Missouri basketball adding Rob Summers as assistant coach
Dennis Gates looked to his past to find his newest assistant coach at Missouri basketball.
The Tigers are adding Rob Summers to fill the vacant spot on their coaching staff, a source confirmed to the Columbia Daily Tribune on Tuesday morning. Summers was recently an assistant at Miami (Ohio), but had previously worked under Gates at Cleveland State.
The team confirmed the hire Tuesday afternoon in a news release, announcing that Summers will work closely with the Tigers' frontcourt, meaning 7-foot center Jordan Butler, forward Aidan Shaw and incoming freshmen Trent Burns and Peyton Marshall will likely work closely with the new assistant.
“I’m incredibly honored and excited to join Coach Gates’ staff at the University of Missouri,” Summers said in a news release. “It is a dream come true to be a part of such a prestigious program with a rich tradition. I can’t wait to get to work with the talented student-athletes and staff at Mizzou.”
Missouri opened a search for a new assistant coach after former assistant Dickey Nutt switched roles within the team as he continues his battle with cancer. Nutt is currently the assistant to the head coach and a senior advisor with the Tigers. The opening for a new assistant coaching position was posted to the University of Missouri website on March 15.
Summers, a former West Virginia center, has spent the past two seasons as the associate head coach at Miami (Ohio). The RedHawks went 15-17 last season with a 9-9 mark in the MAC.
Prior to that, Summers was on Gates’ Cleveland State staff as the team’s offensive coordinator. The Vikings made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2021 after winning the Horizon League Tournament under Gates and Summers’ direction.
“As somebody who specializes in post development, Rob is the perfect piece to round out our coaching staff,” Gates said in a news release. “Very few coaches have frontcourt-playing experience and his knowledge and ability to teach the position will no doubt elevate our program. As our top assistant coach at Cleveland State, he has familiarity with our system and was behind all of our success at CSU. ... He is without a doubt a future head coach and we look forward to him joining our program as we strive to win championships in the classroom, on the court and in the community.”
Current Missouri assistants Ryan Sharbaugh and Matt Cline also were part of that Cleveland State staff as an assistant coach and the special assistant to the head coach, respectively.
Summers began his coaching career at Glenville State as the associate head coach and the compliance coordinator. He then had two different stints at James Madison on either end of a three-year spell as the head coach at Division-II Urbana (Ohio). Summers was James Madison's director of operations in 2013-14, and returned in 2017 to serve as an assistant coach for the Dukes.
In a press release when Summers was hired at Cleveland State, Gates said Summers "automatically balances our staff in the areas of post development and offense."
The 7-foot center began his playing career at Penn State in 2002, and played 56 games over the course of two seasons. After transferring to West Virginia in 2004 and sitting out a year due to bygone transfer eligibility rules, Summers helped the Mountaineers reach the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in the 2005-06 season. In his final season as a college player, Summers started 36 games for West Virginia as the team went on to win the NIT.
Summers played professionally on four different continents — Europe, Asia, Africa and South America — opting for the overseas route after being selected in the 2007 NBA Development League draft.
Missouri is coming off its first winless conference season in over a century. The Tigers went 0-18 in their SEC slate and lost in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Mizzou, after a 25-10 debut campaign from Gates as head coach, went 8-25 last season.
In 2023, the NCAA increased the number of assistant coaches a basketball team can have from three to five. Summers' addition will bring the Tigers' total back to the maximum.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball adding Rob Summers as assistant coach
