigers just sank. Memphis led 62-46 with 3:48 left after the final media timeout of the game and you didn’t need to see the last few minutes. You just needed to wait for the final score.
A team that could go 15 deep if it wanted to couldn’t create offense, no matter how hard it tried.
There were a few things Gates could have tried differently.
Tamar Bates, who scored 10 points in a few minutes against Arkansas Pine-Bluff, re-entered the game at the 3:48 mark after playing three second-half minutes before that. East, after scoring 14 in the first half, could have taken a shot in the second half. Yes, what looks to be Missouri’s most rejuvenated offensive player did not attempt a shot in the second half.
Stansbury said Memphis went smaller in the second half to try and limit East, which Memphis did. But, it’s easy to limit a player when they don’t attempt a shot.
If MU made a few buckets and kept the crowd engaged, maybe this was a different ball game.
Missouri head coach Dennis Gates looks on during a college basketball game against Memphis at Mizzou Arena on Nov. 10, 2023, in Columbia, Mo.
The bottom line is Missouri didn’t have any kind of answer. A team that Gates had go a dozen deep on Monday went 13 deep on Friday. Some days just aren’t your day, and that happened to be the entire second half for Missouri.
Missouri could drag itself out of a shooting bog like that last season because MU didn’t play a tournament-level team until Games 8 and 9. This year’s schedule doesn’t give Missouri much margin for error.
“Going forward is learning from your experiences, which is why we scheduled the way that we did,” Gates said.
There was plenty to study Friday, but Gates mentioned discouragement he saw after Missouri missed easy plays.
Gates noted that leadership starts with him, but there are six graduate student players on this roster. That leadership has to come from them, too.
Stansbury put it best. When Memphis went down by 14, they didn’t blink. Memphis’ roster isn’t all that different than Missouri’s, as Penny Hardaway has a team with experienced transfers and a staff with head coaching experience.
“You can’t panic in this game,” Stansbury said.
Memphis’ Jaykwon Walton grabs a rebound during a college basketball game against Missouri at Mizzou Arena on Nov. 10, 2023, in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri never panicked, but this team plays a schedule that’s too tough to waste time on hanging heads. This team is too experienced to hang its head, too. But, Gates brought up a good point. This is Game 2. How much did we know about Missouri after Game 2 last year?
Not much, and that team eventually won an NCAA Tournament game.
“This is our second game of the season, so you’re trying to get into that rhythm,” Gates said. “That’s where I would look at it a little differently if it were our 10th game or last third of our season.”
This team can rally because of its coaching staff. Last year’s team did after losses. After losing to Kansas, Missouri beat UCF before dismantling Illinois and Kentucky.
Will this winter be a redux of Year 1? Probably not.
Missouri built its success on lessons learned last year. That seems to be a similar strategy this season, too. There’s patience needed with it.
“It’s either a loss or a lesson?” Gates said. “We’ll find out Monday.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball’s loss to Memphis was a brutal reminder to have patience
