Everything Dennis Gates said Monday
Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates met with local media Tuesday for the Tigers’ preseason media day.
Here is a video of the press scrum and a transcript of everything he said.
Opening statement
Gates: “Well, great to see you all here today. Definitely excited with the progress of our season thus far, since June 1, when we first got together. Obviously we’re at a phase now where you can get some KenPom rankings for the first time since 2012-2013 we have our highest ranking, which is a great accomplishment. But obviously something that’s due to our progression since being here in my fourth year now, and coaches poll same way, one of our highest rankings since 2017-2018 season. Regardless of the rankings you go, got to go out and do the work, and our guys are going to continue to pride themselves and ourselves, this program about going and do the work we got to go earn what we want, and that’s obviously the opportunity to play in a national championship game.”
Question: What do you like about the team that you’ve assembled this year?
Gates: “Well, we have great size. I think when you look at the experience being able to retain and have retention when you have a returning all-conference guy, Mark Mitchell, in addition to Ant Robinson and Robinson preseason, in my mind, Defensive Player of the Year. You have a group of guys that could pull a group forward, and I’m excited with what I’ve seen with their leadership internally. Now, from an external standpoint, we got to see it all come together with our newcomers.”
Question: The sophomores obviously have another year of development under their belt. Where have you seen them grow? And what are your expectations for those three?
Gates: “Well, I would love for T.O. Barrett to have the same jump that Ant Robinson had as a freshman to sophomore. That’s something I’m looking forward to seeing. We saw flashes of him doing such in big games, whether it was a win on the road at Florida or even, you know, throughout his growth during the year, behind the scenes. So that’s something I’m looking forward to. Annor Boateng has made a big jump as well, so I want those two guys to make the jump that’s necessary in their career that allow them the opportunity to push their team forward and play significant minutes. Trent Burns, same thing. This is his first year he will be playing, so he’s still going to be considered a freshman. So, in my eyes, I want him to be able to be a guy that earns all-freshman nomination.”
Question: As far as Trent Burns goes, with his recovery process, what does that look like? And how has he embraced that?
Gates: “Well, first of all, you got to coach seven-footers differently. You got, their load management has to be different. So, he’s right on course. The timing of everything is great. Obviously, there was a procedure done, and he’s ahead of schedule. In my eyes. Great to see him running, great to see him doing things, but we’re going to make sure we get them to the games, and that’s the most important thing.”
Question: You mentioned the newcomers. What have you seen out of the group of transfers specifically that you’ve liked so far?
Gates: “Well, I love their experience. When you have guys that have played significant minutes or even come from coaches who you know they’re coming from programs that, you know, in my mind, I’ve studied and been a part of, when I’ve been able to watch and relentlessly learn from the system. So, when you look at Sebastian Mack, look at the coach, the institution that he’s coming from, I have great respect for Mick Cronin.
“When you look at, you know, I would say Jayden Stone. Jayden Stone, last time he played was for Mike Davis. Mike Davis is a Final Four coach. He wasn’t able to get on the court last year due to injury. So, when you look at those two guys and what they’re able to add to our program, I think that’s great.
“When you look at, you know, Jevon Porter, same thing. He played in, with Stan Johnson over at LMU and in addition to Pepperdine, I just think when you look at a kid like Jevon, his length, his size for position, his ability to rebound and versatility. But look at the coaches and the program and the seasons that he’s been able to put together.
“Same with Shawn Phillips Jr. Shawn is an SEC guy. He started his career here. He was a kid that, you know, in my mind, could make a difference as an SEC player. Ended up transferring at Arizona State. When you look at the numbers that he was able to produce when Jayden Quaintance was out those are significant numbers for any center in the country to have those types of numbers in 10-plus games.
“So, I’m excited about what I’ve been able to see from those guys, and obviously with what we have returning, who am I missing from our guys? That you guys want to know about anybody else? (reporter offers Luke Northweather).
“Yeah, Luke is a kid that’s returning home. I think his best basketball is ahead of him. He’s a kid, he was actually my first official visit as a head coach here. Didn’t get him the first time, but here we are, second time around. He’s living his dream of playing at Missouri and so the timing couldn’t be any more perfect than what it is. He gives us the ability to stretch the court from the five spot.
