BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — There’s a little more respect for Missouri men’s basketball within the Southeastern Conference this year.

The Tigers were voted seventh in the preseason rankings, which is right where they finished last year. For the first time under Dennis Gates, Mizzou has a preseason All-SEC player in Mark Mitchell.

And the first question Gates was asked Wednesday at the SEC’s preseason media days was about his program pushing toward the top of the league’s hierarchy.

“All I did was reset the program as if it was Year 1,” Gates said. “Our players bought in. We recruited the right players.”

With the start of the 2025-26 season, a Nov. 3 game at Howard, just under three weeks away, there’s no reset happening inside Mizzou Arena. There are new pieces, sure, like with every team. The

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