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After this dramatic in-season turnaround by Missouri basketball, is that enough to renew
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your faith in Dennis Gates?
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Well I'll tell you this, based on the parameters of the award, he should have at the very least
0:55
BSEC coach of the year.
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You are locked on Mizzou, your daily podcast on the Missouri Tigers, part of the Lockdown
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Podcast Network, your team every day.
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Hey, all you true sons and daughters, I'm John Miller, your Mizzou Mafioso, and the
1:20
central scrutinizer of Missouri Tigers football and basketball, and thanks for listening
1:26
to two locked on Mizzou, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports
1:33
And on today's program, you know what, I want to talk about the boards of stone, no,
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not another game of thrones, spin off, but something about Jaden Stone, a spot where he
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has not gotten enough credit this season.
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I also want to talk a little bit about tomorrow's Missouri Oklahoma basketball game, but before
1:55
I start to lavish some praise on the Dennis Gates, I do want to start by telling you that
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And I got to say, first of all, I will say Missouri with a bunch of tough basketball games
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left to be played to in the regular season, at least one in the in the SEC tournament.
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And we assume at this point, and I think rather safely, the Tigers will be playing at
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least one game in the NCAA tournament as well.
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So the Tigers could still lose for straight basketball games to finish out the season.
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So let's not to modify the wolf from pulp fiction.
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Let's not start patting each other on the backs just yet.
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But having said that, I'm a Dennis Gates guy, and I hope you are too, at this point.
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And to me, this season really confirmed my beliefs after I obviously wavering just a tiny
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bit in December, although not so much on Dennis Gates in general, but definitely on the
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team this season, because this has been a truly stunning turn around and not even so much
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that Missouri turned it around.
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It was a lot of it by my pessimism was about timing, because of course, Jaden Stone had
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sat out all the way through the Illinois game, Trent Pierce, the same thing.
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And it just seemed like, hey, even if these guys come back and make a big difference,
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as far as timing goes, it just felt like it's going to take a while for this Missouri team
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to start hitting on all cylinders.
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I was just really surprised by how quickly Missouri turned it around with the returns of those
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two players against Florida, Missouri wins that first SEC ball game against the Gators,
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and goes on the road wins for its first time ever in Lexington against Kentucky.
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Simply put, I just would have thought it would have taken more time than that.
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And even my biggest long running Dennis Gates complaint, by the way, really has not been
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nearly as glaring to me in SEC play, especially as the season has gone along here.
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To me, over helping was the thing I've always complained about, especially on defense
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just too much aggression defensively, I think the Tigers have settled in here largely
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in part to suddenly having two effective centers, by the way, when you have, when you
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have Trent Burns and Sean Phillips out there being able to clean up a lot of, a lot of
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things and help side defense, one of those players out there at all times for Missouri in
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recent play, that makes it, that gives you the luxury of not having to help as much.
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That guy can be your one help guy and your other guys can stay at home.
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I think that's been maybe a little bit of a secret sauce to Missouri's recent success.
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Now, I have seen some other people talking about coach of the year honors for Dennis Gates
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all all way in there as well.
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As for national coach of the year, well, I don't really see that.
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There's a bunch of guys Fred Hoyberg off the top of my head.
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When it comes to coach of the year, generally speaking, it has to be based on expectations.
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In other words, the previous year, you have to come back from something.
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I think national coach of the year actually, Dennis Gates probably had a better case in
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the previous season, simply because Missouri was coming off the, well, disastrous, O and
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19 SEC campaign from that previous year.
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As for SEC coach of the year, I think Dennis Gates has the best case, again, based on the
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traditional parameters of outdoing expectations, usually in the NFL, for example, you could
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have just handed it to Bill Bella check there for a decade straight plus, I guess, if you
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want to do, if you were handing out MVPs for coaches, but that's not exactly how the
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coach of the year award generally works.
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So who outpaced expectations, more than Missouri and Dennis Gates, again, especially heading
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into SEC play off of non-conference play when I and it seemed like everybody else was
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at their height of negativity on this particular team following bragging rights, who would
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have predicted this?
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I mean, truly, who could have seen this coming from Missouri?
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Again, let's not start patting each other on the back just yet, but to be sitting here
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with a almost surefire NCAA tournament birth at this point, feels pretty darn good and
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feels dramatically different than it felt a few weeks ago.