“He and Shawn Phillips and Trent Burns are three different centers, but they all compliment Mark Mitchell, Jevon Porter and the rest of our team in a great way. There’s no guys in our program from the portal that I had not recruited before. So there’s familiarity in their grassroots level, AAU, High School, and we just wasn’t able to get them. I think the first year here, everyone looked at, why is Coach Gates offering all these kids? Well, the return on that investment is now paying off, and these guys remember the relationship we tried to build at that time, and that’s what made it a little bit more easier when it when it was time to have that first call with them.”
Question: Jayden (Stone) just kind of told us, a few of us, his story from his perspective. Coming back from the injury and thinking he was done with basketball and then getting another chance from you guys. What was your impression of the perspective that he has on this for a 22-year old kid?
Gates: “Well, not only look at Jayden Stone, he’s a tremendous player. Anyone that has played for Mike Davis, remember, I came from the Horizon League. We studied those teams, and he was able to average 20 points in the Horizon, which is a difficult thing to do, and he did it at a high level. You look at his path coming from Australia, there’s a different perspective from that instance, and then him being able to get to America and play and sacrifice what he had to sacrifice to be here on his journey of basketball, although he started at different institutions, I just look at what we’ve been able to accomplish, what I’ve been able to accomplish with men like Jayden Stone.
“Being able to revive a career and be able to inject them with an invigoration that allows them to see something new, right? And you can see the love he has for the game every day that he laces up his sneakers, how he attends to his teammates and vice versa. I think ultimately his experiences and his basketball experience is what’s going to help him. And sometimes you got to go through something and have a story and a journey to really appreciate the day to day. And I think he has the endurance, mentally, physically and emotionally, to push us how he needs to.”
Question: When you’re talking to a kid, how do you come to the decision, ‘Hey, this kid is worth taking a second chance on?’
Gates: “I think when you look at our program culture, and when you look at our core principles of friendship, love, accountability, trust, discipline, unselfishness, enthusiasm and toughness, he fits that, and those kids fit that. Just because they weren’t a star, a five star for another coach doesn’t mean they can’t be a five star for Dennis Gates in our program today.
“I think when I look back on my life, someone gave me a chance, and we’re all here because someone gave us a chance. Whether we squandered the first time the second time. In your case, you probably squandered 100 right, (reporter responds 96) but somebody gave you a shot, and you got to go through life experiences and fail and obviously get rejected. The journey is what helps us in the moment. It’s not just the opportunity. It’s how we’ve approached the journey each and every day.
“And when I read the journey and understand a kid’s journey I get to now figure out if that’s an equation that I’m able to coach and I’m able to coach a kid like that because of our success with a Caleb Grill, who probably no one thought would sign an NBA contract, right? Same with Tamar Bates, same with a Mark Mitchell. All these kids come from different walks of life, but opportunities come and go. Is my is my job to make sure young people get up get a shot, because someone gave me a shot.”
Question: Can you talk about the maturity level of Aaron Rowe as a true freshman? And kind of his ability to take some hard coaching?
Gates: “Well, if you look at Ant Robinson, Ant Robinson is a product of, there’s nothing he could do right his first year, right? Mrs. Robinson and Mr. Robinson allowed me to coach their son hard, because we all met and I told them what the plan was. And every time Ant Robinson tried to complain about Coach Gates, Mom and Dad would cut them off and say, ‘Go, listen to coach.’
It’s the same way with T.O. Barrett. There’s nothing T.O. Barrett could do correct last year. Practice is just how I have to make sure they’re positioning themselves to lead. Aaron Rowe is going to take a little bit of that this year, and he has been. And his job is to smile when Coach Gates gets on him, and his job is to not want or need affirmation or a pat on the back.
