Report: Missouri Set to Hire Dennis Gates as New Men’s Basketball Coach

The Cleveland State head coach made the NCAA tournament last year.

The University of Missouri’s Board of Curators is expected to meet and decide to name Dennis Gates as the school’s new men’s basketball coach, Gabe DeArmond of PowerMizzou.com reports.

NEW STORY: Pending approval from the Board of Curators #Mizzou will hire Dennis Gates as its next head coach. Assuming approval is granted, the news should be official this week. https://t.co/DBCl4QucGe

— Power Mizzou (@PowerMizzoucom) March 19, 2022

According to DeArmond, the board has to approve the hire by state law, but there are no other obstacles in the way of the hiring.

Gates comes to Missouri from Cleveland State, where he has spent the past three seasons as a head coach. Under Gates’s watch, the Vikings made the NCAA tournament last year, where they lost to Houston as a No. 15 seed. This year, Cleveland State finished with a 20–11 record, 15–6 in conference, leading the way in the Horizon conference standings.

Prior to Cleveland State, Gates was an assistant coach at Florida State for eight seasons. He has also spent time at Nevada, Northern Illinois and California as an assistant coach. After last year’s NCAA tournament appearance, Gates signed a six-year extension with the Vikings. He finishes his Cleveland State tenure with a 50–40 record.

Missouri fired coach Cuonzo Martin after the Tigers’ 12–21 record this year, their worst in Martin’s five seasons. Martin took the team to two NCAA tournaments in that span, but failed to win a game both times.

The Tigers haven’t won a game in March Madness since 2010, and they haven’t been to the second weekend since 2009, both coming under then-head coach Mike Anderson.