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And yes, it does matter a lot to the near future of this program when a big time transfer
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portal window is opening in April.
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So March is here, by the way, my first March podcast of the year, this is an exciting
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time to be a college basketball fan.
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But again, back to coach of the year, they're just for a little bit in the SEC, who else?
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Well, it's not Stephen Pearl, I can tell you that Pat Knight Jr. is doing his thing down
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on the planes as predicted, what about John Calapari?
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His team has certainly had a good comeback from last season, but it was still a tournament
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team last year and a pretty solid tournament team for Arkansas last season at that.
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I don't think anybody shocked.
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In fact, maybe give their money, guys, the real MVP down there in Fayetteville, Matt McMan,
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of course, at Florida, NATO, it's doing good jobs as always.
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But again, based on the traditional parameters of this award, award, I think Dennis Gates
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is the guy right now.
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He's just a quick standings update for you.
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The Tigers now are tied for fourth place in the league, and they have wins over Tennessee
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and Kentucky, who are the other teams tied for fourth at 10 and six in the SEC.
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So those two teams that Missouri is directly competing with right at this moment, Tennessee
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finishes at South Carolina and then Vanderbilt at home and that traditional rivalry game.
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Kentucky has a pretty tough finishing stretch at Texas A&M, although the Aggies aren't playing
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great basketball right now and then home against the Florida Gators as well, who are almost
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certain to win the league and may well have clinched the crown at this point.
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The point is there's likely a loss in there for one of those teams.
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So if the Tigers are indeed tied with one of those two teams, then they'll have a tie
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Now three way ties gets a little more complicated.
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Seeing the Tigers have beaten Tennessee and Kentucky, I would assume the tie breaker
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would go to Missouri at this moment, but I don't want to assume that and I really want
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to question it because if the Tigers go two and O down the stretch, well, then Arkansas
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would likely then be in a three way tie with Missouri and some other teams as well, considering
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Arkansas and Missouri would have split that's where my brain starts to break.
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Well, then how do you parse all of this?
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Too many variables for me to try to figure out at this point.
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So I don't want to go nuts, but I tend to think if the Tigers go two and O down the stretch,
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more than likely it's going to work out in a double buy in Nashville in the SEC tournament
9:42
for Missouri and coming up on this first March, 2026 edition of locked on Mizzou.
9:49
Of course, just tons more basketball to get into, including white deniscates, non-conference
9:56
scheduling strategy, clearly worked this season.
10:00
By the way, plenty of time to jump on the bandwagon if you're a, well, no gatekeeping here.
10:06
Let's put it that way.
10:07
If you're a a lax Missouri fan, now's the time to jump on the bandwagon.
10:12
Just how much upside does this team have in March?
10:16
I want to talk a little bit about that OU game coming up here and just a little bit,
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And there's been a lot of discussion of Dennis Gates in his non-conference scheduling
12:27
philosophy, including on this program where I've said, well, I'd sure like to see maybe
12:32
some more entertaining games at Mizzou Arena in particular because, well, unfortunately,
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the next couple of years, for example, the Mizzou KU game is going to be in Kansas City
12:44
at a neutral site where the Missouri Illinois game already the annual game at a neutral
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Hey, I'm not complaining.
12:53
Not trying to say the bragging rights game should be moved out of St. Louis or anything.
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Just pointing out for those of us who are seasoned ticket holders or try to get to most
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of these games in person.
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There's not always a ton of reasons to get to Mizzou Arena in November.
13:09
But regardless, it's hard to argue that Dennis Gates in his scheduling philosophy was bad
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In fact, it's obvious that it worked out.
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I thought it worked out in 2023 as well when he was bringing in a basically an entirely
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new roster with a whole bunch of transfers and Kobe Brown, by the way, I'm sure there
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were some other returners as well, but you get the idea.
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I know I'm being a little hyperbolic there, but again, not great for entertainment purposes,
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In an era where you are having to implement practically a maybe on an entirely new roster
13:48
every season, obviously, but a whole bunch of new guys just about each and every year.
13:54
It's not just Missouri, that's everybody right now.
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Maybe it makes a lot of sense to just say, hey, we're going to play Kansas, we're going
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to play Illinois and a couple of power teams like Minnesota, Notre Dame, and other than
14:06
that, it's going to be a lot of a lot of Cleveland state, a lot of South Carolina state and
14:12
Howard and CMO and that type of deal.
