Missouri snuck into the NCAA Tournament after riding the bubble for much of the season, and will be underdogs to the seven-seeded Miami Hurricanes. But despite the long odds for a deep tournament run, Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates says is ready to go because they have already faced adversity unlike any other team.
Ahead of Friday night's matchup Gates talked at length about how Missouri never had much of a chance to get into a rhythm early on in the year, and the Tigers have been in catch-up mode ever since.
"There's no school in this tournament right now that has dealt with the cards we have been dealt with," said Gates. "So I am proud of my staff for how we have handled our team, because we went through a lot of injuries, and we had to put things back on the track so to speak to move forward. While other teams may have been in the stages of development because they had their core together since the beginning of November, we hadn't had a core until January."
Missouri faced an uphill battle just to make the tournament but it won't get any easier
The Tigers dealt with injuries to Jayden Stone, Jevon Porter, Trent Pierce and Annor Boateng to name a few, and rarely played a game at full strength until the new year. And while Missouri didn't necessarily struggle in their non-conference schedule beyond bad losses to Illinois and Kansas, they lost out on some valuable time to grow as a team.
Now in the flipside, no one will accept injuries as an excuse for an early tournament exit. If the Tigers get bounced after the first game, fans will be disappointed regardless. Still, for the Tigers to make the Big Dance while missing key players for long stretches is a victory itself.
Missouri will take on Miami in St. Louis in the very last game of the opening rounds at 9:10PM on Friday.