COLUMBIA, Mo. — Dennis Gates is carrying a Lululemon hoodie with a gap in the correct elbow. Grey sweats. Grey excessive tops. Similar outfit he wore yesterday, similar one he’ll put on tomorrow. On recreation days, Missouri’s coach is at all times in the identical black swimsuit, a gold tie and the footwear he wore to his introductory information convention 5 and a half years in the past for his first head teaching job, at Cleveland State.
It’s not superstition. Gates doesn’t need to waste time or vitality on what to put on every morning. Fittingly, he wears the identical face every single day, too. Prefers that you simply can’t inform whether or not he received or misplaced. “That’s my temperament,” he stated, “and I stay steadfast in it.”
And a 12 months in the past, boy did it turn out to be useful.
After a profitable first 12 months — 25 wins, this system’s first NCAA Event victory since 2010, a fourth-place end within the SEC — Gates’ honeymoon section at Missouri got here to an abrupt halt in Yr 2 with this system’s first winless convention season (0-18) since 1908.
Regardless of the period, few coaches survive not successful a convention recreation. The final coach earlier than Gates to go winless within the SEC — Bryce Drew at Vanderbilt in 2019 — was fired. A.M. Ebright was the coach of these 1907-08 Tigers, Missouri basketball’s second 12 months of existence and first in a convention (the Missouri Valley). That was additionally Ebright’s solely season ever as a head school basketball coach; he coached the College of Kansas baseball staff the subsequent 12 months, then moved to Wichita to apply regulation.
“I don’t know of an 0-18 coach that ain’t acquired fired,” Gates stated.
However Gates simply saved working how he had in his first season, leaning on a line from one in all his favourite poems, Rudyard Kipling’s “If”, as his mantra:
If you happen to can meet with Triumph and Catastrophe
And deal with these two impostors simply the identical
There have been excuses to be made — and we’ll get to these — however Gates saved his cool all year long. No blowups. No finger pointing. Similar tone. Similar rhetoric.
“He’s probably the most even-keeled particular person emotionally that I’ve ever seen,” stated Gabe DeArmond, who has coated Missouri athletics since 2003. “When issues are usually not good, it frustrates folks that he isn’t extra indignant. However then when issues are good, he insists they’re not enjoying effectively.”
Now issues are good: Gates’ third Mizzou staff is 19-6, No. 15 within the AP ballot and 8-4 in an SEC being mentioned because the strongest convention ever. Solely two high-major applications have made the NCAA Event following a winless convention season — 1987-88 Maryland and 2020-21 Iowa State.
Within the switch portal period, it’s potential to flip a roster shortly, as applications like Michigan and Louisville have proven this season. Missouri has not shied away from that technique, with 5 switch gamers contributing, however at these different locations, there’s a brand new head coach on the town, simply capable of run off the blokes who had been on the court docket for the earlier season’s losses.
As an alternative of stripping this system again right down to its studs, Gates held on to his core: 5 gamers in his present rotation, together with three starters, are holdovers. The staff that may welcome in No. 4 Alabama on Wednesday evening has no scarcity of recollections from how far it has are available in a short while to be jockeying for place with the most effective groups within the nation.
“We needed to be a participant in our personal rescue,” stated Tamar Bates, a kind of returners. “Actually in actual time we’re seeing ourselves write our names in historical past books.”
The Tigers’ upset of rival Kansas in December supplied a glimpse on the potential of the staff that has held its personal in a brutal SEC. (Jay Biggerstaff / Imagn Photographs)
And lose, and begin once more at your beginnings
And by no means breathe a phrase about your loss
In June, Gates instructed his workers members to modify places of work, basically transfer out and transfer again in. They even put up contemporary coats of paint. “They checked out me like I used to be loopy,” Gates stated.
The pinnacle coach saved his workplace however rearranged the furnishings. He wished everybody to reprogram their brains into considering the 2024-25 season could be Yr 1.
“Reset. No residue,” Gates stated. “If we’re going to ask the returning gamers, which was the core guys, to do it, now we have to do it.”
First, a refresher. Final season did occur, and the justifications had been plentiful. “Jason,” Gates shouted to sports activities info director Jason Veniskey, sitting in the back of his workplace. “Do you may have the variety of accidents that we had?”
The 2023-24 Tigers had injured or sick gamers miss a mixed whole of 111 video games.
“We didn’t have the closers,” Gates stated. “Everyone needed to play out of place at that time.”
