Braggin’ Rights loss to Illinois makes clear how far Mizzou has to go this season

A year ago in Dennis Gates’ rather enchanted debut at Mizzou, the season pivoted on what became MU’s most lopsided victory over Illinois in the 41-game Braggin’ Rights series.

Pivoted, we say, because that 93-71 win was delivered just 12 days after the Tigers had been shredded 95-67 by Kansas at Mizzou Arena.

That loss had exposed a few issues, but perhaps most of all their discomfort in such a glaring spotlight. But it also girded them to contend with it, even bask in it, against the then-16th-ranked Illini in one of the nation’s most raucous basketball environments — brimming with nearly 20,000 fans essentially split 50-50.

Buoyed, too, by a buzzer-beater victory over Central Florida, Mizzou then beat Kentucky and was on its way to its first NCAA Tournament victory since 2010.

The program was up and running, it seemed, including into an offseason of recruiting the nation’s fourth-ranked class for 2024.

But the building of a program seldom is as tidy as a straight line sloping upward. It’s about zigs and zags, fits and starts, ebb and flow.

And MU flashed the reality of that in the exact opposite way this time around against Illinois on Friday night at the Enterprise Center.

Demonstrably stronger, quicker and more cohesive, and motivated by the debacle a year ago, the 13th-ranked Illini (9-2) clobbered MU 97-73. It was the third-greatest margin of victory for Illinois in the series … and Mizzou’s most distant defeat since that Kansas game last year.

So instead of this game serving as a springboard again, now it will need to be more like pushing off bottom in what is shaping up not so much as an encore to last season as an anticlimactic gap year.

Because after tumbling to 7-5 with its third loss in a row, MU seems to be grappling with everything from its rotations — using 11 players in the first half and 12 overall on Friday — to a range of vulnerabilities.

Not that Mizzou can’t reset and maximize whatever its potential might be to some fine effect. The Southeastern Conference season hasn’t even begun yet, and Gates obviously is a smart and resourceful coach attuned to his team.

Over the next few days, he said late Friday night, he and his staff will spend a lot of time regrouping, reflecting on the season to date and self-scouting.

With that, he added …

“I’ll come away with some really good answers,” he said, “to us moving forward and the adjustments we need to make.”

For that matter, Gates insists this team is “very, very close” to a breakthrough and “trending in the right direction.” And that he sees “the pieces ... I see the growth.”

Even if he understood that it might not be evident.

“It’s probably things …” he said, “not seen with the naked eye from the outside looking in.”

That was one thing most observers could agree on Friday, even as Gates otherwise seemed to be seeking to minimize concerns. He brushed aside a question about whether it’s time to consider more playing time for his younger players.

So much so that his words, including that he considers Illinois a Final Four team, echoed as more a message to his players than to fans or media.

For instance, Gates stressed that he believed a discrepancy in first-half free-throw opportunities (18 to five for Illinois) was the biggest factor in the 25-point halftime “deviation” in the score of a game that effectively was over by then.

But the naked eye couldn’t help but fixate on Illinois’ often unimpeded ball movement (17 assists in the game), MU missing 16 of 17 three-pointers in the first half and the Illini outrebounding the Tigers 51-35 overall.

About the best thing you could say for Mizzou was that it didn’t crumple and outscored Illinois 49-48 in the second half.

The game, though, was decided by then.

In the very reverse of how it was a year ago — leaving one to question how, and if, MU can pivot to another run this season with a group that, at least right now, appears less connected and talented than a year ago.