Dennis Gates: A Rising Star in College Basketball
The Missouri Tigers have caught the attention of the college basketball world in the past two weeks. The Tigers have raced out to a 12-1 record, and have looked like a team who can do damage come March. In his first year, Head Coach Dennis Gates rejuvenated the Mizzou fanbase and changed the perception of the program in less than a year.
The Tigers moved on from former Head Coach Cuonzo Martin after a disappointing 12-21 record a year ago. Martin had hype surrounding the program in his first year with a recruiting class that headlined Michael Porter Jr. However, in his four years at Missouri, Martin only had one March Madness appearance with no wins.
Mizzou has gone through three head coaches without a win come postseason play. Their last one came from Mike Anderson in 2011 when they reached the Elite Eight. Frank Haith, Kim Anderson, and Martin never found the success Mizzou was familiar with. Mizzou was a dominant force during the Quin Snyder, Mike Anderson, and Norm Stewart years. However, the past nine years for Missouri basketball have been pretty mediocre.
When Martin was fired, Mizzou fans were hoping to find their next head coach of the future. Many hoped for former Mizzou player and current George Mason coach Kim English. Others wanted the big names available such as Todd Golden, Jerome Tang, or Matt McMahon. However, the Tigers landed on Cleveland State Head Coach Dennis Gates. As of now, it looks like they hit the jackpot
Gates was a longtime assistant coach under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State. He was the Seminoles’ key recruiter when they signed Malik Beasley, Jonathan Issac, Terance Mann, and Dwayne Bacon while in Tallahassee.
In July 2019, Gates agreed to his first head coaching position at Cleveland State. In his three seasons at Cleveland State, Gates held an overall record of 50-40 with one March Madness appearance. Gates was named Horizon League Coach of the year twice and won two regular season championships.
When Gates got to Mizzou this spring, he had the task of rebuilding almost the entire roster from the previous year. Only three players from last season’s Mizzou team returned, one being Kobe Brown, who was named to the All-SEC second team last year. Other than that, Gates had to explore the transfer portal to fill out his team.
When finding players this offseason, Gates did it every which way. He brought in two key players from his Cleveland State team in D’Moi Hodge and Tre Gomillion. He also signed DeAndre Gholston from Milwaukee, Nick Honor from Clemson, and Noah Cater from Northern Iowa. Due to personal reasons, Isiaih Mosley, a 20-point scorer for Missouri State last year, barely has an impact on this year’s team. Gates then snagged the top two Junior College players Sean East and Mohamed Diarra and signed four-star recruit Aidan Shaw to fill out his roster.
The newly built squad Gates put together stormed out of the gates until they got blasted by Kansas 95-67 to give them their first loss of the season. With an easy first part of their schedule and one bad loss to the reigning National Champions, almost everyone in the media threw Mizzou out the window.
However, Gates and his squad have rattled off three big wins with the first one coming against UCF on a neutral floor. Then everyone got a taste of what this Missouri team can be. The Tigers ran through a ranked Illinois team 93-71 pretty convincingly. Then opened up and beat a ranked Kentucky team to begin SEC play 89-75. Yes, Illinois and Kentucky are going through an identity crisis right now and are not the team everyone expected them to be. However, it’s a big win for Dennis Gates and Mizzou. It’s the first time since 2003 that Mizzou has won back-to-back games against ranked opponents and had eight total wins against top 25 teams from 2012-2021. Big stuff from Gates in his first year. It seems certain that Mizzou will break into the Top 25 this next week,
So how is Mizzou winning their games? Dennis Gates has introduced an exciting brand of basketball to Columbia, Missouri. A fast-paced offense and multiple variations of styles of defense which includes a constant full-court press. The Tigers rank 2nd in points per game at 88.8, 1st in offensive efficiency at 1.168, 6th in turnover-to-assist ratio at 1.613, 1st in steals per game with 12.5, and 2nd in effective field goal percentage. If you put these numbers up, then it means you are pretty damn good.
The Missouri team is well-balanced, with some players who can do damage on any given night. Kobe Brown is the biggest player on the floor most of the time for the Tigers. However, the 6-8, 250lb forward is a defensive nightmare for opposing teams. Big enough to play bully ball against the smaller defenders, but quick enough with an outside game to beat a center as he did with Kentucky’s Oscar Tsheibwe. Brown had 30 points, and six rebounds while shooting 4-8 from three in Mizzou’s win against Kentucky last night. Before that, Brown had a monstrous game against Illinois. The senior put together a stat line of 31 points, five rebounds, and eight assists.
The other main player that is leading this Mizzou team is senior guard D’Moi Hodge. Hodge came over with Gates from Cleveland State and has quietly put himself in the minds of NBA scouts. Hodge leads the team in scoring averaging 16.5 points per game. The 6’4 senior guard has been a sniper for the Tiger offense shooting almost 42 percent from deep. However, Hodge isn’t just a scorer. Hodge is fifth in the nation by swiping away 2.8 steals per game. With his ability to be a high-scoring two-way guard, Hodge can sneak his way onto an NBA team next season.
So far it looks like Mizzou is a team that will make the NCAA tournament this year based on how everything is going right now. Throw in Isiaih Mosely into the rotation, if he gets everything figured out, the Tigers team could be a threat. However, it is just the beginning for Dennis Gates. If Gates can recruit like he has been able to, then Mizzou could be a force in the future.
However, there are a few certainties as of now. Gates has Mizzou basketball relevant once again and fans of Mizzou are rejuvenated for the first time in a long time. Dennis Gates has the looks of being a future star.