14:16
And while that's not the most thrilling thing in the world to watch, it's not going to
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get the wives and the girlfriends as Charles Barkley likes to say, sort of your casual fans.
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Maybe that's okay because where you really want to get the casual fans is March.
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When they tune in, they go, oh, hey, Missouri's in the tournament.
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Hey, let's see what happens here.
14:37
And my goodness, an actual run in March, something that Tiger fans haven't seen in a long,
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Well, that would go a long way to keeping some of those bandwagon fans around.
14:48
And again, no gatekeeping here whatsoever.
14:51
If you're just now figuring out that Missouri basketball is fun to watch this season by
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all means, I'm the last person who's going to go, if you weren't here at the beginning,
15:02
we don't want you now.
15:03
No, no, we want you now.
15:04
Come aboard by all means.
15:07
And by the way, since I briefly mentioned Minnesota there, I should point out that that's
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looking like a decent victory for Missouri right now.
15:14
The gofers are not going to make the NCAA tournament.
15:17
They did just beat UCLA, played a pretty solid game against one of the elite teams in the
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country in Michigan and in an arbor recently.
15:26
So Nico Medvedev, excuse me, has the gofers playing pretty solid basketball in his first
15:33
That's a team I'd watch out for in the future.
15:35
He seems like a good coach to me and even one that was bandied about a little bit when
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Missouri was looking for was when Missouri hired Dennis Gates in its previous cycle.
15:46
So just something to point out there, but back to Missouri basketball.
15:51
You do have to question, you do have to wonder how much upside this Missouri team really
15:55
has because I do think the Tigers are playing its best basketball and really this this
16:01
Trent Burns wrinkle that's been thrown into the season here.
16:04
It does make you think, huh, this team has a lot more upside than I thought.
16:09
Now, I have seen some fans say that well, the NCAA tournament is basically a crap
16:17
I got to say I'll push back on that a decent bit.
16:20
It's not as though, for example, in the first round, even a four versus 13 type of matchup
16:27
is a statistical toss up by any stretch of the imagination.
16:32
Those teams win 80, 85, 90 percent of the time.
16:35
And especially though the champion is almost always a team that if is, if not a number
16:42
one seed is at the very least makes sense and in fact, 75 percent of the time, it is
16:49
And really it's either a one seed, a two seed or Yukon, you go back the last 30 years
16:56
If it's a four or a seven or somebody a little bit off, it's almost always Yukon that is
17:01
the team that is winning the tournament.
17:03
So I think Missouri can make a run for sure.
17:07
I think they have the talent and the makeup and they're really not missing a lot right
17:13
But as Missouri's best better than Arizona, Duke, Michigan, some of those truly elite teams,
17:22
That's just my opinion.
17:23
Hopefully the Tigers will prove be wrong to say the least.
17:26
But speaking of the Tigers, obviously, hey, beating Oklahoma would go a long way for
17:34
The last time Missouri and Oklahoma played the famous double buzzer beater game, Mark Mitchell
17:40
winning the game from Missouri.
17:42
That was actually Oklahoma's sixth game in a row at the time, which later became a nine
17:47
game losing streak for the sooners.
17:49
And yet they've won four of their past six, including one against Vanderbilt in Nashville
17:55
to pour to Porter Moses credit.
17:57
This is a five and 11 team in the SEC that is definitely not packed it in.
18:03
Having said all of that, I got to say if Missouri is an underdog in this game, as Ken
18:09
Palm's four point projection and with a sooner victory here suggested it will be, I think
18:18
Not only is Missouri playing its best basketball right now, this is just a better team and a team
18:23
with more high upside with Trent Burns in the lineup.
18:28
I'd also point out that a Tuesday night tip in Lloyd Noble isn't exactly intimidating
18:36
I will say Nigel Packen and Xavier Brown lead the way for OU led the way in scoring last
18:44
And that's definitely on brand for the sooners.
18:46
Those are two really good guards.
18:47
They're the best three point shooting team in SEC play.
18:51
So that's always a scary combination.
18:54
I don't anticipate this being an easy victory for Missouri like the Mississippi state game
19:01
And yet I do favor the Tigers here for for the reasons that I gave you again, not an
19:06
intimidating atmosphere.
19:08
Missouri has much more to play for playing its best basketball.
19:12
And by the way, the Tigers have been a solid road team as well.
