How Mizzou ended its 13-year NCAA Tournament drought in Dennis Gates’ first season
With 10 minutes, 46 seconds left in Missouri’s NCAA Tournament opener on Thursday at the Golden 1 Center, Utah State’s Dan Akin slammed home his second dunk in just over a minute to give the Aggies a 49-47 lead.
All of a sudden, the complexion and trajectory of a game Mizzou led virtually the entire way had been reversed.
Take it from Mizzou.
“We felt them getting the momentum, but we couldn’t show that,” senior Kobe Brown said. “If we would have showed that, things would have went a lot different.”
Instead, Mizzou took its cue from eerily calm head coach Dennis Gates. who casually called a timeout and …
“He’s standing there with his hands behind his back,” Brown said. “No reason for us to be yelling and screaming at each other. He’s not doing that. … He was like, ‘Everybody just calm down.’ Power clap. Reset.”
Call it coincidence, but MU then uncorked a 20-7 run highlighted by Brown’s 12 straight points for the Tigers. That stoked the way to a 76-65 victory — MU’s first in the NCAA Tournament in 13 years.
Or as freshman forward Aidan Shaw put it: “The days are zero now.”
Most of all, the days are better now than in a long while for seventh-seeded Missouri (25-9), which already had doubled its victory total from last season entering the game against the 10th-seeded Aggies.
Now MU (25-9) has a shot at its first Sweet 16 berth since its run to the Elite Eight in 2009. Next up is 15th-seeded Princeton (22-8), which stunned second-seeded Arizona 59-55 later Thursday.
However it plays out from here, it seems Mizzou will literally be poised for more ahead because of the influence of Gates in his first season on the job since being hired away from Cleveland State.
Thursday provided fresh and all the more compelling testimony to all that’s changed since he took over and brought in nine new players he artfully melded together with three returnees highlighted by Brown — who was one of four Tigers in double figures.
While Gates acknowledged that he cried in the locker room after the victory, he provided a different sort of glimpse at his uncanny connection with his players when he was asked what’s behind his ever-unflappable demeanor on the court — a persona that stands in contrast to many of his animated peers.
“As a coach, what I’ve learned is the level of cerebral emotional intelligence that one has to have …” said Gates, who is one of the few major-college men’s basketball coaches who still wears a business suit while coaching. “I want to exude something in plain sight when (the players) first take a glance.
“They’re always watching. I want them to see confidence, not arrogance. I want them to see humility. I want them to see grace. I want them to see forgiveness. I want them to see our eight core values of friendship, love, accountability, trust, discipline, unselfishness, enthusiasm and toughness. I want them to see that.
“I also want my words to reflect it. You never know what can crush a young player’s dreams or their aspirations. You know one thing: There’s nothing better than a player having confidence. That’s what I want to give them.”
Certainly, it’s what they took from him when the game was pivoting the other way.
“He’ll never waver,” said Noah Carter, who had 10 points and five assists. “He’ll never break.”
Said DeAndre Gholston (11 points): “I don’t know how he does it.”
That aura also helps explain why Gholston took the court with less a sense of nervousness than being prepared.
Not that it wasn’t emotional for an MU team that included six players who had played before in the NCAA Tournament without winning a game.
Before the game, Brown said he had to work to hold back tears just having another chance at playing for his team and the fans he would say this was for.
The Tigers also were motivated by teammate Tre Gomillion, who had missed nine of the last 14 games with a groin injury and was crestfallen not to be able to play. Gholston went as far as to say MU won the game for him.
Gomillion tried “everything I could to trick my mind,” he said, but had to listen to his body. Unlike Brown, he couldn’t quite hold back the tears while teammates embraced him on the bench before the game and during the national anthem.
But even without playing, Gates made sure he was engaged in the game.
“He’s Coach Gomillion to you,” Gates said afterward, noting he’d told the guard who was his first recruit at Cleveland State “‘If you’re not playing, I need you … as involved as my staff members.’”
Reflecting the evident mutual trust, Gomillion indeed was active on the bench and even offered some feedback to Gates.
Why not?
“We’re the same person,” Gomillion said. “Just a couple years age difference.”
All part of a year that’s made all the difference with another chapter on Thursday.
MU took a 35-31 lead into intermission after Utah State, fifth in the nation in 3-point percentage, missed all 11 of its first-half 3-pointers. But the Aggies finally hit a couple early in the second half and overtook the Tigers before Brown reiterated what made him a first-team All-Southeastern Conference performer.
“It’s electric, so we all feel the energy …” Shaw said. “We all feed off it and try to multiply.”
The spree started with his steal and whirling move into a game-tying reverse dunk that he jokingly rated a 23 on a scale of one to 10.
Then he hit two 3-pointers in the next 1:21 and looked to Gates yelling, “‘I’m here, Coach, let’s do this!’”
To which Gates said he replied, “‘Yes, you are. We can see.’”
Then we saw some more when Brown hit one of two free throws and yet another 3 with 6:14 to go.
After that 3, Utah State’s Akin looked up and shook his head in frustration as the pendulum almost tangibly had swung back.
Just like Gates expected.
“They’re a good team. They were supposed to go on a run,” he said. “We’re a good team as well, and we were supposed to respond.”
When Utah State committed another of its 15 turnovers on the ensuing possession, D’Moi Hodge (23 points, four steals) instantly hit another 3 to complete a 13-2 run and give MU a 62-53 lead.
“When you finally fight all the way back (and) you take the lead,” Utah State coach Ryan Odom said, “then all of a sudden that takes the life out of you.”
Mizzou never led by fewer than six the rest of the way or by fewer than eight in the final four minutes.
That completed a day that not only punctuated MU’s turnaround but illustrated part of how it’s happened under Gates, who has had a remarkable knack for galvanizing his players.
When Brown was asked to explain Gates’ immediate success, he alluded to much of what he considered when he decided to return after last season.
“Nothing basketball related,” he said.
Pointing instead to the relationships Gates had developed with everyone from players to staff to people in the community to Mizzou Arena janitors, he added, “Everyone trusts him, everyone has his back, and it allows us to keep going.”
Further than they’ve been in 13 years … with a fertile chance for more ahead.
This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 7:53 PM.