Dennis Gates' 3rd Season at Mizzou is the Most Important

After leading the Tigers to opposite results in his first two years as Missouri's coach, Dennis Gates will need to get the prorgram back on track in his third try.

Oct 15, 2024; Birmingham, AL, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates talks with the media during SEC Media Days at Grand Bohemian Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images / Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

In two seasons, Dennis Gates has brought widely different amounts of success as the head coach of the Missouri men's basketball roster.

In his first year at the helm, Gates took the Tigers from a 12-win team the previous season to a 25-win team. He unlocked Kobe Brown into a perennial star in the SEC, while his cast of transfers consisting of D'Moi Hodge, Nick Honor and DeAndre Gholston amongst others played key roles in their bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Although it lost in the second round to Princeton in a dissapointing loss, Missouri's win over Utah State in the first round alone was a huge step forward for the program. Before that, it hadn't gotten out of the first round since 2013.

Despite losing several key pieces from that year's team — Brown and Hodge of which finding their way to the NBA — the Tigers were expected to continue to build on a new chapter under Gates in the 2023-24 season. Through some solid transfers, incoming freshman and a bigger role for the returners, they seemed to have put everything together to be in a winning position.

As Missouri quickly came to find out, it wasn't.

Too many reasons could be named to explain how the Tigers finished winless in the SEC last year. Injuries, inconsistencies and even bad luck. Still, none of the circumstances can defend a campaign that historically bad for the program. Every night, the same result became the obvious expectation.

Obviously, it's a season Gates wants to put far behind him. His new roster has 11 fresh faces between the transfer portal and recruiting class, while returners Tamar Bates, Caleb Grill, Trent Pierce, Aidan Shaw and Anthony Robinson II help provide some needed continuity. It likely won't be a roster that competes for a conference championship immediately, but it contains the building blocks to reach it down the road.

The importance of this year's results on the future of Gates' time at Missouri can't be understated. While it'd be highly unikely for him to be on the hot seat after the season — unless it would sustain another winless SEC slate —  he has to prove he can bring results again.

At times throughout last year, some of Gates' coaching could be put into question. Rotational issues were still a problem once conference play hit, bringing out lineups that didn't work or player substituions that didn't make sense. The team was never able to find a real identity, and by a certain point, it wasn't worth trying.

However, the challenges that Gates had to deal with all-season long gave him a pass by many, especially after how quickly he was able to turn the program around on his first try. As desolate as the program looked, he's still the coach that has accumulated recruiting talent that could give the Tigers a long-term path to success.

The development for freshman like Annor Boateng and Peyton Marshall starts now, and it'll likely be the major emphasis point for Gates. He has a highly-touted recruting class at his dispoal, and it's his job to mold them into the players they should become. Transfer portal additions come and go, but the freshman shouldn't.

Gates exceeded low expectations his first season. His second season, quite the opposite.

In his third season, Gates is facing moderate expectations. Whether he exceeds or fails to reach those this time around will be put to the test, but whatever the result may be, it'll be the most important of his time at Missouri.