For his sanity, Gates was satisfied his processes had been good processes. He was instructed by friends Cleveland State was a foul job when he inherited it in 2019 coming off 4 straight shedding seasons, and he had the Vikings within the NCAA Event in Yr 2. He flipped Missouri even sooner.
Had they been wholesome, the consensus contained in the partitions at Mizzou Enviornment goes, the Tigers would have been aggressive in ’23-24. In hindsight, there have been some holes within the frontcourt, however the roster had an opportunity. John Tonje, who’s now main No. 11 Wisconsin in scoring amid a first-team All-America marketing campaign, would have been the star, however he performed solely 78 minutes over 9 video games due to a foot harm, and 3-point marksman Caleb Grill missed all however 9 video games with a wrist harm.
Throughout summer time exercises, Grill even instructed assistant Kyle Smithpeters that it was among the finest groups he’d been on, and he’d been on back-to-back tourney groups at Iowa State. Within the preseason, the Tigers had been up 17 with three minutes to go once they pulled their starters in a secret scrimmage in opposition to Marquette, which went on to make the Candy 16.
However as soon as it began going south…
“You do what most coaches do: You query the whole lot you’ve ever recognized that’s labored,” Smithpeters stated. “You attempt to change and it nonetheless doesn’t work and also you mainly lose your rattling thoughts. And Dennis did an excellent job of not shedding his thoughts.”
Gates took satisfaction in the truth that almost each SEC coach would commend how onerous the Tigers performed of their postgame information conferences. And a few privately requested him, “How have your guys not checked out?”
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Gates leaned on classes he realized from his former boss Leonard Hamilton, who additionally skilled a winless convention season in 1994 at Miami, then went .500 within the ACC the subsequent season and made the NIT. Hamilton ceaselessly talked about that season when Gates was his assistant at Florida State from 2011 to ’19.
“He was educating me one thing that no person may educate aside from him,” Gates stated. “And most of the people would simply sweep that s— below the rug as if it by no means occurred.”
Most, he added, would “combust.” So why did he not?
“I’m too robust for that. As a result of I do know Leonard didn’t. He by no means shared a narrative about combusting.”
What Gates did as an alternative was begin planning for his third 12 months earlier than the second ended. He was capable of maintain on to his incoming freshman class within the face of inquiries from different coaches, then hit the portal to handle his wants. The 2023-24 Tigers had been too small to play good protection and lacked offensive firepower. Gates’ first staff at Mizzou was constructed round a playmaking ahead in Kobe Brown. He noticed Mark Mitchell, a former five-star recruit on his method out of Duke, as the same drive. Former Iowa guard Tony Perkins glad the necessity for a bodily guard who may rating. Marques Warrick, the main scorer from a successful Northern Kentucky program, and Jacob Crews, a 6-8 shooter who averaged 19.1 factors on a convention champ at UT Martin, supplied depth and extra scoring. The ultimate addition, South Carolina 7-footer Josh Grey, had been among the finest rebounders within the SEC the final two years.
When the brand new and previous gamers acquired to campus in June, the primary order of enterprise was team-building workout routines. No basketballs. Regardless of the place they’d performed final season, Gates was holding up the neuralyzer. It was time to erase recollections.
“The previous is the previous,” Grill stated. “You possibly can solely management what’s going ahead. You’ll have nervousness about final season if you concentrate on final season and that’s an uncontrollable. That’s already over. The one factor you management is the way you go ahead every day.”
Missouri has flipped its trajectory with a good mixture of contributions from returnees, like Caleb Grill (31), and transfers, like Tony Perkins (12) (Matt Pendleton / Imagn Photographs)
If you happen to can wait and never be drained by ready
On June 1, Gates made a daring proclamation to his staff, one that may be picked to complete thirteenth within the SEC this preseason: By Christmas, the Tigers could be ranked.
In his imaginative and prescient, Gates believed beating Illinois within the Braggin’ Rights recreation could be what pushed his staff into the rankings. The Tigers beat rival Kansas earlier in December however misplaced a detailed one to the Illini on Dec. 22. The following day Gates despatched an image of the AP Prime 25 to his gamers and their dad and mom with a message.
“We belong and we’re a high 25 staff within the nation,” he wrote.
4 weeks later, he was confirmed proper.
