Missouri, Dennis Gates hiring Miami Ohio assistant Rob Summers to coaching staff
Dennis Gates is coming off a poor finish this season after a great first year in Columbia. Now, as the Tigers head into the offseason, he has made one his first moves for the program with it being a decision on his staff.
Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 reported on Tuesday morning that Missouri would be hiring Rob Summers as a new assistant. He has previous experience with Gates as a top assistant at his previous job before Mizzou at Cleveland State.
Summers was with Gates over his three and only seasons in Cleveland with the Vikings. In that time together on staff, they helped the team to go 50-40 (.556), including 39-19 (.672) over the last two years of that stint. That also featured three Horizon League titles in those final pair of seasons and an NCAA Tournament selection in 2021, which was the school’s first since 2009.
Summers role was to work on the offense for Cleveland State. In total, they averaged 70.2 points over those 90 games. It also improved year over year from 64.2 in year one to 70.9 in year two and finally at 75.4 in the last year.
Summers has spent the past two seasons with Miami (OH) as the associate head coach of the Redhawks.
Summers also has experience at James Madison, Urbana (Ohio) in Division III, and Glenville State. That includes various roles such as head coach, assistant coach, associate head coach, director of operations, and compliance coordinator.
Gates might be looking to get back to what worked in ’22-’23 after ’23-’24. Missouri went 25-10 in his first season with the school’s first tournament win since 2013. Then, this past season, the Tigers went 8-24, including winless, last-place finish at 0-19 against the SEC.
Summers will now join Charlton ‘C.Y.’ Young, David Nutt, Kyle Smithpeters, Ryan Sharbaugh, and Matt Cline on staff in CoMo.
Cuonzo Martin becomes Missouri State head coach
Cuonzo Martin is returning to Missouri State.
On Monday last week, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the program was nearing a deal to hire Martin as its next head coach.
Martin was the head coach at Missouri State from 2008 to 2011. He boasted a 61-41 overall record and 26-28 mark in conference play.
Most recently, Martin was the head coach at Missouri for five seasons. He reached two NCAA Tournaments with the program. After finishing with a 12-21 record in the 2021-22 season, Missouri fired Martin. Martin was not hired at another program immediately after his dismissal from Mizzou.
Martin has also spent seasons at Tennessee, California, and Purdue, his alma mater.