Gates is ready for his latest renovation project
The words “rock bottom” have been used a lot lately. Despite a couple of NCAA Tournaments in his first four seasons, many Mizzou fans believe Cuonzo Martin left Missouri’s program in no better place than the one he took over from Kim Anderson.
Putting aside whether that’s true or not, there’s almost certainly one man who won’t view the rebuild in Columbia as all that daunting. That man is Dennis Gates, the one tasked with engineering Mizzou’s sixth reboot since legendary Tiger coach Norm Stewart recruited him as a high school basketball player out of Chicago’s Whitney Young.
“At that point, the seed of how special Missouri was at that time was planted,” Gates said on Tuesday, reflecting on his meeting with Stewart a quarter century ago. “Although I decided elsewhere, things come full circle. I listened. And those conversations that I had with Norm Stewart was definitely, definitely brought back up in my spirit, in my heart, when I spoke with our leadership. My dream—and I'll share it with you because you guys are listening—my dream is to become a national champion. My dream is to become a Hall of Fame coach. Mizzou has everything in place for me to accomplish those goals.”
It seems a long way away right now, no question. The Tigers were 12-21 last year. The roster is lacking in SEC-level talent after Martin swung and largely missed in the transfer portal last year while trying to correct multiple years of subpar high school recruiting. But taking over a 12-21 team on March 22nd? That’s like a dream come true to Dennis Gates.
His first head coaching job began less than three years ago. It was at Cleveland State, which had been to a grand total of two NCAA Tournaments in its history and had gone 40-89 in the four seasons before Gates decided to leave Leonard Hamilton’s staff at Florida State to take on a job every single one of his coaching friends told him not to take on.
"We put together a national championship team (at Florida State),” Gates said. “It was July 30. School starts in two weeks. Do I help Leonard Hamilton win a national championship? This is the best team he has ever had in his coaching career. Or do I take Cleveland State? Well every friend of mine in this business said I'm committing career suicide by choosing Cleveland State.”
He took it anyway. He had three players on his team, the result of Dennis Felton’s disastrous two-year tenure with the Vikings. He hit the junior colleges and the transfer portal and drove his patchwork team to an 11-21 record in year one. It earned him Horizon League Coach of the Year honors. That's how bad it was.
So this? Sure, it’s a rebuild. But he’s seen a Rebuild already.
“That same team that we put together, they won championships, they cut down nets, held up trophies and they raised banners,” Gates said. “So for me, the time was right because I knew the sacrifice was great. It was great. And when you step out like that, there is no choice but to succeed.”
Gates talks the talk and he certainly seems to believe what he says. That’s not all that different from any other head coach. They didn’t get where they’ve gotten without extreme confidence in what they’re doing. And confidence, well that’s not something Gates has ever lacked.
“I remember years ago during my in-home recruiting visits, I asked each coach a question,” he said. “I said do you have — now I’m 18, 17 years old — I said do you have rules and regulations against freshmen becoming captains? Yeah, I asked that question.”
Of course, it’s not quite as easy as speaking it into existence. Missouri has gone 63-115 in its first decade in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers finished 11-7 in their first year as a league member…and haven’t done as well since. They haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game in a dozen years. Five coaches have tried to recapture what Stewart once had in Columbia. Three have been fired and one left on his own with minimal resistance before that became a real possibility. Now Gates gets his chance.
The person who hired Gates to do the job certainly believes he is capable. Desiree Reed-Francois was an associate athletic director at Virginia Tech from 2014-17. The Hokies and the Florida State Seminoles are both members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. In Reed-Francois’ first year in Blacksburg, FSU was just 17-16. It was the program’s fewest wins in a decade. But by her final year at Virginia Tech, the Seminoles were 26-9 and a six seed in the NCAA Tournament. The following year, by which time she was at UNLV, Florida State pounded Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and marched all the way to the Elite Eight. Over the five seasons before this last one, FSU won 122 games and lost just 41. They made the NCAA Tournament every year it was played and were a top four seed three times.
“We kept wondering, how is Florida State turning it around so much?” Reed-Francois recalled. “I started asking people and they said Dennis Gates. He is an incredible recruiter. He’s the real deal.”
So Reed-Francois kept Gates in the back of her mind, watching his Cleveland State teams while she was the athletic director at UNLV. When she needed a coach to replace Cuonzo Martin, she had him in her top tier of possible replacements. Now, she is asking him to do what he helped do at Florida State and what he did at Cleveland State: Take a program that has fallen, bring it back and maybe even take it to new heights. The job started Tuesday.
“I’ve got to re-recruit the roster, get to know them, they get to know me,” Gates said. “I have to also balance the current roster, find the pieces and fill the gaps that may exist with guys possibly transferring or not coming back. Those are important things. I have to continue to lay the groundwork to find a staff that can compete at this high level.
“There’s different ways. You still have to recruit grassroots basketball, you still have to recruit the jucos, you still have to recruit the portal. Those are three avenues that directly impact our program.”
It’s a program that’s fallen on hard times. There’s no denying that. Of course, most programs hiring new coaches are. Gates has done it before. Now he’ll find out if he can do it here.
“Missouri fans know great basketball,” Reed-Francois said. “You deserve great basketball.”
It’s been a while. It’s Dennis Gates’ job to bring it back.
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