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After the first four seasons of the Dennis Gates era, the Mizzou Basketball program is in a better spot since the firing of Cuonzo Martin after the 2021-2022 season.
Missouri has become a consistent NCAA Tournament team under Gates with three trips in four seasons – and back-to-back
appearances in March Madness for the first time since 2012-2013. It has been a nice bounce-back after the 0-19 season. He has also guided Mizzou to their first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2010 in his first season. There have, however, been some post-season disappointments.
Upset losses to 15-seed Princeton and 11-seed Drake have been missed opportunities to take this program to the next level. While a first-round loss this year to 7-seed Miami (FL) wasn’t all surprising – the failure to take advantage of a home crowd in St. Louis resulted in a major disappointment. The Tigers also couldn’t really capitalize with cornerstone player Mark Mitchell on their roster.
Missouri’s regular seasons under Gates have been highlighted by plenty of ranked wins that have bolstered their resume, but this is the second straight year where the Tigers have stumbled down the stretch to erase that momentum.
So far at Mizzou, Gates has a 75-59 overall record which will lead to a critical fifth year of the program with one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming in. While there are causes for concerns, there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the future of this program.
It’s fair to say that Gates’ tenure hasn’t been an overwhelming success – but it also hasn’t been a failure, either. This is a fair assessment here from former Rock M Nation writer Brandon Kiley on 101 ESPN radio in St. Louis.
In our latest SBN Reacts survey, we ask you this: What grade would you give Dennis Gates’ tenure so far at Mizzou?
