Dennis Gates tabs Player of the Game following massive win over Vanderbilt
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Dennis Gates was proud of all of his players following Wednesday night’s mammoth upset of No. 19 Vanderbilt that will surely boost Mizzou‘s chances of slipping into the NCAA Tournament next month.
The 81-80 home takedown of the Commodores boosted the Tigers’ SEC record to 8-5 to go along with an 18-8 overall mark, and it moved Mizzou into a 5-team logjam in those league standings, 3 games behind first-place Florida. One of those other 4 teams sitting at 8-5 in the SEC is Vanderbilt, so this midweek victory in Columbia in the middle of February could end up being huge come Selection Sunday.
There were a lot of things and a lot of players responsible for snatching that win, but Gates pointed to one of his players in particular as he spoke with reporters in the postgame press conference. It wasn’t any of his starters, 4 of whom scored in double figures. It was a reserve freshman center named Trent Burns, who had all of 3 points in 18 minutes off the bench.
But guess what else Burns did for Mizzou and Gates in the victory? He blocked 1 shot and ripped down 7 big rebounds, helping the Tigers outlast the Commodores in front of a rocking crowd in Columbia. Gates hailed Burns as the Player of the Game.
“What he did in practice showed up in the game and whatever that was, it was more so towards me,” Gates told reporters. “I told him I’m not going to play you ever again if you don’t earn it in practice.”
Burns took Gates’ motivating words to heart, earned that playing time in practice and helped Mizzou earn a very big victory that could very well be the difference in whether the Tigers go to the NCAA Tournament or not.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
