By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The #21 Missouri Tigers open the SEC Tournament on Thursday, after earning a first round bye, taking on the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Mississippi State advanced after beating LSU 91-62 in the opening round. In one game against the Bulldogs this season, the Tigers won on the road 88-61.
Missouri ended the season on a three game losing streak, with losses to Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Kentucky. But even with that, Tigers head coach Dennis Gates doesn’t believe there’s any sort of fatigue
“No fatigue, no mental, emotional fatigue or anything like that, our guys have done a great job, if you look at our minutes distribution they’ve been below 30 minutes,” Gates told reporters before the tournament. “And when you can do that with your depth, you obviously extend health, you extend the possibility of having mental or emotional fatigue that has not crept into our program.”
The Tigers had a bounce back season this year, despite suffering a slump near the end, posting a 21-10 overall record in the regular season, and going 10-8 in the SEC one year after going through an 0-18 conference schedule. Gates hopes his team uses this SEC tournament as a springboard in preparing for the NCAA tournament.
“When you look at the history of the NCAA tournament, some winners have finished right where we are, some have finished right where we are,” Gates says. “So, we’re excited about the SEC tournament, it’s an opportunity for us to win an SEC tournament championship, and that’s our approach.”
Missouri and Mississippi State will tipoff at 6pm on Thursday. Coverage on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) will begin at 5:30.
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