After Beating Kentucky, Missouri Basketball Has Done a Complete 180 On Their Season

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On December 22nd, 2025 I was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for Christmas at the resorts bar watching Mizzou being given belt to ass by Illinois. This was another chapter of the "Greg Curse" and I totally thought the curse was real after suffering our worst loss ever in the Braggin' Rights Game.

I thought the season was over and Dennis Gates was headed for another winless conference year like 2023, and with Mizzou opening up SEC play against preseason No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Kentucky I was fully bracing for the longest, worst month of my sports-fandom life from losing Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL to Mizzou basketball being complete ass. I was wrong. 

Mizzou went onto beat the reigning national champions Florida Gators 69-67 in Mizzou Arena. I will say Mizzou was getting the bounces going their way but in a season like the one we have already had, it felt fucking amazing. What was amazing was Coach Gates came out and said the team looked like shit the past month and he wasn't wrong. It seemed Coach Gates has changed his soft demeanor to actually coaching his players to their fullest, which is amazing to see.

After getting our first Quad 1 win against Florida, Mizzou had another chance of a Quad 1 victory against Kentucky. Me personally, I have always hated Kentucky just because they were THE team when I was growing up and I decided to become a Mizzou fan and we have only beat them 3 times EVER before last night with all the wins being in Columbia. Having this losing history once again didn't stop this team. Mizzou came out of Rupp Arena with a 73-68 win and yeah this Kentucky team might not look good right now but we have to remember this team was a preseason AP top 10 team that reportedly put over $20 million into their roster. This win was amazing in my eyes, seeing us finally win in Rupp Arena and starting out 2-0 in SEC conference play for the first time ever.

Now am I saying I’m confident this team can make a run in the tournament? Not at all. We’ve gotta go 1–0 every game, and shit, right now we aren’t even projected to make the tournament in most predictions. But if this team keeps playing with the passion and energy they’ve shown lately, I do know one thing, they’re going to be a fun team to watch the rest of the season. 

M-I-Z