Dennis Gates has been the head coach at Missouri for 38 basketball games, and while I think we’ve seen all sort of basketball games so far under his watch, none of them would I have called Cuonzo-like. But here we are. Credit to Matt Watkins for pointing that out, but it fits.
The pace was slow, the defense was tight and suffocating, the offense was sporadic. The win was comfortable. All the hallmarks of a non-conference game during the Martin era. That’s not a criticism. It’s also not a compliment, it’s a realization.
The entry to the 2023-24 season has been a bit bumpy.