“His job is to develop, and on the other side of that development, you see a guy like Ant Robinson, who’s not done growing, who’s not done producing his best days, is ahead of him. But you guys see the jump. I don’t know when the jump is going to happen, but these kids have to be prepared to be pushed and not run away. The journey is what’s going to prepare them. It’s easy to run away, Ant Robinson, it’s easy to run away from being blamed every single practice for what he’s done wrong, same way with T.O. Barrett, now Aaron Rowe, I believe, is going to be a benefit of that.
“And you can see his growth off the court when a kid comes to you and says, ‘Coach, Coach, Coach. I got an A.’ I got to give him some love there, right? But ultimately, I think his family has done a great job of putting us in a position, his AAU coaches, high school coaches, put us in a position to lead them and push him back when they obviously see anything that’s close to him complaining about, ‘Well, Coach Gates is too hard on me.’ It’s no such thing, because life is difficult.”
Question: If this team is going to get where you would like to get to this season (Gates interjects, ‘A Final Four and National Championship’), how much of that is going to rely on retention and development?
Gates: “Well, retention and development is very important. You can’t just build a national championship team just from the portal. You have to have a high school recruiting class that’s going to keep developing, obviously, to have Ant Robinson and Trent Burns. I mean, Trent Pierce, here as third year recruits is important. Because they get to pass along your culture. You get to see their development.
“Now you look at Annor Boateng, T.O. Barrett, Trent Burns the class afterwards, those guys become sophomores, and in eligibility, you see that now that you have a freshman class, that’s why we concentrate on not having one-year portal guys, but two-year guys. Tamar Bates benefited from that. Caleb Grill benefited by way of injury. Now we want the Sebastian Mack and the Luke Northweather to have two years remaining so they can make the developmental jump as well.
“Mark Mitchell, the same. You see a guy who was in his first season make a jump, and now you have retention being one of the top teams in the SEC to retain. We work hard on that every single day, I build the relationships with the kids, their parents, their support system, but I also coach them with honesty and fairness and transparency. So I want to be able to make sure we do those things, but not just rely on one-year classes where the entire team is wiped out.
“I think we’ve done a great job throughout our state being able to be innovative in the NIL space. I thank our businesses here in the state, who use our, use our student athletes, not just men’s basketball, but everywhere, to be able to use a platform for them to lead publicly. Those things matter to recruits, and it matters to the future of our athletic programs.”
Question: I think maybe at this time last year, you said the program was still in the infant stages. Where are you now?
Gates: “Well, this is my fourth year, you know, fourth year as a head coach at Missouri. I’m excited about it. I’m thankful about it. You know, it’s a tough business at the end of the day, you guys do a lot of coverages of coaches around the world and coaches around college sports, we got to go out and produce and win, and win games. And I’m thankful to be the Whitten Family Men’s Head Basketball Coach as long as they allow me to.
“And I’m just saying that from the standpoint this is a position that I accept full responsibility for. There’s good days, bad days, but you got to you got to lean on your great days and push the program toward moments that has never happened in a long time. So being able to look at the KenPom for the first time since what 2012-2013 we’re at our highest ranking, that matters collectively. That’s something that hadn’t been done since that time frame.
“When you look at preseason rankings, yeah, it’s seven, but it’s seventh where 98 percent of your teams have gone to the NCAA tournament. And I just want to do my part in this ecosystem of coaching that puts our conference where it deserves. And ultimately, I thought last season a national championship was going to come from this conference, and I believe again this year, a national championship is going to come from this conference. So being able to have 13 out of the 16 teams in the top 50 preseason rankings, it doesn’t mean anything, we still got work to do as a conference and me as a head coach, to make sure our team stays healthy and make sure we continue to grow.”
Question: As a staff, what do you learn the most from last year’s run and how it ended?
Gates: “What I learned is, you know, at the end of the day, being able to have five top or three top five victories, two of which were at home. You can’t take for granted. Opportunities to play in front of your crowd. The difference that a crowd makes is tremendous. So hopefully we get to see that in preseason non-conference schedule and things like that.
“You get to learn about personalities you get to learn about now offseason, and it goes back to retention offseason, chips on their shoulders, right? I think as players, you see them training differently just because they left something on the table. By any means, I’m excited about being able to go to the NCAA tournament. Not excited about, because I truly believe we had a national championship team last year, but we did not go or advance in the tournament. It’s one thing to get there, it’s another thing to advance. And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to not only get there, but also win some games.”
