Missouri's Loss to Kansas Shows Promising Signs for Program in "Infant Stages"
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Dennis Gates, desperate to find any sense of control, signaled for a timeout. His Missouri team desperately needed a break. It was less than eight minutes into their 2022 match against No. 6 Kansas but the Border Showdown game was already out of hand.
The Jayhawks we're already leading 26-12. True freshman Gradey Dick, unfazed by an electric Mizzou arena, had already made as many shots as the entire Missouri team in the first seven minutes. The Jayhawks would storm by Missouri with the destructive power of a Kansas tornado, coming away with a 95-67 blowout win.
"We're in the infant stages," Gates said after the Tigers' first loss of his young tenure. "What I challenge my guys each and every day is, how can we use every situation that we encounter — good, bad, ugly — to continue to galvanize and get on the same page ... I'm not happy about the outcome. My players aren't happy. Our fans aren't happy. But we have to learn from it. And we will."
364 days later, Gates would echo the sentiment of his program being in a growing period. This time, Gates' team had again suffered a loss to Kansas but had cut down the difference from 28-points in 2022 to just nine in 2023.
"We're in the infant stages, we're constantly continuing to get better," Gates said after the loss on Saturday.
If Missouri's program under Gates is in the infant stages, Kansas' program under Bill Self has evolved into a beast. For Gates, Kansas' level of sustained success under Self is what he aims to bring to Missouri.
"I'm only in my fifth year as a head coach (second in Missouri)," Gates said. "I still have growth in my own path. Hopefully in the future, I'll be here for 20 years and we can see the same success that coach Self has had here and we can have it at Mizzou and I truly believe we can."
Gates' assessment of his program being in the infant stages is accurate — his team is making noticeable growth. The change of results from their Kansas matchups displays baby steps that are visible on the stat-sheet and from the eye-test.
Mainly, Missouri simply was able to compete in the first 10 minutes. Eight minutes into the game, the same amount of time it took for Kansas to take dominant control in 2022, the Tigers had already built a 15-6 lead in the 2023 game. Missouri would lead for 14 minutes of the first half until a three-pointer from Elmarko Jackson put Kansas up 30-29 with 4 minutes remaining in the first half.
"I want to see the next time a team leads in this arena for 14 minutes," Gates said. "I don't know when that will take place again."
A 12-point run from Kansas in the final four minutes seemed to put the game firmly in the hands of the Jayhawks. It seemed like that for the third year in a row, the Jayhawks would be flying past the Tigers. And though Kansas would maintain the lead for the remainder of the game, Missouri refused to go away easily. Seven times during the second half, the Tigers brought Kansas' lead to under 10-points.
No trophy is given out for having the most moral victories in a season. No stat matters beyond the win-loss record. But Saturday's performance from Missouri should provide plenty of optimism for the program's future. The difference between Missouri and Kansas was not as black-and-white as it was in 2022. The gap between the two does not seem to be quite as wide.
Gates and his team will not be taking any moral victories away from their third loss of the season either. Instead, they will continue to look to turn losses into lessons. Just like an actual developing infant, the only way for a developing team to learn is often by improving and learning from failures. Gates promised that the team would learn from the loss in 2022. The result from Lawrence in 2023 would indicate that they did.
