Missouri men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates brings familiar philosophy to new-look team

Jesus Carralero Martin had an early introduction to the Dennis Gates way.

After entering the transfer portal, the Campbell (North Carolina) transfer forward was on a visit with the second-year Mizzou men’s basketball coach. They spent the day touring the MU campus before walking around the basketball facilities.

And then they went back to Gates’ office.

“We stayed there in his office until like 12:30 watching film — it was straight basketball,” Carralero Martin said. “And I love that. I love basketball, I'm in love with that.”

Carralero, the rest of the 18-strong Missouri team, Gates and much of the coaching staff were made available to speak to the media Monday at the team’s training facility in Columbia. The Tigers held their first official practice on Sept. 27. They begin their season on Nov. 6  against Arkansas Pine-Bluff at Mizzou Arena.

A lot will look different when MU takes to Norm Stewart Court in three weeks. Four-year Missouri star Kobe Brown is with the Los Angeles Clippers. D’Moi Hodge is with the Lakers. DeAndre Gholston, Tre Gomillion and Mohamed Diarra are among the other prominent players to have graduated or departed.

But there’s also plenty of continuity from the 25-win 2022-23 season — Gates’ program-reviving debut in Columbia.

The coach’s high-flying goals, for one.

His philosophy for building a team and a culture to get there, another.

“This is personal for me,” Gates said. … “I believe my path is far beyond what you may think. I want to be invited to these guys’ weddings. I want them to call me when a transition in life takes place, when their back is against the wall when they're seeking some advice.”

The mottos and mantras haven’t changed. As became common language last season, the current crop of Tigers still talks about the program’s “eight core values” as frequently as the importance of “energy generating behaviors” (transfer center Connor Vanover just learned about those). The “only ranking that matters,” like last year, is still the one released after ‘One Shining Moment’ has played.

As it relates, Missouri’s endgame isn’t new either. Gates, like last season, has appearances in the Final Four and National Championship at the top of his list of goals.

“If you don't shoot for that,” Gates said, “you're not training, you're not practicing, you're not preparing yourself for the opportunity that's presented.”

He has the first step down pat: Getting a wealth of talent and variety on his side.

The Tigers have 11 new faces on the 18-man roster. Each of MU’s three scholarship true freshmen this season were top-100 rated recruits. On3 ranks Missouri’s production the transfer portal at No. 3 in the country.

On the recruiting trail again, some services have the Tigers ranked as high as No. 1 in the nation for their Class of 2024 hauls, with more decisions still to come.

That required getting a lot of players to buy in.

The Missouri coach has a way of making that happen.

Just ask …

Vanover, the 7-foot-5 Oral Roberts transfer center, said a “family atmosphere” that he’d “really never experienced before” drew him to Mizzou.

Curt Lewis, the John A. Logan transfer and the national junior college player of the year last season, said a lot of teams involve families during recruitment, but that Gates has them involved in “everything they do.”

Trent Pierce, a true freshman forward and No. 60-rated player in his class, per ESPN, said it was the culture that drew him to Gates’ team.

Gates said his philosophy toward relationship-building is “transformational, not transactional.”

“I'll tell them I love them. And sometimes it makes them uncomfortable, but I don't care how uncomfortable they get, I'm gonna hug them, but not only hug them, I'm gonna hold them while I hug them,” Gates said. “And not only (that), I let them know I may need a hug today. It's not just about 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.”

Not many will pick Missouri to hang an NCAA banner this year. The Tigers were unranked in the preseason AP Top 25 poll released Monday morning. They made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before being ousted by 15-seed Princeton. Before that, Gates and Co. defied preseason expectations in the Southeastern Conference with a fourth-place finish in the regular season and a program-first SEC Tournament semifinals berth.

The goal is bigger in Year 2.

There are a lot of new faces on the roster.

But everything in the interim remains the same.

“You know, it's a difficult task that I'm asking,” Gates said. “I don't want to ask these guys at the last second. I want them to understand everything that we put into our day, into our craft, is for something. And that ‘something’ is happening in April, and it's a place that Missouri men's basketball hasn't been.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Here's how Dennis Gates brings consistency to Missouri's new-look team