19:18
But one viewer says that I and others of my ilk in the media haven't been making enough
19:25
of Jaden stones prowess on one particular facet of his ballgame.
19:32
Well, you know what?
19:33
When you're right, you're right.
19:34
So let's let's talk about that coming up on the program and also just quickly on some
19:39
other Missouri sports as well.
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But first, let's talk about Robin Hood.
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And one viewer who's username on YouTube is frankly far too long and indecipherable
21:04
to repeat here, but by God, he makes a great point.
21:07
He says not enough has been made of Jaden stones defensive rebounding prowess all year.
21:13
He's legitimately one of the best guards I've ever seen on the defensive glass elevates
21:19
incredibly high and just always cracking back and attacking the backboard.
21:24
Dude is a really good all around player one of five from the field yesterday, but 10 rebounds
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five assists to steals.
21:32
Ian Pierce returning has brought as much on defense as they have on offense.
21:38
That's a great call all the way around once again and by the way defensively, I think
21:43
stone has been a really good defensive player in particular.
21:47
I don't think of Trent Pierce as a particularly great defensive player, but I do agree, especially
21:54
with him playing the three spot as was pointed out in the SEC network broadcast when you
22:00
have Pierce or Phillips out there at all times now, now Mitchell can play the four where
22:06
he is much more well suited size wise defensively to be sure.
22:12
Well, now suddenly you've got Trent Pierce, you've got a huge front court there, three guy
22:18
So I think that's a really good call and to your original point, well, a defensive rebound
22:24
percentage of 16% for Jaden Stone is tremendous and just to put it in perspective, that's a
22:31
better number than Mark Mitchell has this season.
22:34
And it's only behind Sean Phillips at 19% and Trent burns at a ridiculous 24% of the rebounds
22:44
he grabs when he's out there.
22:46
I think some of that's the Aussie football in Jaden Stone, who was an Aussie rules football
22:53
player before well, trying his handed basketball and figuring out he's really good at that.
22:59
And so to get tired of getting hurt all the time and Aussie rules football was apparently
23:04
what he said as well, but I think he took some of that toughness and that knows for the
23:09
ball that you have to have in that type of game.
23:11
I think he's taking it to the basketball court.
23:13
And while I definitely thought Jaden Stone was a good rebounder for sure, he was even
23:19
better than I thought.
23:20
And I haven't talked about it a lot on the program.
23:22
So really, thank you for pointing that out and bringing it to my attention.
23:27
But also, you know, another thing that I haven't brought up enough is how good of a season
23:31
Missouri gymnastics has had once again.
23:34
Now this is a Mizzou football and basketball program, but the Tigers beat number eight
23:40
Arkansas on senior day yesterday, by the way, looking like another run in March for
23:47
the Missouri gymnastics program and finished third overall in 2025 could be on the table
23:53
in 2026 as well, just a really impressive program that's happening right now.
24:00
And again, just a really entertaining sport and just TV product right now in my opinion
24:08
And really fun family event to go out to in person as well, if you didn't get out to
24:13
Mizzou Arena or the Hurn Center this season, I definitely encourage you to do so next
24:19
And I got to say, I think the Tigers had a late rally, by the way, the women's basketball
24:24
team had a late rally against a top 10 Oklahoma squad yesterday.
24:29
And while the Missouri didn't win that game and didn't win a ton of basketball games,
24:34
I won more than I probably would have guessed coming into the year.
24:37
And I just continue to think that Kelly Harper was a good hire and is a good hire for this
24:44
women's basketball program.
24:46
I just think the Tigers look like a much more serious operation, not just on the court
24:51
this season, but based on everything I've heard and read about off the court, recruiting
24:57
wise as well, seems like Kelly Harper has a plan and she's well on her way to executing
25:04
A charismatic competitive person is Kelly Harper.
25:09
And I really like her a lot.
25:10
I can't wait to see what she does and continues to do with this Missouri women's team as
25:16
And by the way, thanks as always for listening to the Locked on Mizzou podcast.
25:20
Well, you know, if you'd like to check out ad free, if you'd like access, I should
25:25
say to ad free audio of Locked on Mizzou, you got to get it with the every day or club
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plus members only discord access, join at locked on Mizzou dot supercast dot com.
25:39
So until next time, I am John Miller, thanks as always for listening to Locked on Mizzou.
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See it in five films at Mazda USA dot com slash five sites.
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