Dennis Gates, Nick Honor share value of dressing up for team flight

Missouri guard Nick Honor felt the difference in his confidence heading into Saturday’s game against Georgia thanks to an idea from coach Dennis Gates and the staff. The Tigers rolled up to Athens in style, wearing suits as they got off their flight.

Missouri went on to claim a dominant 85-63 victory against the Bulldogs to improve to 21-8 (9-7 SEC). After scoring 17 points to go along with four assists, Honor discussed the impact that dressing up pregame had on the players’ mindset going in.

“It was good,” he said. “Mostly people see us in basketball uniforms, so it was good to kind of dress up a little bit. You can still see our personality from us dressing up and getting on the plane. But I’ll say a little bit since we won. So I guess it helped.”

The Tigers went into halftime trailing 41-40, but opened the second half on a 15-3 run and never trailed again. They weren’t afraid to let it fly from beyond the arc, finishing 14-of-28 from 3-point range.

DeAndre Gholston led the Tigers with 18 points, all of which came from 3-pointers, in 24 minutes. Kobe Brown added eight points and nine rebounds.

The win helps Missouri to stay as a likely NCAA Tournament team come March. However, as Dennis Gates pointed out postgame, the way Nick Honor and his teammates arrived to the game was also a big win for the players, teaching them an important lesson.

“I want these guys to be able to be professional,” he said. “Not just basketball players, but professional in life. It helps them. It gives them confidence. Sometimes the small things add up to big things. Those guys spent more time posting pictures and looking in the mirror than any other time because it was their first suit-travel trip. Ultimately, that’s what we want to do. We want to expose them to different parts of the world, but also put them in different situations. They enjoyed it.

“On this trip, we have our excellence society. Some donors, boosters but also our family, friends and loved ones so that our players can see us as husbands, as fathers. Not just as coaches. I think that’s very important as we continue to develop the young people we’re developing. They do a great job. Our kinds and them, they treat them like siblings. They call them big brothers. You should see the relationship they have. It was a total business trip and I think our guys approached it that way and completed it that way.”

Missouri has two games remaining in the regular season, beginning with a road matchup against LSU at 8 p.m. CT on Wednesday.