Here ya go...

Posted on: January 28, 2025 at 17:24:40 CT

COLUMBIA, Mo. — There’s the newfound group of five who start each half. There’s the combination that should work on paper but hasn’t done as well on the floor. And there’s the set that outscores opponents by almost a point per minute of game time when it gets to work together.

Through seven Southeastern Conference games, No. 20 Missouri — up a couple of spots in the latest Associated Press poll — has won five games and lost two to sit third in the league as the Tigers enter an idle round with a week between games.

In that span, Mizzou coach Dennis Gates has deployed 103 different lineups — some playing a few minutes at a time together, others only getting a possession before another substitution.

And while that seems like a lot, Gates’ rotation has slimmed from what it was during nonconference play. Only eight players have appeared in all of MU’s SEC games, suggesting they are his core group. He’ll typically pull two or three more players in for any given game, but outside of that group of eight, there will be some DNPs on their game logs.

Of all the lineups, there are three that have been used at some point in five or more SEC games and have spent 17 or more minutes on the floor together — a clear tier of combinations that get the most usage.

Here’s a look at each group and how it’s performing:

The starters
Anthony Robinson II, Tony Perkins, Tamar Bates, Trent Pierce, Mark Mitchell

These five players have started Missouri’s past six games and have begun the second half together in each of those six, too. It’s remarkable that this is the opening lineup Gates has become so comfortable with since, prior to Mizzou’s Jan. 7 game against Louisiana State, it had played together only once before: the season opener against Memphis more than two months prior.

This set of five was outscored by one point in nearly three minutes of play against Memphis but is plus-28 together in more than 47 minutes of SEC action.

Gates has used this combination for somewhere between three and a half to seven minutes at the start of halves, but this exact grouping hasn’t played together at any other point in games besides the start of periods.

This group seems to do especially well on the defensive end of the floor, allowing 81.7 points per 100 possessions to conference opponents — a mark that falls in the 90th percentile nationally. They notch a steal on 22% of opponent possessions an foul just once every four minutes.

The Tigers’ starters lean into 3-pointers and have made 46.9% of them while on the floor together, giving them a better shooting percentage outside the arc than inside it — they’ve got a 44.7% rate of making 2-point attempts.

Where this unit tends to struggle is at making free throws (61.9% from the stripe) and at the rim, where MU’s starters finish 56.5% of their looks, putting them in the bottom third nationally.

The tough nuts to crack
Perkins, Bates, Caleb Grill, Pierce, Mitchell

Take out a point guard and mix in a guard who is shooting 48.3% from 3 and can rebound well. That ought to make the Missouri system hum nicely, right?

Oddly, no. This lineup — which swaps Robinson for Grill, often early in halves — has been outscored by 10 points in a bit more than 18 minutes of league action together.

It’s another combination that has appeared regularly in SEC play but had only popped up previously against Memphis. Now, it’s Gates’ second-most used lineup in conference play.

This group is a perfect 100% in scoring at the rim, has a fantastic rate of 0.81 free-throw attempts per shot and shoots well from 3-point land.

For some reason, when these five are on the floor together, the Tigers are prone to turning the ball over on 24% of their possessions and fouling their opponent. They also can’t do much to stop other opponents, giving up a whopping 145.4 points per 100 possessions, which vastly cancels out a respectable 114.5 points per 100 possessions on offense.

A possible cause? Bates and Grill aren’t that effective together.

They can carry a scoring load incredibly well — their 51 combined points were too much for Mississippi to deal with over the weekend — but MU has lost their 103 shared SEC minutes by 19 points.

The wrinkle
Robinson II, Bates, Grill, Pierce, Mitchell

Missouri’s third-most used lineup in SEC play complicates that last notion from the group prior. Swap Perkins for Robinson and the numbers look stellar with Grill and Bates on the floor together. This group of five has outscored league opponents by 14 points in 17 minutes together, which is quite electric.

This unit sits in the 80th or better percentile nationally in a whole bunch of offensive categories: points per 100 possessions, free throw attempt rate, field goal percentage at the rim, turnover rate and fouls drawn.

Defensively, it holds up well, too — no opponent has made a midrange bucket against this crew, and opponents are collectively shooting 58.3% inside the arc against this lineup.

The takeaways
The differences between Mizzou’s effectiveness when Perkins is running the point versus Robinson could matter at times, as does the ability of Bates and Grill to get going together.


But two of the fixtures in the Tigers’ favorite lineups during SEC play have been Pierce and Mitchell, the forwards who have figured out how to work as a solid frontcourt despite neither being a traditional center.