Dennis Gates takes direct shot at Chris Jans, Mississippi State after SEC Tournament matchup

Missouri defeated Mississippi State 83-75 in the second round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday. Head coach Dennis Gates revealed that his Tigers used some outside motivation from the previous night to help will them to victory over the Bulldogs.

“I heard the interview last night that you guys had with [Josh] Hubbard and [Mississippi State head coach Chris] Jans, and they mentioned they want to get-back,” Gates said on the SEC Network after the win. “So I made sure our players understood what get-back meant, and we were ready to play. We knew the very beginning was going to be very physical, and we sort of used the term football, and our guys were ready for every every punch that they were going to be throwing.”

Jans could have been referring to the lone meeting between Missouri and Mississippi State in the regular season, which the Tigers won 88-61 in Starkville on Feb. 1. However, it’s unclear what the Bulldogs head coach meant exactly.

During the interview, Gates used the word physical to describe Thursday’s matchup, as 55 free throws were attempted throughout the contest. 40 total fouls were called and 36 of Missouri’s points, and 30 of Mississippi State’s points came in the paint.

The Tigers were led by a combined effort from Tamar Bates and Tony Perkins. Bates led the show with 25 points on 8 of 12 shooting while Perkins totaled 20 points with seven rebounds and four assists.

Missouri will now advance into the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament to play the No. 2 seed Florida Gators on Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will air live on the SEC Network as the two teams do battle for a spot in the SEC semifinals.

The two teams met just one time during the regular season, which saw the Tigers best Florida 83-82 on Jan. 14. It was the only time that the Gators suffered defeat on their home court this season.

Gators head coach Todd Golden was on-hand to see the matchup between Missouri and Mississippi State, where Golden revealed that the Gators believe they have a No. 1-seed on the line this week in the SEC Tournament. Of course, that means they would need to go through the Tigers on the way to reaching that goal. Missouri would love nothing less than to play spoiler for the Gators on Friday night.