Missouri basketball traveled to top-five Florida and changed the scope of its season. Here’s what changed by way of MU’s upset win.

Missouri earned its first road win over a top-five team since 2012 on Tuesday as it took down No. 5 Florida 83-82 in a physical slugfest in Gainesville that lasted more than two and a half hours and featured 60 free throws.

After a massive offensive output in the first half, Missouri basketball held off a Florida comeback to stun the top-five-ranked Gators in Gainesville.

As Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates celebrated his 45th birthday on Tuesday, his squad put a bow on his day, surviving a late scare in an 83-82 win over No. 5 Florida (15-2, 2-2) in Gainesville. The Tigers have now won three consecutive SEC contests, earning their first conference road win since March 1, 2023, at LSU.

Missouri's last league win came against Tennessee during the 2023 Southeastern Conference tournament. The Tigers' flight back from their Saturday game at Auburn diverted from Columbia to St. Louis due to the weekend's winter weather.

Florida doesn’t attack the rim quite as much as Mizzou, which explains the free-throw disparity. Instead, the Gators loft a lot of 3-point attempts, taking the second-most shots from behind the arc (27.9) per game in the SEC.

Just as things were getting back on track, Florida basketball suffers a loss at home to a solid Missouri team that wasn’t favored coming in.

The Mizzou Tigers are 3-1 to start Southeastern Conference men's basketball play for the first time in program history.