The Missouri basketball team picked up one of its best wins of the season on Wednesday night as they led from start to finish against #4 Alabama. The Tigers started the game on a 12-0 run, and they ended up winning 110-98. Senior guard Tamar Bates had a big game for Missouri as he finished with 13 points on 4-6 shooting. After the game, head coach Dennis Gates defended Bates after receiving some backlash from college sports personality Dan Dakich.

This year's Missouri basketball team has orchestrated an impressive turnaround after a disappointing 2023-24 season. The Tigers are now one of the best teams in the SEC, and Tamar Bates is a big reason why. Last night's game led to an old post from Dan Dakich resurfacing.

“#iubb media clamoring for Tamar Bates at Missouri… told you about Bates from the moment he entered the IU weight room with his family … no chance to win with him!! His @MizzouHoops team HAS NOT WON A GAME IN THE SEC..- for 20 yrs I’ve told you about @IndianaMBB and I’ve never been wrong,” Dakich said in February of 2024.

Well, Dakich was wrong this time. Missouri is winning big, and they are doing it with Bates. After the game, Dennis Gates had Bates' back.

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“I don't approve of anyone directly attacking a great leader, a great young man, a dude who has never gotten in trouble,” Gates said, according to an article from Sports Illustrated. “A guy that has done everything I have asked. I don't know who he's talking about. He may be confusing somebody for somebody else, but sometimes that happens, and what I'm proud of is you hadn't seen Tamar Bates respond on social media one time, and he keeps his focus because he's grown from his experience at Indiana.”

While it didn't end up working out, Bates' experience with Indiana was an important part of his journey to success. According to Gates, Bates has never said anything negative about his time with the Hoosiers and he is grateful for the experience.

“He never says, ‘I wish I never went to Indiana’ Tamar Bates says thank you to Indiana,” Gates continued. “He has great friends. His daughter's Godfather was his teammate [at Indiana]. So from the Indiana experience, we're able to see this version of Tamar Bates, and I am absolutely proud of who he is as a man, what he stands for, his leadership qualities. I just want to sometimes make sure that our guys are told the thing they're doing well, it's not about those types of tweets.”

Tamar Bates and the Missouri basketball team are one of the best stories in college basketball this season. The Tigers are one of the best teams in the SEC as they are now 20-6 overall on the year and 9-4 in SEC play. The Tigers came into Wednesday night's game against Alabama ranked #15 in the country, but if they win their second game of the week at Arkansas on Saturday, they could jump into the top-10.