
What Dennis Gates and Caleb Grill had to say as the Tigers will break their eight-day hiatus on Friday.
After eight days without a game, Mizzou men’s basketball will return to the court on Friday against Pacific.
One of the stars of MU’s last two games has been Caleb Grill, who scored 33 points against Eastern Washington and 15 against Mississippi Valley State. Here’s what he and Dennis Gates had to say leading up to Mizzou’s contest against Pacific on Friday.
Dennis Gates | Head coach
On his biggest takeaway from the first few games of the season: “Growth. That was my biggest takeaway. We’re not who we were at Memphis. I saw a team being able to put two halves of basketball together gradually get used to eachother but also get used to game play. I think whenever you have a new group, as many guys as we have as it relates to newcomers, they’re getting used to each other. They’re getting used to our style of play, and being able to just put two halves of basketball together is very important, but those are the things that I’ve recognized, is the growth and us being unselfish.”
On rotations: “The only worry, and I wouldn’t look at it as a worry, as any coach is not having a rotation, not having guys, because the season can bring about a lot of, you know, moments, meaning obstacles. We’re in the weather in the season now, where it’s flu season, right? You want to have guys to be able to step to step up when someone is down. And I think in years past, we didn’t have that type of opportunity. When you look at the growth of your nucleus, we have a nucleus of guys who’ve been in the program for one, two years, and that’s a positive.”
“I’d rather have a rotation and opportunity to play multiple guys than not.”
More on rotations: “Our rotation has been intentional. I’ve been doing the same rotation of guys since we got here. What I’ve done is I’ve had our veterans in a place where I know what they can do in their experience. And what is important is having Ant(hony) Robinson (II) develop his leadership skills. And he has been the point guard in another unit, although he started games, he’s never practiced with the upperclassmen because they can cover his weaknesses and make it a little bit easier as it relates to his development, and I didn’t want that. The same with Annor Boateng. Annor Boateng has been in the starting lineup, but he’s never been ‘on the team’ where he’s not getting the reps. I want these guys to learn certain things, and that’s what they’ve been learning all along. So for me, it’s always been intentional, and our team has done a great job responding from those moments, whenever their number has gotten called, to be able to step up and play the number of minutes and improve in the areas that they need to improve.”
On why Gates prefers a longer rotation: “What I think that helps is it allows guys to play maximum effort in-between the lines. From an exhaustion standpoint, it allows your team to have the depth in case of something that was happening that we don’t like happening, right? We don’t like guys not being available, but if in fact guys were not available, you don’t lose as much from multiple guys being in reference to that lineup. The other thing is your practices are highly intense, and you sharpen each other’s blade. You’re able to improve. You see the improvement, and it’s almost like having an adequate sparring partner. You have to be able to compete at a high level based off of what and how the athletes in the SEC as well as non-conference play are going to look, and that’s what we do. Our walk-ons do a great job as well. Jeremy Sanchez, Danny Stephens and JV Brown. Those guys are some of our harder workers. They are great at what they do, and they are guys that have played and could play in the game right now if something was to happen. So for me, those guys being available at all times, they are the heartbeat in practices in addition to the depth of our guys just being out there and being new to our system,”
On the health of Tony Perkins: “Tony Perkins was practicing before the Mississippi Valley game. We’re just gonna play it day-by-day, game-by-game, but it’s one of those things where I didn’t want to put him in that situation, and I just, more importantly, wanted him to take the moment to step back … we got another guy that’s just as capable, that’s able to play, and when you have that, you can make decisions for the big picture, not just the short-term.”
About solidifying the rotation: “I think there’s a course of development that takes place. I know what we’re going to get from Mark Mitchell, what we’re going to get from Caleb Grill, what we’re going to get from Tamar Bates. We know what we’re going to get from those guys. It’s about now having consistency around those guys … we know what we’re going to get from Josh Gray. Now, how will our other guys be able to fill in? I think Ant Robinson is showing his growth. Trent Pierce is showing his growth. Our freshman, they’re showing their development, but also their growth. We have transfers that are showing their comfort level, Marques Warrick and Jacob Crews. We have different guys that has grown. Aidan Shaw has to become more consistent from a rebounding standpoint, shot-blocking, raw athlete that we know he is. We got to see those plays multiple times, and those guys have opportunities to play. But we know what our core and nucleus of guys are, and what they’ve done. Ant Robinson is solidifying himself as a core guy, just because of how he impacts the game. So slowly but surely, you’ll see those core guys really stand out, stand up, and you’ll see that form by December, end of December as we move into conference (play), and that’s what the non-conference schedule is about.”
