Everything Dennis Gates said before Minnesota: "They do a great job trying to get opportunity in transition, but they are very unselfish in their pass count."
Mizzou basketball coach Dennis Gates met with media Tuesday ahead of the Tiger’s matchup against Minnesota. Here is a transcript of everything he said.
Opening statement
Gates: “Good luck to our women’s basketball program this evening. Good luck to Kellie Harper and her program. They work tremendously hard. Definitely enjoy watching them practice. Shawn (Phillips) is ready to go. Again, he wanted to play last game. I had to make that executive decision. Hold him out.
“No new information on Trent Burns, Trent Pierce, Annor Boateng, same, same thing. We’ll keep evaluating it. So, Minnesota, Niko (Medved) is a great coach. Obviously, success at Colorado State, had a chance to continue to watch him when we recruited John Tonje, tremendous offensive coach, tremendous success. Went to the NCAA tournament in three seasons of the last four. Minnesota is definitely lucky to have him.
“You know, early season, I think when you look at games, it’s all about getting some type of rhythm with your new guys, rhythm with the culture, rhythm with what’s going on, and meshing everyone together. And that’s, that’s the phase that we’re in, and obviously the phase that Minnesota’s in. Questions.”
Question: When you’re looking at a program with a new coach, how much are you looking at what he did at Colorado State to get an idea of what you might see?
Gates: “Well, when it comes down to roster, you’re looking at the current roster and personnel. That’s a great question. You’re also looking at the similarities of what is going on now. And then you’re looking at, OK, what, how, how consistent defensively, how consistent offensively are they?
“And it’s very consistent. Niko is a great coach for a reason, because he believes in the system and he recruits to it. And this roster that he has fits his system.”
Question: You talked to us a little bit about it before the Howard game, but could you kind of explain your philosophy as far as non-conference scheduling?
Gates: “Well, when you look at any kind of schedule, it has to be an opportunity first, where their schedule is also open. You go from home-and-home, which is the ACC/SEC Challenge. We knew that we would be on the road this year. Didn’t know the opponent. You look at any kind of contract that’s existing, and two-for-ones. That was the contract that we had with Howard that was organized.
“It’s just now a matter of what those dates will be. We know SEC/ACC will be in December, and we wanted to get our road game out the way and prepare for Howard. Obviously, this game was deferred as a home-and-home from the previous staff at Minnesota, and obviously now. So, it’s in our contract, we just had to finish the dates and finalize them, as both parties needed flexibility.
“For me, as it relates to why we schedule teams, you have to look at what you have in conference. Obviously, our conference has great and tremendous coaches, great players. So, you want to have a contrast of systems that your defense is challenged through. You want to be able to have different opportunities to present to your players. You want to have on a calendar, this resembles sort of like a NCAA game day, off, then game. Meaning not total day off, but just a day from it being three straight games.
“So, you kind of have that format, SEC Tournament format is game, game, game. So, we wanted to resemble some type of walk-through practice in between two games that gives us a simulation of sometimes the SEC Tournament, sometimes NCAA postseason tournament, in addition to opportunities to just give your guys the best possible scenario and your fans the best possible scenario when they’re here, especially during the football season.”
Question: I’m sure it speaks for itself a little bit, but having a night where both Mark (Mitchell) and Ant (Robinson) are firing, what kind of level does that elevate this team to?
Gates: “Well, there, there are two guys that coaches not me, because I’m biased, our coaches in our conference recognize as dudes right. Ant on the defensive side, as the only sophomore on a five-man defensive team, Mark Mitchell as an all-league performer. Those are our returners. That’s what was very key in our retention in the off season as well. When we look at the new age of transfer portal, you have to have guys returning. You have to have a nucleus demanding your culture and teaching it and passing it on to newcomers.
“And that’s what has taken place. In addition to those guys, you know, I’m excited with what Jacob Crews has done. I’m excited with what T.O. Barrett is doing. I’m excited to get the guys back healthy that’s been out. We do have an SEC starter out right now in Trent Pierce. So there are different, you know, cards that’s being dealt to us that we have to make sure we are in the next man up, approach and mentality.”
Question: You had 60 points in the paint Sunday, last week you said you were glad your team didn’t fall in love with the 3 at Howard. How do you view the offensive philosophy you want your team to play with this season? And how is that different from your first few years here?
Gates: “Good question. When you look at our rosters, you have to look at the strength of them. You have to look at not changing your, your offense, but changing your shot selection and emphasizing your shot profile.
“Mark Mitchell is a heck of a player, and he continues to do great things in the in the front court, back court. He’s versatile, he’s powerful, and he doesn’t rely on 3-point shots. So he’s always have had a guy to the left and right of the defender that’s guarding him. So, we have to continue to manipulate our offense to make sure that he can at least be one-sided on his opportunities. And that’s what our offense is triggered on.
