NCAA Basketball: Kansas State, Providence on the rise on latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
20. Missouri (13-2)
There will be bumps in the road for first-year head coach Dennis Gates this year, but it’s hard to complain about what his Tigers have accomplished through his first 15 games. They’ve racked up all these wins, including impressive showings against Illinois and Kentucky back in late December. Those aforementioned bumps in the road will come (and one was this week), but it’s clear that this program is back on track and perhaps ahead of schedule.
They had a really tough challenge to start the week, heading to Arkansas and departing with a 74-68 loss to a tough Razorbacks team. Sean East’s 13 points off the bench led the team, while Nick Honor had 12 points and just 11 for Kobe Brown. Fortunately, the Tigers got back on track on Saturday, holding on for an 85-82 win against Vanderbilt. It wasn’t their best defensive effort, but Brown and Deandre Gholston both had 18 points and did enough to get the Tigers in the winning column again, now 2-1 in SEC play.
Things have gone according to plan so far and these Tigers look like a Tournament squad after two months of play. Will that trend continue as they wade through the rigors of SEC play? This is basically a brand new roster in Columbia that seems to be meshing well with Gates’ system, but will the team that got steamrolled by Kansas rear their ugly heads again? Next week’s a road trip and tough ones at Texas A&M and Florida.