Dennis Gates shares if he is using losing streak as a motivating factor for Missouri

After falling to Arkansas 88-73 on Saturday, Missouri set a program-record 14 straight losses. Following the game, a reporter asked head coach Dennis Gates he is using the losing streak as motivational material. Gates didn’t hesitate to squash any confusion.

“I focus on one day at a time, one game at a time,” Gates said. “I’ve never done that in a winning streak and I definitely don’t count anything outside of that. I thought our guys mentally prepared in the right way. Our spirits are high. Our coaching staff is doing a great job. At the end of the day, what you see is a team playing hard and giving their very best no matter what our circumstances are, and there’s no excuses.”

Missouri’s downward spiral certainly isn’t due to effort. Prior to their loss at Arkansas, the Tigers came within five points of No. 5 Tennessee. One game before that, the team lost by a mere three points to Ole Miss.

While Mizzou’s loss against Arkansas wasn’t nearly as close, the Tigers still showed maximum effort. Missouri guard Sean East II was particularly impressive, tallying a career-high 33 points while shooting 9-14 from the field and 15-16 from the free-throw line.

Eric Musselman’s praises Missouri’s individual talent

The Tigers entered the game with a 13-losing streak, but Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman didn’t overlook them. Ahead of the Saturday matchup, Musselman praised the individual pieces of Mizzou’s roster.

“[Nick] Honor, No. 10; No. 55, [Sean] East; No. 35, Noah Carter — Those three guys have been starters in this league. That’s a really good nucleus,” Musselman said. “[Aidan] Shaw’s got experience. Obviously, Connor Vanover has got experience. And then, a guy that is as good as any newcomer in the league is [Tamar] Bates from Indiana. That was a great pickup for them out of the portal.

“That’s a talented team. We’ve got to bring our A-game. We’ve got to have good transition defense. We got to do a good job taking care of the basketball. We’ve got to understand East and Bates are primary scorers for them. And and we’ve got to try to do a good job on it.”

Arkansas did enough to win. Now, with four regular season games remaining, Dennis Gates and Co. will look to find a win of its own. On Wednesday, the team will square off against No. 24 Florida at 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.