Truman's Tales
Fansided

The Gates of Columbia

By Joseph Yancey

New Missouri head men's basketball coach Dennis Gates waves to the crowd as he walked into his introductory press conference at the Albrecht Family Practice Facility inside Mizzou Arena.Gates Mizzou03222022001995
New Missouri head men's basketball coach Dennis Gates waves to the crowd as he walked into his introductory press conference at the Albrecht Family Practice Facility inside Mizzou Arena.Gates Mizzou03222022001995 /
facebooktwitterreddit

It has been a while since the Missouri basketball program and winning were one in the same. The Tigers basketball teams from the Big 8 and Big 12 conferences that consistently ranked in the top 25 in the country, often placing in top 5 are a thing of yesterday.

What can Mizzou’s new head coach, Dennis Gates do to bring back a competitive team, and adjust the culture to one built around hard work, and winning?

By the time Mizzou finished a disappointing 2021-2022 season, most knew changes were on the way. Coach, Cuonzo Martin, and The University of Missouri parted ways after a 12-21 season overall, and a 5-13 conference record. A controversial decision. The University citing performance as the driving force behind Martin’s dismissal, but stayed very vague on the details.

Since moving to the SEC conference, the expectations for Mizzou have increased, which is to be expected. Coach Martin finishing his tenure with a 77-78 record was not something anyone saw coming. The fanfare around his hire was emphatic. He started off with a bang from the recruiting side, when it was announced the Columbia, Missouri native, Michael Porter Jr. would attend The University of Missouri. Porter’s injury in his first game ended his regular season college career. Porter Jr. would pledge for the 2018 NBA draft. That was a big blow for the program. I am not sure Cuonzo Martin was ever the same after that.

Dennis Gates, left, and Charlton Young laugh during Young’s introductory press conference Friday at Mizzou Arena. Young, who came from Florida State, said Missouri “is a national brand. I feel strong we’ll be able to recruit nationally.”Dsc 0665 2
Dennis Gates, left, and Charlton Young laugh during Young’s introductory press conference Friday at Mizzou Arena. Young, who came from Florida State, said Missouri “is a national brand. I feel strong we’ll be able to recruit nationally.”Dsc 0665 2 /

Enter Dennis Gates. Like Coach Martin (Missouri State,) Gates experienced success at a smaller program at Cleveland State. Gates led the Cleveland State Vikings to many firsts, and in an only three years’ time became the highest paid head coach in the Horizon League. Gates was turning heads, including those of the Missouri Athletic Department.

Dennis Gates is the 20th head basketball coach in Missouri’s history. While the shoes of Cuonzo Martin may not be difficult to fill, Coach Gates’ number one task is to create an environment that consistently produces winning seasons. That sounds a lot like filling Norman Stewart’s shoes, which are very difficult to fill. This requires making Missouri a destination for top recruits. It starts with securing local talent, which despite the recent mediocrity of the last decade, Mizzou has not been awful at, but there is significant room for improvement. Surely the recruiting could be better, but the on-court product has not helped that process any. The best solve for this: winning, obviously. It is harder to win without top talent, but it is hard to attract top talent without winning. This is a classic case of the chicken or the egg.

How does Coach Gates combat this? Well, for starters the current roster and incoming recruits are not bad. Within three months of his arrival Coach Gates had already spoken with a ton of in-state talent of the class of 2024. Realizing the importance of convincing local players to stay in state. Building starts with blocks to build upon. Missouri has that in Second Team All-SEC, Kobe Brown.

"According to 247sports.com, the top ten high school basketball players out of Missouri all committed to other schools in 2022, as have the top seven of ten for the class of 2023, with three players still undecided."

This is why Dennis Gates has hit the ground running on the recruiting front. Coach knows how delicate this is, and how losing the best players in state can hurt the program.

Dennis Gates has done a good job of reconstructing the Tigers roster through the transfer portal. Adding Nick Honor, Isiaih Mosley and more to the new-look roster. Winning cures all ails. The University of Missouri is a beautiful campus that offers athletes an exceptional experience, academically as well. The only thing left to make this a desired destination is to win games.

Home/Basketball