“The other thing is making sure he gets his touches when he needs them. He’s a great, unselfish player that I believe, is doing a tremendous job rebounding out his area and showing versatility defensively, not just guarding five men, but chasing guards off a screen is something that’s new. And I don’t know if you guys have noticed that, but he’s fighting through screens as if he’s 6-4, 6-5, and that’s not easy or common for 6-9 kid to do.
“What was the second part of that question?”
(Just how do you view the philosophy this year as different from the previous few?)
“The philosophy is making sure that we have guys on the court that create gap opportunities for both Ant and Mark and Sebastian (Mack), because they are great drivers. So, whenever you have Jayden Stone in the game, Luke Northweather at the five, the versatility of Nicholas Randall, you look at that, Jacob Crews on the court, the gravity allows that court to be wide open a little bit, and that’s where we want to make sure we have the right lineups in.”
Question: On a similar note, you talked before the season about how unprecedented the length and size of this team is. Even without Shawn and Pierce and Burns, how have you seen that unprecedented size and length help you all so far?
Gates: “Well, what I’m happy about that I’ve seen was not just the length, but our guys being able to show up in the depth of our team. Yes, it impacts things, but I think our field goal percentage defense has not faltered. We have missed Shawn’s ability to shot block, but we did defend the ball a lot better, and Luke Northweather did a, did a tremendous job. He was our highest-graded defender two games ago, and T.O. Barrett was our highest-graded defender this past game. So, it shows that our guys care. It shows that they’re getting better by the game, by the minute and by the seconds that they’re playing.
“I just want to make sure we continue to rebound the ball the way that we have, because I do think we have gotten better at that and it’s been an emphasis, to be honest, in my, in my time here at Missouri. And I can see the impact as a coach, the implementation of certain drills and the emphasis from Coach (Kyle) Smithpeters, who I’ve put in charge of rebounding, show up. So I guess I got better in the offseason too.”
Question: Teams are taking 3s at as high a rate as anyone in the country against you guys. Is that something you would like to steer away from, try and reduce that over time, or is it something that you feel like can be a defensive strength?
Gates: “So let’s, that’s a great question, and I want you guys to think about this from a, not vertical, but linear perspective. Be the turtle, not the giraffe. From the giraffe’s view, you can see that space, from a turtle’s view, you see 6-9, 6-10, 6-11, 7-0. That ball has to, we’re not given too many cracks because we’re not playing with our hands in our pockets. We want to be able to be active defenders. But the next open space is airspace, you know? So that’s going to be, the product of other team shot selection. Now, I don’t want them to go in, but that’s, that’s where you’ve seen the adjustment with our defense and also with our rebounding, and those numbers show up a little bit better.”
Question: What does the length do to ball-screen coverages defensively that you can use?
Gates: “Well, we got to make sure we continue to communicate on ball screen coverage, first and foremost. But we have versatile ball-screen defenders. Again, having Mark Mitchell and Shawn Phillips in a ball screen, I mean, you got 6-9 and 7-1 with reach, and that kind of takes some vision away from your guys. So most important is not what’s on ball, it’s the weak-side spacing. You got to have not just offensive spacing, you got to have defensive spacing for long closeouts.
“You got to have weak-side communication for the scram opportunities that’s being presented. And you want to, want guys to be able to go from one-versus-two ball-screen coverage back into a numerical neutral situation, getting out of that coverage. And that’s where I think our length is buying time and hesitation for passers because of our length and deflection opportunities.”
Question: Niko Medved’s teams the past three seasons have finished in the top 10 in assist rate. What goes into trying to disrupt the ball movement of Minnesota coming in?
Gates: “Well, again, it’s part of his offensive philosophy. They do a great job of moving the basketball, but also moving their bodies and moving bodies in general. I think when you look at pass count, the shot profile again, our shots off the catch-and-shoot versus shots off the dribble. That right there is an assist. I think the rule is for it not to count as assist you make a dribble move of two dribbles or more, one dribble maybe a possible assist. But when you have a system that creates stand-still jump shots, that means your pass count is very high. But also that’s part of his strategy offensively.
“He’s a great, great coach, runs a great system, and some of those plays he has even contradicts coverages from time to time, from one play to the next. I had a chance to get to really, really see it and digest it early on in my career, but also when we were recruiting John Tonje. And I’m just, I’m just excited about being able to go out there and see where our defense is.
“I think our last two opponents have prepared us, in a way, but not fully. That’s part of our scheduling. But also, this is a Big 10 team coming on the road, and a first-year coach that’s going to obviously come in here and try to get a victory. His guys are going to play very hard. That’s one thing that step, stands out to me. Loose balls. They’re first to the floor.
“They do a great job trying to get opportunity in transition, but they are very unselfish in their pass count. And when you’re at 22 assists right now and they’re leading the country, I believe that they do a great job with that portion of the game and the unselfishness that they that they approach it with.”
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