When he joined the Missouri Tigers, Caleb Grill had trouble trusting people.
“I kind of had, like, a shield up,” Grill said. “... And then I had conversations with (coach Dennis Gates) and conversations with my family back home and just allowing myself to, like, let people in and, like, be able to trust other people.”
That trust has helped build a relationship with Gates that led to a touching moment on Senior Night as Grill and Gates shared a long hug as Grill stepped off the Mizzou Arena court for the final time.
It’s only been two years he’s been with the Tigers and most of the first was spent recovering from an injury, but the impact on Grill has been massive.
“It’s helped me become a better leader and helped me guide other people,” Grill said. “You know, to overcome things faster, overcome things I struggled with at the beginning parts of my college career.”
And it’s helped him on the court as well.
Grill is having a career year and though he’s unlikely now to reach the 50 percent mark he was aiming for from beyond the arc, he will still end at least 4 percent above his previous single-season high and almost six percent above his career average, while shooting nearly 10 percent better than his previous single-season high from the field. He is averaging more than 4.0 points more per game than he ever has before, and has knocked down 20 more 3-pointers than he ever has before with an NCAA Tournament run left to go.
“It was really hard for me to really trust what people were saying, so being able to get back to myself and who I am, I think that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been playing better and enjoying this a lot more than I have been in the past,” Grill said.
But getting through that shield wasn’t always comfortable. Gates had to work at it in some unorthodox ways.
“These guys had to get used to being loved on how I love them, how our staff loves them,” Gates said. “... In the first season Caleb Grill was here, I made him literally hold my hand sometimes in practice, literally hold my hand in practice, ‘Come here Caleb, give me a hug.’”
And Gates said he’s seen those hugs turn from forced, quick connection with a pat on the back, to the deeply caring display fans witnessed on Senior Night.
“I coach through their hearts first,” Gates said. “Everything else falls into place. If they know that you care, you can hold them accountable a lot easier, right? You can make decisions where they trust a lot easier. And doing that, putting your arms around them when they need it and humanizing who they are as people first, it allows our relationship to be below-the-surface and a lot deeper than what maybe other programs or other players are used to.”
That focus on coaching through love has helped Grill turn into an emotional leader, an emotional player, one who shows his own openness as an example for others on the team as Gates attempts to do the same with them.
And it’s helped his teammates. Senior center Josh Gray has similarly described a tearing down of emotional walls that playing for the Tigers has allowed him to do this season.
“It’s a real tight group here,” Gray said. "So now that I have that, it’s kind of, you know, trying to adjust to letting my guard down a little bit, trusting people more.”
That family focus, the trust and openness with each other and with the staff has helped the Tigers achieve more this season than Missouri has experienced on the basketball court in a while.
And it’s not over yet.
“I think it just allows people to be vulnerable and allows people to get to know each other better,” Grill said. “And that’s why we’re so close to one another and that’s why we won a lot of games this year.”
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