More than one rivalry is being renewed on the Mizzou Arena court today.
As the Missouri Tigers take on former Missouri Valley Conference, Big 6, Big 7, Big 8 and Big 12 conference foe Oklahoma for the first time in four years and first time as a conference opponent since Missouri left the Big 12, a sibling rivalry will be renewed between Tiger head coach Dennis Gates and Sooner assistant coach Armon Gates.
“My family, they’re excited about the game,” Dennis Gates said. “My mom, dad, siblings, aunts, uncles, high school coach, AAU coach. … I’m excited to see my brother, I haven't seen him in a while. Our schedules are always like two ships passing in the night.”
But the Missouri coach said after a nice pregame moment he expects the brothers will share, it’s back to competition, as sibling rivalries often are, and focus on getting the Tigers back in the win column after a tough week of SEC play.
It will be the first matchup of the brothers since 2009 when Dennis was an assistant at Northern Illinois and Armon was an assistant at Kent State, competing against each other in the MAC.
“Kent State at that time was, you know, they were running the conference in the MAC,” Dennis Gates said. “That was the last opportunity I had to be on the sidelines (against Armon).”
The brothers’ careers have led slightly different paths as Dennis went from Marquette to Florida State as a grad assistant at both, then spent three years each as an assistant at California, Northern Illinois and Nevada before spending eight years as an assistant at Florida State and earning his first head coaching spot at Cleveland State where he spent three years before coming to Columbia.
Armon, who played at Kent State from 2002-2007, went straight into being an assistant with the Golden Flashes, then took an assistant position at TCU in 2010-11, then joined Sooner head coach Porter Moser on his staff at Loyola, Chicago, for 2011-13.
Armon then joined Chris Collins’ staff at Northwestern for 2013-18, helping the Wildcats make it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in 2017, before heading to Nebraska to be a Cornhusker assistant from 2019-22. He then spent one season at Oregon in 2022-23, before joining the Sooner staff.
“He’ll get a shot to become a head coach at some point,” Dennis Gates said. “And that’s a tremendous accomplishment, once that day comes. And he’s going to be well prepared, trust me, he’ll be well prepared and he’ll be a star in the business like he’s been and I’m very proud of what he’s done thus far at Oklahoma.”
One of Armon’s key accomplishments with the Sooners was landing freshman phenom Jeremiah Fears, who the younger Gates initially began recruiting at Oregon.
“He brought (Fears) there on a visit, things like that,” Dennis Gates said. “That’s where that relationship started. So for Porter Moser, again, the impact of assistant coaches, I think Armon has done a tremendous job of his relationships nationally, building his own network.”
And with Oklahoma joining the SEC, the ships that had formerly just passed in the night figured out they were on a collision course for at least two matchups this season.
But Dennis Gates said while the matchup is exciting, it doesn’t change the focus of the game.
“We knew once they switched conference, it was taking place,” Dennis Gates said. “But we don’t put emphasis on it. Again, it’s about the players. We’re excited about where our teams are this season. They have a good ball club and they’re going to continue to give their very best. And our job is to do the same, give our very best, make sure we take care of home court, because ultimately, in this conference, every game matters.”
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