Missouri basketball: What is connectivity and how will it help the Tigers in the SEC tournament?

Connectivity

noun

con· nec· tiv· i· ty

the quality, state, or capability of being connective or connected

Especially: the ability to connect to or communicate with another computer or computer system

(From Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary)

Dennis Gates has been talking about connectivity all Missouri basketball season.

When things are going well, it’s because of the team’s connectivity. When the Tigers weather a storm, it’s because of their connectivity.

After DeAndre Gholston hit a game-winning buzzer-beater from halfcourt against Tennessee, it was assistant coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young bringing the word up in the locker room.

“The power of connectivity man, is amazing,” Young said in the locker room on a video the team released via social media. “...Everybody was dapping, we never flinched. Nobody had a bad attitude tonight, nobody got mad about nothing. We won the game because our connectivity man.”

So, what is connectivity?

The dictionary definition isn’t the most specific. It also implies that the word is mostly meant to deal with computers or computer systems, things that are more literally connected.

Missouri basketball is not a computer or computer system. But words can mean different things to different people, and Gates and his company appear to have bestowed that one with a meaning of its own.

Gates has been using it since the early days of his tenure. After the Mizzou Madness basketball kickoff event on Sept. 30, he was asked how anxious he was to get on the court with his team for games that count.

“It’s not anxious, because right now I’m undefeated,” he said. “But I get to see every day the growth of our program, the connectivity of our group, and it’s growing and trending in the right direction.”

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When asked what it meant and how it’s important to the Tigers on Tuesday, Gates didn’t provide the clearest definition.

But he gave a few hints.

“First of all it’s rare, it’s not a common thing,” Gates said. “The other part of it, it takes a lot to work on it and you have to work on it every day. It’s not just going to show up. It has to be talked about, it has to be seen, it has to be heard, it has to morph into what it will become and it’s not ever going to stay the same from one day to the next.

“It changes like the temperature and you have to, as a coach, always be sort of a gauge and if it’s not right, if it’s not where you think it should be, my job is to make sure I get the temperature right and make sure our disposition is accordingly assessed the right way. And there’s just things that we do and will always do. I can’t tell you all of it, but maybe one day you’ll be able to continue to see it.”

The word has stayed on the tip of his tongue throughout the year. Before Missouri’s win over Ole Miss, he even acknowledged how frequently it has been said.

But he also provided insight into what exactly connectivity means at MU.

“It has become a cliché word, but it means something different to us, as we always used it in different environments, but more importantly with each other,” Gates said. “We want these guys to stand in each other's weddings. We want these guys to have relationships with each other, and that’s the growth for a team, (that has) only been together for one year, to be able to provide lifelong relationships, and that’s where I see us growing the most.”

Therein lies the secret to connectivity. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus warns his followers of false prophets, noting that bad trees cannot bear good fruit and vice versa.

“So then, you will know them by their fruits,” he noted, according to the New American Standard translation of the Bible.

What are the fruits of connectivity?

If connectivity was just chemistry on the court, it would be easier to define. And the on-court performance certainly seems to be part of the definition, from Sean East’s ability to perfectly spot a pass and set up a huge three-pointer, to Nick Honor opening the Feb. 7 South Carolina game with a well-timed alley-oop lob to Noah Carter.

But it’s also everything else. It’s Kobe Brown, a first-team all-SEC player, realizing the team’s best lineup for the second half against Georgia didn’t include him, and telling Gates to keep him on the bench.

It’s Mohamed Diarra and Mabor Majak starting out the season not playing, then continuing to develop and blossoming into key contributors late in the year. It’s Tre Gomillion calling a meeting with his head coach to insist he was ready to return from a groin injury, and Gates listening to him, believing in his captain.

It’s Gates going fishing with Noah Carter. It’s also Gates, Ben Sternberg and MU athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois escorting Isiaih Mosley onto the court themselves during the Tigers’ senior day ceremony, when the guard, who has been out dealing with an undisclosed personal issue, did not have family to walk with him.

The fruits are obvious, even if the internal definition isn’t. And when Missouri begins postseason play on Friday in the SEC tournament quarterfinals, those fruits could help the 23-win Tigers toward more success.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball: How connectivity can help in SEC tournament