Kwiecinski: Why Mizzou is a NCAA Tournament team, no matter what happens

Missouri was blazing Saturday.

The Tigers shot 14 of 30 from 3-point range. Iowa State answered with turnovers. MU buried the No. 12 Cyclones.

It was the performance of the season for MU. The Tigers grabbed their fourth win over an AP Top 25 team this season, and third in blowout fashion. Missouri head coach Dennis Gates summed up the win in just a few words.

"We led the game for 31 minutes and 31 seconds," he said.

Pure domination.

As Gates turns the page to February, he doesn't have to do anything else. He's secured an NCAA Tournament bid after one year in Columbia.

The resume speaks for itself. There's no reason the Tigers should be left out of the field of 68, even if Missouri falters a bit in February. Of course, Missouri can't go winless in February and expect a bid. But there's no way that happens. Not with this team and not after Saturday's performance.

Missouri took care of business Saturday in what you can argue was its best performance of the season to this point.

It wasn't just a win over the Cyclones, it was a beating. MU took it to the No. 12 team in the nation, a NET-rated top-10 team and a Quadrant 1 team. It's the third Quad 1 win of the season for Missouri, with the first being against Arkansas and Illinois.

They beat down Iowa State with hot shooting, disciplined defense and its emerging players.

ISU is known for slowing games down to a grinding halt. Missouri is known for running faster than the speed of sound. Something had to give.

What gave was Iowa State's defense, which ranked in the nation in points allowed.

There wasn't much Iowa State could do, either. When Missouri went into a shooting funk in the second half, the Tigers forced their way out of it. D'Moi Hodge took the most ill-advised, deep and falling-away 3-pointer he could. It went in, because of course it did.

Even DeAndre Gholston, who was in a bit of a funk for most of the night, hit a three that came with a foul late in the second half which was basically the dagger.

There's no denying this offense sometimes, and one of the best defenses in the Big 12 proved that it couldn't do much to slow down the Tigers' shooting. That eased the burden on MU's rebounding effort, where Iowa State earned the edge over Missouri

"I feel like the shots going in is what helped me get the rebounds," Missouri forward Kobe Brown said. "When they didn't go in, the defense assumed they were going in, so it was a lot easier."

Missouri will have more performances like this, just like it did all of January.

Even though bottoming out is the only thing that would keep MU out of the tournament, think a full-on crater by going 0-10 in the whole month of February, there's no chance of that happening.

Gates won't let that happen. Neither will the likes of Brown, Nick Honor, D'Moi Hodge, Sean East, Isiaih Mosley and Tre Gomillion. Gates said still thinks his team hasn't played well, even after the Tigers bludgeoned Iowa State for over 30 minutes of game time.

“I don’t think we played well, to be honest with you," Gates said. "I have a different expectation for myself, my staff, and for our players. It’s not result-based, it’s the quality."

Gates said this, and some alumni in the back of the press room chuckled. They think it's a motivational tactic. It's not. Gates genuinely doesn't think MU has played to what's "good" by his standards, let alone "great."

Gates deadpanned as he continued his answer.

"There were times that Iowa State made runs, there were times we got on our heels and we didn’t execute certain things. I don’t look at the result," Gates said. "We won, but did we do the things we were supposed to do for 40 straight minutes? I’m not result driven when it comes down to it. I want quality, and the quality wasn’t where I want it to be."

Will this team ever reach the high standards Gates has set for his program? Probably not, if we're being honest.

Those standards are so sky-high. He expects his teams to compete for, and win, national championships. Teams need to be stacked from top to bottom with as few weaknesses as possible and the right amount of luck to be the ones lifting that trophy at the end of the tournament.

MU might not be that team this year. It is just year one after all. It can be in the future. Either way, it all equals out to Missouri being a lock for the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

“Coach always tells us we have to enjoy the moment,” senior guard D'Moi Hodge said. “That's one of the biggest keys going through the game, just having fun, enjoying teammates, enjoying every play, don't dwell on mistakes. So I'll say we had fun tonight.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Kwiecinski: Why Mizzou is a NCAA Tournament team, no matter what