COLOMBIA, Missouri. Missouri is ready to hire Cleveland State’s Dennis Gates as its next men’s basketball coach, pending approval from the UM System Board of Curators, sources confirmed Saturday. The Board must give notice 24 hours prior to the closed executive meeting to approve the contract. As of Saturday afternoon, the Board has not issued this notice. The terms of the proposed deal are unclear. Gates has a contract with Cleveland State until 2027 with a salary of $550,000.
ESPN first reported Friday night that Missouri had selected Gates for the job. On Saturday morning, the plane, owned by longtime Mizzou sponsor Richard Miller, was scheduled to leave his company’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, Kansas for Cleveland before heading to Columbia Regional Airport. But, according to on-board records, the plane never took off.
Missouri State Athletics Director Desiree Reid-Francois has not been available for comment since Mizzow fired Kuonzo Martin last Friday following the Tigers’ elimination from the SEC tournament.
Gates, 42, is 50-40 in three seasons in Cleveland, two consecutive Horizon League regular season championships and one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021.
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The Chicago native played in California in the Pac-10 and worked as an assistant all over the country, including stops in Marquette, California, Northern Illinois, Nevada and Florida State, where he spent eight seasons under longtime Seminole coach Leonard Hamilton. In the former Soviet Union, Gates helped sign seven top 100 prospects, including several NBA draft picks.
Cleveland State finished 20-11 and 15-6 in the Horizon League this year to tie the regular season championship, but the Vikings lost to Wright State in the Horizon League conference tournament and had to settle for an NIT invitation. CSU lost to Xavier in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday.
Last year, CSU won the Horizon League tournament and automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament before losing to Houston in the first round. Cleveland State had averaged 10 wins a year in the four seasons prior to Gates’ arrival, and hasn’t had a single conference win record since 2015.
Gates’ four seasons in Florida State ended with NCAA Tournament appearances, including a first-round victory over Kuonzo Martin’s Missouri Tigers in 2018 on the FSU’s path to the Elite Eight.
Gates’ staff at Cleveland State includes assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Drew Joyce III, who was a high school teammate with LeBron James in Akron, Ohio and is the son of Drew Joyce II, their coach at St. Vincent St. Mary High.
Dave Matter brings you the latest updates from the Mizzou sports scene.