New Mizzou Hoops Coach Dennis Gates Wasting No Time in Recruiting

Gates has already made contact with some of the nation's best young players in the class of 2024.

With as disappointing of a season as it was for Missouri Tigers men's basketball, it's of utmost importance to get ahead of the field for next season. 

And with new head coach Dennis Gates at the helm, things have already started to turn around in a major way. 

According to a report from The Kansas City Star and first reported by On3, Gates and staff have reached out to three of the top talents from the class of 2024, as Wednesday was the first day coaches can contact recruits. 

Mizzou reportedly contacted Gill St. Bernard (West Orange, NJ) forward Naas Cunningham, Lake Highlands (Dallas) guard Tre Johnson, and Cardinal Hayes (Bronx, NY) guard Ian Jackson. The trio are the top three recruits in On3's 2024 rankings. 

Making contact with three top recruits shows promising intuition from Gates, though he'll have to compete with a slew of other SEC teams that also made contact with all three players. 

Cunningham was contacted by conference rivals like Arkansas and Texas A&M, Johnson was contacted by Kentucky, Arkansas, and LSU, and Jackson was contacted by Kentucky and Auburn. 

Though 2024 is still far from now, it bodes well for Mizzou's future success. But what has the new head coach done so far in his two short months on the job?

Gates has hauled in some impressive talent in the transfer portal this offseason, with the biggest name being Missouri State transfer guard Isiaih Mosley. The Tigers also secured commitments from Clemson guard Nick Honor, Northern Iowa forward Noah Carter, and two of Gates' former players at Cleveland State, Tre Gomillion and D'Moi Hodge. 

The Tigers also found out Thursday that they'll be hosting former Big 12 rival Iowa State this season as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. 

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You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7

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