Dennis Gates' hilarious request for Missouri basketball fans in final seconds of Alabama upset

02/20/2025 09:41 AM

The Missouri basketball team picked up one of their best wins of the season on Wednesday night as they handily took down #4 Alabama at home. The Tigers started the game on a 12-0 run, and they never looked back as they ended up winning the game 110-98. The Crimson Tide never threatened any sort of comeback as Missouri held a comfortable lead for the entire game. It was an impressive win, and at the end of the game, Missouri head coach Dennis Gates wanted to make sure that Tigers fans celebrated the right way.

Court storming has been a big topic of discussion in the SEC this year as the conference is trying to put a stop to it. Well, Dennis Gates found a good way to stop it from happening. With under two seconds left in the game, he grabbed the microphone and directly asked the crowd not to storm the court.

“Please do not rush the court,” Gates said to the crowd.

Missouri basketball fans responded with some boos, but it worked. There was no court storming, and that saved the Tigers some money. Schools are fined a hefty amount when their fans storm the court or field if it’s after a football game.

The fines are obviously something that Gates wanted to avoid, but safety is the biggest concern when it comes to court storms. That’s why the fines are there in the first place.

“We don’t need to be getting fines out there. But the safety, and I hope that becomes a normal thing,” Gates said after the game when he was asked about his request to the crowd, according to an article from Sports Illustrated. “And when you are excited, which I credit our crowd for being, I just didn’t want us to rush the court and get a fine. That’s kind of how I see it. Ultimately, they showed up, and I thank our crowd, I wasn’t trying to take any fun away from them, but I hope they’re ready for next week as well. I kind of want them to keep that energy up and obviously continue to do the things that they do to impact the game.”

Gates did give credit to the crowd as well as it was a great atmosphere, and that helped anchor the Missouri basketball team to a win.

“I credit our crowd. It was electric inside of Mizzou Arena and our guys just continued to feed off of it as you can see the first couple minutes of the game,” Gates said. “As well as the end of the game, I thought Jacob Crews did a tremendous job sparking us when Alabama cut it to six twice, and our defense was able to get through the test of time. And there was several loose balls we didn’t get, but I just focus on the ones that we did get. And our guys executed and played on self, especially these two [Caleb Gril and Mark Mitchell].”

This was a massive win for Missouri against a top-five team, and they didn’t have to pay a big price for it because of the celebration. All in all, that’s a huge victory for the Tigers and their wallet.

“Electric atmosphere,” Gates said. “Two top-15 teams duking it out. I thought our players did a tremendous job preparing. I credit our staff, they continue to show up every day and do a great job, and our guys execute everything to the best of their ability. And when you have that seamless transition of information going from coaches to players onto the court, you know we've got future head coaches on the staff. I’m just being honest with you, and I’m proud of them.”

Dennis Gates and the Missouri basketball team improved to 20-6 overall with the win and 9-4 in SEC play. Alabama has now lost two games in a row as they fell to 21-5 and 10-3 in conference play. Auburn now has at least a two-game lead on every team in the SEC standings.

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