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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Mizzou men's basketball is ready to make its Mizzou Arena debut for the 2025-26 season. After taking a victory in the first game of the season against Howard, the Tigers will host Southeast Missouri State on Friday for their first home game of the year. In the first road trip, head coach Dennis Gates and company picked up an 88-67 win. Despite the 21-point margin, the Bison fought hard the whole way and tested M.U. on both ends of the floor, forcing 16 turnovers. "It put us in a great learning environment," said coach Gates. "A great situation to learn how to dig ourselves out of it." You can watch the full interviews with coach Gates and Jacob Crews in the video player above. Although they lost the turnover battle, the Tigers had all players score more than 7 points. Senior Shawn Phillips led the way with 16, and Jayden Stone notched 13 of his own. "I think some of those turnovers early was because guys were trying to get points," said Gates. "But allowing the game to come to you is what that results in. I thought our guys, for 35 minutes out of the game, allowed the basketball to get to the best scorer in that possession." The Tigers are hoping to utilize their versatility and take advantage of being able to get a good shot with any player on the floor. "We're deep. I went from not really playing a couple games before Jax State, and came off and led in scoring and hit a bunch of threes," said senior guard Jacob Crews. "Everybody's going to have their night, we're a deep team, and that everybody is together in this." Looking ahead to Friday's game against Southeastern Missouri State, coach Gates expects the Redhawks to be competitive and urges the team to not underestimate their will to win. "It's not ironic that this will be a Super Bowl for SEMO," said Gates. "They're going to be excited to play us, and we can't allow their passion to outmatch ours." Tipoff at Mizzou Arena is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m.