Question: Caleb Grill was one of the best shooters in the country last year. Who do you look for to replace that production?
Gates: “You know, the best part of it is versatility. From a distribution standpoint, we have forwards compared to last season who can stretch the floor. Jevon Porter has attempted over 100 3s in his career. Luke Northweather, over 60 percent of his shots have been from 3. Trent Burns is another kid that can stretch the floor.
“So you look at the forwards and look at now the distribution. You look at Sebastian Mack, Jayden Stone, yes, we want those guys to make shots. We want Jacob Crews to make 100 3s. That’s my goal. For Jacob Crews to not attempt, but make, 100 3s on the season. You look at Ant Robinson. We want Ant Robinson to be able to not have that small sample size, but to increase it, while also maintaining that percentage that he’s been able to shoot it at. So, I think from a distribution, our entire team, we play a style that requires close to 800 3s on the season, and that’s the goal.”
Question: You’re going on the road to start the season again. What’s the value of doing that and going out to Howard specifically?
Gates: “Well, I think ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s a great opportunity for your team being able to look at a two-for-one in that situation. That’s against a coach that I highly respect. I also believe you know the character of your team by how they treat opponents on the road. And being able to get that at the very beginning, I think can help us in a tremendous way.
“And sometimes those learning lessons, are invisible. But they’re visible to a coach who knows his team and knows what he needs to see. There’s going to be some hostile environments in the SEC. There’s going to be hostile environments when we go to neutral sites. But also now putting your team in a place where you can get one of those games in against Howard University, who is a NCAA tournament team for the last three years is one of those situations where they’re well coached. It’s going to be a hostile environment, and our team has to peak in a certain way and perform in a hostile way in that environment. So I’m thankful for the opportunity to go there.”
Question: Going back to your conversation about Aaron. When you’re recruiting in high school and you’re looking at guys, how do you measure that sort of resilience in a player to where you feel comfortable coaching that guy hard?
Gates: “Well, I’m only able to coach a kid as tough as I coach him behind the scenes, because during this, during the season, during the games, I’m on the sideline, I’m just in a suit and tie, and I just sit there, right? And you guys are probably like why’s coach, not as animated? But for the relationship that I have with each and every last one of our players here. It goes beyond basketball. It’s a lifelong relationship. They know that they’re not going to kick me to the curb and just deny it. They may try to run from it. But they’re not going to deny the words based off what my relationship has been with them.
“And we work hard. I work hard on that in life, even in the workplace. Wherever you are in your career, you tend to get a response or a better response from the people you have a relationship with. And versus complaining about differences, go bridge the gap. Go bridge the gap and do what it takes to extend the olive branch. And that’s what I’ve done in my career, not only with our players, but our staff. Being able to have a staff the same way.
“But Aaron Rowe is responding. All our players are responding. They love to come to practice. They give us their very best. Their very best may never be perfect, but it’s their very best, and I know it’s their very best. I don’t have to do a loose ball drill, I know what’s going to happen on the court. I don’t have to do charge drills, I know what’s going to happen. Because they’re giving me something that I’ve emulated in my actions to them.
“First I’ve crossed the bridge. It’s their job to follow me, and my job is to get them to follow me through their actions. So, I’m thankful for their parents, their AAU coaches, their agents, all of the above, for allowing me to coach these young people as difficult of a situation that they are in now as hard as I can.”
Question: With Aaron, he was a big local recruit playing at Tolton. How valuable is it to get those recruits and then what’s kind of his ceiling here with Mizzou?
Gates: “For the first time in a long time, we have four to five guys from Missouri. Kansas City area, right? You look at Mark Mitchell, that’s a whole other kid from a McDonald’s All American, Duke transfer that we were able to get. But look at locally. Jevon Porter, look at locally. Luke Northweather, local. Aaron Rowe, those are three kids. I don’t know if it’s ever been done, three kids in a 50-mile radius, right? That’s important.
