How Dennis Gates Plans to Lead Mizzou Through Disappointment of NCAA Tournament Loss

The head coach of the Missouri Tigers has reason to believe he can fulfill the long-term vision he has set for the program.

Mar 20, 2025; Wichita, KS, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates talks to guard T.O. Barrett (5) in the second half of a first round men’s NCAA Tournament game against the Drake Bulldogs at Intrust Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

WICHITA, Kan. —  The air in the Missouri Tigers locker room was thick and filled with disappointment. Players looked silently at the floor. Not wanting to go through the post-mortem of their loss to Drake in Round 1 of the NCAA Tournament, but struggling to find anything else to think about.

There was a glow from a front corner of the room, where head coach Dennis Gates stood. He realizes his players might not be able to immediately feel that.

"I'm going to tell them that I love them because I know that they're hurting," Gates told MissouriOnSI.

Gates says he isn't focused now on what the next few weeks or even days look like for him and the team. When asked about the optimism the team could have entering next season, Gates brought it back to the present team, responding "I'm extremely proud of our guys."

The loss in Round 1 cuts Missouri's season much shorter than the expectations set from peaks in the regular season. Even if the players sitting in the locker room in Intrust Bank Arena couldn't see through the disappointment of the moment, Gates already has clarity.

The short end to Missouri's season does undeniably create questions around Gates. Both of his trips to the Tournament with Missouri have ended with underwhelming performances early on. This season, there was a wide gap between what the Tigers showed potential of accomplishing at points in the regular season to what the actual results were in both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.

This is another challenge that the 45 year old will have to grow and respond from.

After Missouri's 2023-2024 season, Gates took guidance from the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling, a poem he believes illustrates how true growth can only come through failure, he said to Good Morning America.

After the loss Thursday, that poem could be a good remedy for his team's dissapointment.

The poem reads: "If you can make one heap of all your winnings, And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss."

Thursday was the end of this team's story, the plot is not lost on what they went through this season.

"This game does not speak for our success," Gates said in a press conference following the loss.

It's a story that fits into a much larger series of a consistent program Gates wants to be at the lead of, as he said at one point this year, for the next 20-plus years.

Mar 19, 2025; Wichita, KS, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates watches his team during a practice session at Intrust Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images / Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

Even if its far for the accomplishment the team was hoping, Missouri's 2024-2025 campaign will lead to a banner being raised in Mizzou Arena for earning a bid in the NCAA Tournament. It will join the same banner from the 2022-2023 season as only being a small symbol of lessons learned and peaks.

"There's something on the (2022-2023 NCAA Tournament) banner in the front that the fans get to see, but it's a whole lot of stories behind that banner that is invisible to the human eye," Gates said ahead of the 2024-2025 season. "That happens within the locker room, within these special early morning workouts, the connection between the player."

The trip to the NCAA Tournament was Gates' third as a head coach, and his ninth total on a coaching staff. All have brought along new situations, and therefore, learning moments for Gates to take forward.

"What I have done is kept notes on those things that I wish I would have done after my first experience, and I've implemented them whether it's the situations," Gates said of his prior NCAA Tournament experiences in a press conference Wednesday.

Gates wanted to be present and there for his playes after the loss. But there's also a reason he had a smile on his face at points during conversation. Now more than ever, he has reason to be confident about his ability to lead a group through failure and defeat after going winless in Southeastern Conference play in the 2023-2024 season.

"We don't have a trip to San Antonio (for the Final Four)," Gates said in the press conference. "For us, we did something historically that has never been done from one year to the next."

Ultimately, nobody plays or coaches to just stack accomplishments in the regular season. Gates isn't expecting a trophy for the turnaround season. But, the lessons learned in the season, and the loss that ended it, are the next building blocks that will inform Gates on the next steps of fulfilling his vision, which isn't shortsighted.

"There's a lot of future ahead," Gates said in a press conference on Feb. 11.

"There's a lot of bright things ahead."

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