Takeaways from Mizzou Basketball's win over Texas A&M include postseason hopes for the Tigers, a change in the rotation and solid support around Mark Mitchell.
Mizzou basketball pulled off a thrilling upset victory on the road to take down an up-tempo Texas A&M squad and move to 17-7 on the season and 7-4 in Southeastern Conference play.
The game went down to the last possession, as starting center Shawn Phillips Jr. converted an alley-oop to put the Tigers up one point and blocked a layup from Aggies forward Rashaun Agee with seconds left to secure the win.
Here's what was learned about Mizzou in the impressive win.
Mizzou can compete in the postseason
There were serious and valid doubts about Mizzou's legitimacy as a postseason contender early in the season. The Tigers were blown out by Kansas and Illinois, had scares against Southeast Missouri State and had only won one road game (Howard) in non-conference play.
But fast forward to today, and the Tigers postseason resume is looking... impressive?
Mizzou is now 7-4 in conference play with wins over No. 25 Kentucky, No. 14 Florida and a formidable Texas A&M squad that's projected to make the NCAA Tournament by most.
All three of those wins were decided in the last few possessions, which are scenarios that will almost certainly come up in the postseason should the Tigers make a deep run.
Mark Mitchell doesn't have to be the hero
Senior forward Mark Mitchell has been the hero many times throughout his two-season tenure with the Tigers. He's led the team in scoring both seasons and has his fair share of clutch buckets — the memorable corner 3-pointer against Kansas in 2024-25 and the wild buzzer-beater against Oklahoma earlier this season both come to mind quickly.
While Mitchell is a fantastic crunch-time scorer and a go-to option when things take a turn for the worst, there's other options to handle business. Mitchell scored nine points on 3-for-7 shooting against A&M, but dished out a career-high eight assists.
Trent Pierce (23), T.O. Barrett (17) and Shawn Phillips (12) were Mizzou's three leading scorers on the night. Mitchell was second-to-last.
Barrett was vital in breaking the Aggies' relentless full-court press, while Pierce's spacing and cutting opened up the offense to a downpour of 86 points. Phillips' lob-threat and vertical ability also unlocked the transition game.
Mizzou taking down a top-of-the-conference Texas A&M squad while its leadings scorer scored just over half of his season average point total is impressive, and speaks volumes to the talent around him.
Dennis Gates has cut his rotation
Head coach Dennis Gates has relied on seven staples in the rotation to give him 20 or more minutes per game in conference play:
Mark Mitchell
Jayden Stone
T.O. Barrett
Trent Pierce
Shawn Phillips Jr.
Anthony Robinson II
Jacob Crews
No other Tiger has played more than 6 minutes per game across Mizzou's conference stretch. Gates had experimented in giving short stints of action to bench players like Sebastian Mack, Trent Burns, Nicholas Randall and Annor Boateng throughout the first 11 games of conference play, but it appears those days may be over.
Aside from the seven players Gates typically relies on, Burns was the only player to see the court against Texas A&M — he played one defensive possession to guard an inbound pass with 4 seconds left in the first half.
If anything, this signifies that Gates realizes the importance of the final stretch in conference play and is done giving minutes to non-guaranteed contributors.