On Marcus Allen: “There’s a confidence, a silent confidence, not an arrogance, a confidence about Marcus Allen, because I know what high school program he’s played for, and whether it’s prep over at AZ Compass or even Miami Norland. I think he has been coached a tremendous way that allows his defensive IQ to take over in games and be trusted. He’s always in the right place. He can make the plays that may not show up in a stat sheet. He can defend multiple positions, and some kids aren’t okay with that. Marcus Allen was recruited as one of the top two-way guys in the country, if not the best in that ‘24 class. We’re happy to have him, and I’m excited to see what he continues to do between the lines. But slowly but surely, you see his minutes increase because he’s not afraid to do dirty work. He’s not afraid to impact the game with the little things, and he’s going to continue to do that because that’s what he does in practice every day.”
On Josh Gray: “Josh Gray has played in this conference at a high level for the last four years. In addition to that, Josh Gray is seven-foot, 200 plus pounds, right? We see the shoulders, we see the muscles. We see how he can impact space with his strength. He’s a great defender. The one thing that I would say is our field goal percentage defense goes down when he’s in the game, the ability to rebound in traffic and make those plays … you are less likely to give up the points in the paint in different plays like that.”
Caleb Grill | Guard
On his relationship with Gates: “It’s a role model that I needed in my life, and getting the opportunity to come here and forming the relationship I have with him is what I needed for myself on the basketball court and off the basketball court as well. He’s just someone I can go here when I’m away from my close family and friends from back home, and he’s just someone I can trust. I think that’s always been something really hard with my life is really trusting people and, just the ability to have where I feel like I can tell him anything and everything, and just we have that relationship with each other is something that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life, and I hope he does as well.”
Gates: “I love you, too.” Grill: “I love you, too.”
On what Mizzou needs to improve upon: “Putting together two halves consistently leading up into the end of the non-con and into conference season is what we really need to be focusing on these next couple games.”
On what it’ll take to improve performance in second halves: “I think everybody usually comes out with a lot of energy, and it’s easy to come out, like the Memphis game, first game of the year, a lot of energy. But how can we sustain that effort over time? Because mentally and physically, you’re going to get tired. So I think there’s just a conditioning part that comes into it … I think almost every team in the country is really going to have that problem start the year. So I think the ability we have to respond quicker in the second halves … we have a deep rotation, so we can just use that to our advantage, and wear teams out in the second half. We just got to keep our energy level really high.”
On differences in his game from last season to this season: “I would just say I feel like more back to normal. I just like last season, I feel like I never got the right footing. And then starting this year, I never got the right footing, but I just started really focusing more on the defensive end and the other small things and not worry about my shooting and all that. Just worrying about those things and doing the winning things on offense and defense just has led to me being in rhythm.”
On what’s impressed him about Marcus Allen: “His maturity on and off the court. You see a lot of talent. Especially with freshmen, you see a lot of talent. You see, okay, that’s why he got recruited to come here, but just his understanding of the game, offensively and defensively, I think it’s really impressive. He plays the game like he’s an upperclassman.”
“He just is always in the right spot both ends of the floor.”
On Anthony Robinson II’s development: “I would even go back into the spring, where we were doing individual workouts after the season. It’s just, I remember me and him were grouped up together a lot during that, and I think in him, we are really pushing each other a lot through those workouts, whether it’s on the court or in the weight room. Me and him, we just really got a chance to build a connection like that. We got to learn off of one another. Us feeding into each other, I think we made each other better leaders and more competitive within each other, with our workouts. Then, getting into the summer, I think he’s done a really good job of being that leader for the underclassmen, the freshman. I always see him around with the freshmen and helping them out a lot. He kind of looks like an older sibling to those guys, and I think that’s just that leadership he’s built off the court, it gets translated onto the court, and that’s why you see how much he’s improved from season one to season two because of his leadership qualities and the confidence he’s gained within himself.”
On Robinson’s increased aggressiveness: “He’s a tremendous on-ball defender. I think he proved that last year. But this year, I think he’s added maybe more size and physicality with the weight room in the offseason, and you can see that he’s drawing more fouls and has the ability to get downhill, hold the line and kind of play like, I don’t want to say like Jalen Brunson, but he kind of like plays like a bigger guard, like Jalen Bronson, when he gets in there and draws fouls like that.”
On Pacific: “They have a lot of high-major players on their team. Our goal going to this game is, we’re not playing Pacific, we’re playing a bunch of high-major players who have all been a part of high-major programs. It can be kind of deceiving, like looking at the name on the front of the chest, but we want to better ourselves, and we know what we got to do to better ourselves.”
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