COLUMBIA, Mo. — In a season that’s already challenged most assumptions about Missouri basketball’s first year under Dennis Gates, the Tigers can defy expectations again Saturday at a place where they haven’t tasted success in a decade.
The last time Mizzou won a game at Mississippi State, current graduate assistant Phil Pressey, 31, was in the Tigers’ starting lineup, alongside Laurence Bowers, 32, who now serves as executive director of MU’s preferred name, image and likeness collective — long before NIL was a concept in college athletics. The Tigers have lost their last seven games at MSU’s Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, last leaving there with a 42-point victory on Feb.