The components does work. Gates builds groups very similar to he as soon as did alongside Hamilton: with lengthy athletes who produce an entire lot of deflections. The Tigers rank fifth nationally in steals fee, which has helped them lead the nation in transition factors per recreation (20.6), per Synergy.
Bates stated this group has “lived within the particulars.” Earlier than a recreation in opposition to Oklahoma final week, Missouri assistant coach C.Y. Younger confirmed the Tigers a clip of Tom Brady speaking about his preparation and talent to learn a protection pre-snap. Younger instructed the Tigers their superpower was their skill to hold out a scouting report. Later, a collection of clips performed of Oklahoma getting beat off the dribble to the basket. The message was clear: Get to the basket.
The Tigers adopted it to the acute of their 82-58 win, making an attempt solely 12 3s and scoring 40 factors within the paint and one other 26 on the free throw line.
Whereas often the Tigers shoot much more 3s — an analytics-friendly 41.9 p.c of their subject objective makes an attempt come from deep — the efficiency was in any other case precisely what Gates endlessly preaches, forcing the opposing protection to scramble with a string of passes that result in an excellent shot. “Dominoes” is the phrase most frequently heard at a Mizzou apply.
It’s successful, unselfish basketball, and what’s most satisfying is seeing narratives about a few of Mizzou’s stars get rewritten. Grill was booted from Iowa State two years in the past after he “stated one thing I remorse,” as he defined in an announcement on the time. Whereas Missouri’s coaches by no means had points with how he talked to them, he was emotional. “Each shot was a make or break,” Smithpeters stated. Early final season, Grill acquired ejected from a recreation at Minnesota when he bumped an official and had some alternative phrases.
Now, Grill is the previous head at Mizzou services. He’s the sort to drag a teammate to the facet and discuss one-on-one. He comes off the bench as a result of he realized to understand final season how far more you see from the bench. He’s nonetheless fiery, however not reactionary.
“He has simply exceeded each expectation I had for him as a human being from with the ability to deal with strain conditions,” Smithpeters stated. “That’s what’s allowed him to have a lot success.”
Bates transferred from Indiana two years in the past and had his character called into question on social media by former ESPN analyst and Hoosier alum Dan Dakich. When Gates named captains this summer time, he purposely didn’t announce Bates, as a result of he thought there was one other step he wanted to take as a frontrunner. “He was pissed,” Gates stated. “It was nearly like, ‘I’ll present you.’”
Bates stated he wanted to discover ways to use his voice as a weapon. He ultimately was named a captain and is placing up career-best numbers, main the Tigers in scoring. Bates additionally helped land Mitchell; the 2 knew one another from rising up in Kansas Metropolis. “Though they went 0-18, he saved speaking concerning the tradition,” Mitchell stated. “There’s shedding cultures and successful cultures. He stated this can be a successful tradition.”
Mitchell had misplaced a few of his confidence as a job participant at Duke and was seeking to “get again to being myself.” Gates has put the ball in his fingers and allowed him to play like some extent ahead.
Gates knew he had one thing particular this summer time when it shortly grew to become obvious that Mitchell, probably the most gifted man on his roster, was probably the most unselfish.
“Once you discover that out about an individual, it disarms everybody,” Gates stated.
That helps clarify how the Tigers are one of the vital balanced groups within the nation, with eight guys averaging greater than 5.0 factors per recreation and the massive three (Bates, Mitchell and Grill) averaging 13.4, 12.9 and 12.8. An offense that ranked 136th in adjusted effectivity final 12 months is as much as No. 11 at KenPom.
Gates’ solely remorse is that the gamers who graduated aren’t round to expertise the turnaround. He took a second himself to take pleasure in it throughout the court docket storm following the Kansas win, climbing into the top zone bleachers the place the band sits so he may watch his gamers have a good time.
“That’s a part of the reward of teaching,” he stated. “They’re going to neglect video games. They’re going to neglect particular person performances. These guys are generally going to neglect championships. They’re not going to neglect when the world thought much less of them on this method. And so they had been capable of now do one thing that no person thought they may do in a particular method.”
Gates usually tells his gamers that their most necessary opponent is themselves, as a result of he has the boldness that they’ll beat anybody.
Again in June, he gave them one closing vacation spot: San Antonio, the house of this 12 months’s Ultimate 4.
“The place we finish goes to essentially dictate how nice of a narrative we’re actually part of,” Gates stated. “As a result of we’re residing in a narrative that may be a f—ing documentary.”
(Prime picture: Stew Milne / Getty Photographs)