Mizzou trying to be proactive in the portal

Dennis Gates said postseason depression is real for coaches. Only one team in the country gets to end the year with a win in the national championship game. And if you’re not the winner, you’re left ruminating on the loss that abruptly ended your season. You have to come to grips with the goal of winning a title officially being too far out of reach.

Missouri’s head coach has used it as motivation this offseason, trying to turn something positive out of being eliminated in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Gates and his staff have been busy all offseason, reaching out to dozens of athletes currently in the transfer portal — 34 have publicly acknowledged they’ve been approached by the Tigers, but the number is likely higher.

They’ve had to contact that many because no one knows for sure who all is coming back from last year’s roster. They knew they’d need to replace graduate senior guards DeAndre Gholston, Tre Gomillion, D’Moi Hodge and Ben Sternberg, who all exhausted their eligibility. But junior forwards Ronnie DeGray III and Mohamed Diarra both announced they would enter the portal shortly after the season ended. More players could choose to do the same. So far, junior forward Noah Carter is the only Tiger who’s confirmed he’s coming back to Columbia. Connecting with new players in the portal is a proactive measure, not a reactive one.

“This day and age in college athletics, you have to assume that everyone's leaving,” Gates said. “You have to protect yourself … If you don't recruit that way, you can be stuck with nothing or be caught behind in a recruiting battle that you never had an opportunity to begin with because of your assumptions. And you can't make assumptions of rosters.”

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Gates began the process of retooling his team through the portal by adding former Colorado State guard John Tonje. There were many things Gates liked about the 6-foot-5, 210-pound senior: Tonje got progressively better every season of his career. On film, he exhibited many of the skills Gates requires out of his guards. The Rams won at least 20 games in three out of the four seasons Tonje was there. He’s also a college graduate, just as Gholston, Gomillion, Hodge and Sternberg were when they transferred from a mid-major to Mizzou.

The head coach still wanted to dig into how well Tonje would fit into the team’s culture and adhere to the program’s eight core values of friendship, love, accountability, trust, discipline, unselfishness, enthusiasm, and toughness. Gates said he spoke with Tonje, Tonje’s mother and other members of his circle. He reached out to Tonje’s former high school coach and, as uncomfortable as it was, did the same with Colorado State head coach Niko Medved. If Tonje had played in junior college, Gates would’ve spoken with the coach there as well.

Tonje committed to Missouri on March 27, becoming the first transfer to join the Tigers this offseason. The process will be similar with anyone else Mizzou chooses to go after.

“We're not done recruiting, we're going to continue to recruit,” Gates said. “And ultimately we have to do so, not just from that guard perspective, but also viable bigs and post players that we're looking to bring in.”

Gates will have to wait on a few dominoes to fall to know specifically how many players he’ll need to replace and what positions he’ll need. One of the most impactful decisions of the offseason will be whether or not Kobe Brown decides to begin his professional career or return to college for one more year.

The senior forward is being projected as a second-round pick in most NBA mock drafts published by media outlets. Gates believes Brown has the talent of a first-round pick but will need the opportunity to prove it in front of scouts. Though Brown hasn’t announced his intentions, Gates anticipates that Brown will enter the NBA Draft while maintaining his eligibility and participate in the draft combine, which takes place in Chicago on May 16-18. Brown will have until June 12 to withdraw his name from the draft and return to school if he chooses to do so. Gates said he will support Brown in whatever decision he makes.

Gates also said there is a path in which senior guard Isiaih Mosley comes back next season on scholarship. Mosley played in just 14 games last year, missing time for personal reasons that the team has chosen to keep private. Gates pointed out that many teams are able to get around the 13-scholarship limit by finding athletes who qualify for in-state tuition or players who are willing to pay their own way through school. During the 2021-22 season, Gates’ last as head coach at Cleveland State, he had 16 players on scholarship because a few players were able to get waivers from the NCAA.

“I would just not, you know, jump out and assume that ‘OK, each institution is operating just under the maximum or minimum of 13 scholarships,’” Gates said.

Missouri is set to host Iowa State senior guard Caleb Grill this weekend. But as Gates noted, the team is still looking to add a forward with the losses in the frontcourt of DeGray and Diarra. It can’t just be size for size’s sake, either. Gates doesn’t plan to change his style of play and will need bigs who can run the floor well, be able to switch across multiple positions defensively, avoid turnovers and be willing to shoot from outside. Gates said that he’s turned down a few players in the portal because he didn’t feel they would be an ideal fit.

Virginia forward Kadin Shedrick planned to make an official visit with Mizzou on April 19 after a visit with Texas but Joe Tipton of On3 Sports reported on Thursday that Shedrick is rescheduling his visits due to a personal matter. The Tigers have also been connected to Western Kentucky center Jamarion Sharp, but Sharp announced he plans to test the NBA draft waters first.

“Anyone that we bring in here will be shooting 3s. That's just the style of play that I believe I will be successful playing and I'm not going to stop,” Gates said. “We have to continue to play the style in the regular season that we think fits our personnel but also fits the success in our conference.”

Mizzou should have more clarity on who’s coming and who’s going by the transfer portal entry deadline on May 11. PowerMizzou.com will continue to provide updates on the Tigers in the hoops transfer tracker.