Quick Exit Gates

Posted on: March 23, 2025 at 10:36:28 CT

There's a reason it took Clark Kellog about 0.2 nanoseconds to pick against Gates in the Tournament.

Gates has now established a pattern in his 3 years- lose in the NCAA tournament to far inferior, slow, disciplined teams, Princeton and Drake.

This is not the bar of success at Mizzou. The bar is a coach like Quin, with several NCAA tourney wins and runs, and tough losses to highly ranked Duke, Marquette, and Kelvin Sampson-coached Oklahoma.

I've been willing to give Gates the benefit of the doubt on his silent demeanor on the sideline. That he's "smarter than the room". He's not. There's nothing going on up there. His silence is showing his internal monologue.

Drake came in and offered the most plainly obvious strategy to beat them, which the entire country clearly saw: going big down low. Gates stubbornly refused to use it, just allowing his bench players to hoist up wild 3's. Texas Tech followed the exact opposite blueprint Mizzou provided, and dispatched Drake with ease.

Gates' teams regress throughout the year instead of getting better, like other good teams. His coaching is a hindrance, not a help.

In the NIL era, Mizzou can do better.