by Jordan Beckley
If you aren’t familiar with Dennis Gates’ game by now, you will be soon. The second year coach for Missouri just put a bow on his first year by cementing a top flight recruiting class after already making the NCAA tournament. He hopes to buck the trend of previous coaches of the Tigers and keep his best days ahead of him.
I didn’t plan on writing about Dennis Gates and Missouri.
I had a whole outline written about why I love the Rick Barnes era of Tennessee. I was ready to put the finishing touches on my SEC spotlight and Dennis Gates made me change my plans.
This is a recurring story with Dennis Gates, a man Mizzou fans are convinced can land anyone at anytime. Gates is changing a lot of people’s plans and he is straight up bringing guys into Columbia.
Man on a Mission
Gates is crystal balled to be landing his 5th 4-star, Top 100 recruit of the 2024 class when the fast rising 7’3″ big Trent Burns announces his decision Friday this week.
Burns would join fellow 7 footer Peyton Marshall. Marshall weighs in over 300 lbs and is around 90 lbs heavier than Burns. With their vastly different body types and skills, Gates has me wondering if he is crazy enough to play them both at the same time.
Back to the point, Burns was thought to be a Purdue favorite or potentially going to Sean Miller at Xavier. Gates seems to have come in and changed Burns mind.
Burns cancelled his visit with Xavier and Purdue didn’t even make his final four.
Marshall is a guy who wasn’t supposed to end up as a Tiger either. Well at least not at Missouri.
Originally, Marshall was committed to be an Auburn Tiger and play for Bruce Pearl. That plan changed when he decommitted in April. The big man took one official visit afterwards to Chris Beard and Ole Miss before deciding in August to join Gates in Columbia.
There has been momentum around Gates and this Missouri program all summer too. It started in June when Gates landed 4-Star guard T.O. Barrett from Link Academy in Branson, Missouri. Next was 4-star forward Marcus Allen. Then, Peyton Marshall. And most recently, a top 30-40 recruit and a 5-star wing on some sites Annor Boateng committed last week.
Coach Gates has been a man on a mission to get top players to Mizzou.
His reach isn’t bound by geography necessarily either.
Coach Gates has grabbed a couple players from the south in Peyton Marshall from Marietta, Georgia while Annor Boateng is from Little Rock, Arkansas. He grabbed Marcus Allen from recruiting hot bed Miami. In fact, Gates hasn’t even landed an in-state kid as Barrett might play at Link Academy in Missouri, but he is actually from Oklahoma.
Beyond just the potential commitment of Trent Burns, Coach Gates isn’t done yet.
Jayden Quaintance is a 5-star Top 10 recruit out of Raleigh, North Carolina who just took an official visit this past week. Gates has Mizzou on the final list for coveted 4-star guards Travis Perry (Kentucky) and Bishop Boswell (North Carolina).
This guy has been putting in the work on the recruiting trail. The class as is (without Burns) is the No.1 class on 247sports. Eventually the class might get beat out by Duke or Rutgers, but it is a bona fide Top 5 class.
The Tigers have brought in top recruits before, but this is a level of talent that Missouri isn’t used to getting. The hustle that Coach Gates has been entering is paying off and quickly. So, who is this guy that has taken the recruiting trail by storm?
Who is Dennis Gates?
Dennis Gates is perhaps the hottest coach in the country right now and he has only been a head coach for four seasons.
This past season Gates made his jump to the Power 5 as Head Coach of the Missouri Tigers. Before joining the coaching ranks in the SEC, Gates was head coach at Cleveland State for three seasons.
What did Coach Gates do at Cleveland State?
Well, he won back to back Horizon League Regular Season Championships, several Cleveland State players finished as All-Horizon league players, and Gates won the Conference Tournament Championship in 2021 earning the right to get blown out by Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars in the first round.
Long before he was a head coach, Dennis Gates was a player at Cal from 1999-2002. Gates averaged a cool 5.6 points and 2.5 assists with 25% from deep in 18 mpg as a Senior at Cal. He started about half the games his senior year when Cal was a no. 6 seed in March Madness.
