New Missouri Tigers men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates sets high bar in recruiting
First-year Missouri men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates and members of his coaching staff kept their dialing digits busy this week.
Wednesday marked the first day coaches were allowed to contact prospects in the class of 2024, and Mizzou representatives got in touch with several top-ranked prospects.
According to On3.com, Missouri contacted the top three players, eight of the top nine and 23 of the top 42 on the On3.com prospect list.
The top three are Naas Cunningham, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard from West Orange, N.J.; Trey Johnson, a 6-5 shooting guard from Dallas; and Ian Jackson, a 6-5 shooting guard from New York City.
Kansas State, under first year head coach Jerome Tang, also reached out to Cunningham and Johnson.
Landing those top targets is another matter, of course. But Gates, formerly the head coach at Cleveland State, and the Tigers are setting their sights high.
June 15 (Wednesday) was the first time coaches could call/have direct communication with individual players who’ve completed their sophomore seasons of high school. Before that date arrived, college coaches (such as Gates and his staff) could talk only to those players’ parents or high school coaches.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 10:11 AM.