"Transformational, Not Transactional": Dennis Gates' Unique Personality and Coaching Philosophy

From the words of a coach who 'saved his life', and the players who view him as family, it's easy to see how Missouri Tigers head basketball coach Dennis Gates has formed a unique bond with players.

For those who knew Dennis Gates in the first 22-years of his life, it seemed inevitable that the successful basketball player would one day be a successful coach. His intelligence and leadership traits were undeniable.

That was what Jessica Braun first noticed about Gates before she even saw him touch foot on a basketball court. She had first met Gates when she worked as a tutor at the University of California’s Summer Bridge program. All of the school’s freshman basketball players, including Gates, attended the program to get a head start on classes. After Jessica spent some time talking to the student-athlete, she went home and told her husband Ben Braun, the University’s head basketball coach at the time, that she could already tell Gates was special. Different from the rest of the many players that she had met.

Gates’ unique character is also what stood out to Ben when recruiting him to play at California in 1998. Gates played at Whitney Young High School in Chicago and was a team captain during the 1997-1998 season when the team won a state championship. Braun was quickly impressed with much more than Gates’ playing ability.

“He was one of the team leaders, and he made his teammates better,” Braun said in a phone interview. “He had that ability as a leader even back as a high school player ... He was always interested in leadership. He did all the things that a player needs to do to help his team win.”

When Braun sat down with Gates on a recruiting visit, Gates asked Braun the same question he had asked every other coach he sat down with; whether or not their team had any rules preventing freshmen from being team captains. Most coaches took this question from the 18-year-old as arrogance and overconfidence. Braun was the only coach who recognized this as part of Gates’ strong desire to lead. Braun wanted Gates to come to California to do just that.

The instant belief that Braun had in Gates had a significant impact on the self-esteem of the future Missouri head coach. Gates highlighted him as one of the most important influences in his life at a press conference ahead of the 2023 season.

“The coaches in my life, they saved my life,” Gates said. “They gave me some confidence that I didn’t have as a youngster.”

That belief from Braun was enough for Gates to commit to California, where he would act as an extension of the team’s coaching staff, always placing the team’s success over his own ego.

“I never looked at myself as just a basketball player,” Gates said to CaliforniaGoldenBlogs in 2009, seven years into his coaching career. “I looked at myself as a player with coaching ability and once my four-year college career was over I quickly became that coach with playing ability.”

Braun can still remember a specific moment where Gates’ selflessness was on full display; before a game, he told Gates that he would be inserted in the starting lineup. Gates declined the opportunity, saying it would be better for the team if another player started and that he was only used as a rotational player off the bench.

“[Dennis has] always been a little different,” Braun said. “He doesn’t settle for mediocrity.”

While Braun tells most of his players to avoid the demanding world of coaching, Gates was an exception. Immediately after his four years at California, Gates became a coaching intern with the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers in 2002. Gates would then spend stints as an assistant at Marquette and Florida State before returning to California to be an assistant under Braun from 2005 to 2007. During this stint, Gates would begin to master the art of recruiting. In 2006, Gates successfully recruited fellow Chicago native Jerome Randle to California. Randle would graduate as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,835 points and would be named the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2010.

Recruiting has now become one of Gates’ most respected skills. While at Florida State as an assistant from 2011 to 2019, Gates played a part in recruiting two five-star and two four-star players to Tallahassee. This success at Florida State earned Gates his first head coaching opportunity at Cleveland State in 2019. After a 20-win season in 2020, Gates earned the head job at Missouri. In his first year in Columbia, Gates led the Tigers to their best record since the 2011-’12 season, and their first NCAA tournament win since 2013.

Gates has continued to build his reputation as a strong recruiter through his first two years at Missouri. His recruiting class for the high school class of 2024 is currently ranked as the second-best in the country by 247Sports. At the root of the recruiting success is a family-like environment of love, support and growth that Gates has fostered.

“He emphasized building a relationship with not only me but also my family,” sophomore forward Aidan Shaw said. “So we see him as an extension of our family. He’s really sincere and he wants the best for each and every player.”

Gates himself spoke about the relationship he aims to create with his players.

“I make sure it’s transformational, not transactional,” Gates said. “I tell them I love them and sometimes it makes them uncomfortable but I don’t care how uncomfortable they get, I’m going to hug them but not only hug them, I’m going hold them while I’m hugging them [...] I want them to be empowered to understand that I have feelings, they have feelings and their impact on me is just as great as my impact is on them.”

Gates’ success with the program in his first year along with his caring personality has also caught the attention of transfer players looking for a fresh start. This offseason, the Tigers added graduate players Connor Vannover, Caleb Grill and John Tonje along with senior Jesus Carralero through the transfer portal.

“It’s a lot different,” Vannover said of the environment at Missouri. “You don’t really have coaches that go around [and] give hugs to all the guys every day pretty much. He’s really encouraging. He’s a lot different than any coaches I’ve ever had.”

As one of Gates’ former coaches and mentors, Braun recognizes how Gates’ transparency and supportiveness is respected by players.

“He's no nonsense,” Braun said. “He's straight, he's direct and I think players respect that about him.”

Braun was in the stands along with his wife Jessica this past March to watch his former player and assistant coach win his first NCAA tournament game as a head coach. As they watched Gates lead the Tigers to a 76-65 win over Utah State in Sacramento, Jessica reminded Ben of her foresight 25 years ago when Gates was just a freshman student at California.

The relationships Gates has formed with his players and his early success as a head coach would seem to prove her right; Dennis Gates is special. 

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