Gates knew he wanted to go into coaching after his playing career. After briefly interning in the NBA, Coach Gates started his career at Marquette in 2003 as a graduate assistant. No, not that Dwyane Wade Final Four team, but the year after it. Gates learned under Tom Crean for a year in a decent Marquette season, but missed the Tournament.
After the one season at Marquette, Gates left to become a GA for Leonard Hamilton in 2004-2005 season. Gates spent one season in Tallahassee early in Leonard’s tenure before returning back to Berkeley. Coach Gates returned to California and his former Head Coach Ben Braun as a full fledged assistant coach. Gates left after two seasons and had brief stints at Northern Illinois and Nevada before rejoining Leonard Hamilton.
This was the job where Dennis Gates made his name and earned his stripes on the recruiting trail. Gates was an assistant at FSU from 2011-2019 and there was plenty of success on and off the court. The Seminoles made four tournaments in that span including two Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight in 2018.
What might be more memorable are the players that came through during this time. There were plenty of future NBA players like Malik Beasley, Dwayne Bacon, Patrick Williams, and Jonathan Isaac. There were unexpected development guys who made the league in Devin Vassell and Terance Mann. Under Leonard and Gates Florida State developed a reputation of putting dudes with potential into the NBA.
Now Missouri is reaping the benefits of the recruiting skills he refined at FSU.
Mizzou’s Fizzling History
The Tigers aren’t strangers to getting big names into Columbia.
Back in 2017, Cuonzo Martin landed the whole Porter family with no. 2 overall recruit Michael Porter Jr, no. 26 overall Jontay Porter and hired their dad Michael Sr. for good measure. That class also included a four year starter in Jeremiah Tilmon and was ranked no. 4 overall in the country.
The Porter family season was short lived as MPJ only played 3 games and the team lost in the first round of March Madness. Jontay Porter and Tilmon stuck around and did well at Mizzou, but the Tigers never became relevant nationally. The whole Cuonzo Martin era started with some flash then fizzled out.
A big bang at the beginning with a fizzling out seems to be a theme in Mizzou.
In Frank Haith’s first year as the Tigers Head Coach in 2011-12 season he won a program record 30 games, finished 2nd in the Big-12, and earned a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was such an impressive season Frank Haith won the AP College Basketball Coach of the Year award.
Of course, that was the season that Mizzou was upset by no. 15 seed Norfolk State in their opening game. Haith’s Tigers faded away after that special regular season earning a 9 seed in March madness the next year and missing the tourney the year after that. There was no fourth year for Haith in Columbia.
Certainly every coach eventually peaks at some point and therefore has a low point after, but it happens a lot at Missouri.
Former St. John’s coach Mike Anderson burned his brightest in 2008-09 at Missouri when the DeMarre Carroll-led-Tigers were a three seed and made the Elite Eight. Coach Anderson would go onto have two so-so years at Missouri before being unable to ever fully turn around Arkansas or St. John’s.
Quin Snyder certainly didn’t burn his brightest at Mizzou, but he fizzled out of College Basketball to the G league in less than 4 years after his Elite Eight appearance in 2002 for the Tigers.
Mizzou overall has been to five Elite Eights and zero Final Fours.
With Dennis Gates burning so bright so fast, will he be able to keep it going? Or will he fade out like other Mizzou Coaches before him? If he does keep the flame going, could he bring Missouri their first Final Four appearance?
Dennis Gates is a proven recruiter.
The 2024 class proves that. His time at Florida State shows that. Even his transfer portal additions of the past two years show that.
Last season, he landed productive transfers in Noah Carter, Deandre Gholston and bringing D’Moi Hodge from Cleveland State. This year he brought in another crop of transfers including IU transfer Tamar Bates, the controversial but talented Caleb Grill and 7’5″ big Connor Vanover.
He’s proven his recruiting chops. Can he prove his coaching and keep Missouri consistently in the mix?
The prime recruiting talent is on it’s way, but it will be up to Coach Gates to prove that his past calendar year isn’t a flash in the pan.
Right now, Dennis Gates is the hottest coach in the country. Missouri fans hope that he can stay that way.