“Then look at Nicholas Randall, who’s from Vashon, former Gatorade state player of the year, two- or three-time state champion. That’s important when you look at the fabric of this institution. When you look at the pots, meaning the melting pots, where our student body arrives from, it’s all over the place. But when you can get Kansas City, St Louis, you can get local. It gives an avenue for applications to increase, because these kids are popular within their own circles.
“They’re great kids on and off the court. Nobody’s Perfect, right? I know all of you guys are perfect. Ladies, perfect in your lives growing up. But these kids have unbelievable followings. They have great networking skills. They care about people. This past weekend, and it was great to see Mark Mitchell in his sort of black and gold overalls right at the football game. I mean, just think about that. These kids are throwing themselves into the fabric of the student body and taking the role of what they would want our student section to look like. And that’s being a chaotic fan.
“And when they are chaotic fans, and they’re excited about football games, you know, I care about that. But they care because they’ve seen it in high school. They’ve seen it in elementary school. How special. So, Aaron Rowe, back to the question again. Aaron Rowe’s baby picture is with Phil Pressey coming to camp. So, for me, getting those stories from their moms, parents, fathers, knowing how connected they were to this institution, Luke Northweather the same way dreamed of playing here.
“Him and Jevon Porter played here in high school against each other on this court. Now, Luke did a great job. But ultimately, those are stories that you have to understand why we want the state tournaments here. Because they create unbelievable memories that will last a lifetime.”
Question: How important was it accounting for the portal guys, their ability to handle a league like the SEC. And how much has the prep in the preseason been about that?
Gates: “Well, as the Whitten Family Head Men’s basketball coach, you know, again, I say this at the cusp of opportunity. I’ve been given the opportunity to lead this program for however long they want me here. And it’s a special position to be able to embrace what Norm (Stewart) has done here throughout my tenure. Now is great. I want all these players to understand and realize that I may push them, I may want more. But it’s up to them to create the memories when I leave.
“I want the big picture to show, I want banners up, right? I want nets cut down. Those things matter. When you look back on if a coach has been successful or not, we’ve done, we’ve risen some banners. Not the ones that are very, very special, the Final Fours, National Championships, I want those type of banners. And ultimately, that’ll lead to great careers and great opportunities for our players. I may not have answered your question, but that was what was on my heart that you sparked. But go ahead and ask that. Question again, so I can really answer it.
Question: When you look at guys in the portal, how important is it to look at a guy and know he can handle a full league schedule?
Gates: “So, you look at what they’ve been able to do, did they come off the bench? Did they perform at a high level in conference. Sebastian Mack is one of the top free throw attempt guys in the country per minute. He’s been able to start for Mick Cronin, in addition to he’s been able to come off the bench. Think about how far his teams have gone, right?
“It’s a very successful coach, and he’s done a great job. So, you look at the fabric of the coach. Shawn Phillips Jr. played for LSU, but in addition, played for (Bobby) Hurley at Arizona State. He’s coaching them hard every day, especially if we see Coach Hurley, how he coaches with the lights on right? We know behind the scenes, he’s coaching them hard and guys are able to responding to that.
“Jevon Porter, the same way, Stan Johnson has done a great job at LMU right? When you look at the fabric and the cloth that they’re cut from, and you know what you know about the SEC is not easy. It’s difficult. It becomes dark days. Who can rise to the occasion based off the level of competition that they played at.
“Jayden Stone? I’ve seen the University of Detroit, right? I’ve seen what Mike Davis has been able to do. The kid has been coached hard, trust me. So, all of that matters when we put a kid’s resume on the table, and we try to figure out why this kid over that one. And we want guys who want to be here. Who want to play for me. And that rises to the top. Each guy here wants to play for me.
“And when I say they want to play for me, I don’t have to ask them to run hard. I don’t have to ask them to play a little harder. I don’t have to ask them. They know the standard, but also from a respect part, it’s the fabric that they’re cut from. And I’m thankful that we’ve been able, as a staff, to identify and build a relationship with most of the kids that we have now, prior to them getting in the portal when they were high school students. So that’s what stands out as it relates to being able to play in the SEC for me.”