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NEW STORY THE WEALTHTRUST AM RUMOR MILL: DAY 5 (UPDATED AT 11:26 AM)

GabeD

PowerMizzou.com Publisher
Staff
Aug 1, 2003
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Yes, it's actually only Day 5. In reality, we are probably less than halfway through this coaching search.

But what’s this? Information? Damn straight. We’ve started to hear some things we put stock in. So here we go:

We’ve mentioned before we have reason to believe Kim English and Jerome Tang have heard from Mizzou and have traction. We are ready to add two more names to that list: Murray State’s Matt McMahon and Cleveland State’s Dennis Gates. Things we’ve heard over the last 24 hours lead us to believe there is mutual interest with both.

McMahon’s Racers stand 30-2 as they prepare to face San Francisco in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night (the Dons are coached by Todd Golden, who many have speculated is a candidate for this job as well, but who we can't confidently put with this other group quite yet). His big claim to fame is landing Ja Morant. After going 33-31 in McMahon's first two seasons, Morant came to Murray and the Racers have gone 120-35 and won the Ohio Valley Conference four times in five years. They’re in their third NCAA Tournament in that time and won a game in 2019. McMahon’s name is going to be involved with other openings as well. Many have him on Florida’s list of possible candidates. We believe there has been contact with McMahon, but the next step would obviously have to wait until after the Racers are done playing in the NCAA Tournament. That could be as soon as tomorrow night…or not.

The knock on him is that he’s never recruited in a major conference. His assistant stops before Murray were Appalachian State and UNC-Wilmington. Murray State is also a place that has bred good coaches and good results for 30 years. Every coach the Racers have had since 1985 has gone to at least one tournament and all but one has gone to at least two. Other than Mick Cronin, none of them have gone on to be better than average at future stops. Should that be held against McMahon? Maybe not. But it’s at least something to think about.

Gates is another name that has been on a lot of lists, both for Missouri and at other places. He was considered a prime candidate at Georgia before the Bulldogs poached Mike White from Florida. Gates is a long time Leonard Hamilton assistant who took over for Dennis Felton at Cleveland State prior to the 2019 season. Cleveland State is 50-40 under Gates in three seasons, but that needs some context. He took over a program that had gone 40-89 in the four years before he got there. After an 11-21 debut season, he’s 39-19 in the last two years. They won the Horizon League last year and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to eventual Final Four participant Houston.

Gates was a GA at Marquette and Florida State before going to Cal, Northern Illinois and Nevada as an assistant. He returned to Tallahassee on Leonard Hamilton’s staff in 2011 and spent eight seasons on the bench. I reached out to someone that covered the Noles for the duration of that time. Here’s what he told me:

“Dennis is very polished and is always trying to learn. He would watch all of Hamilton’s press conferences to see how Leonard handled different situations. He would pay attention to how the media did our jobs too. He even went out to watch football practices and other teams’ practices to watch other coaches coach.”

I asked about Gates’ recruiting prowess at FSU: “His big get here of course was Jonathan Isaac. He got a tip about him early and got on him before he had a big growth spurt. And when others came in, Isaac stayed loyal. It’s not an overstatement to say that Isaac signing helped save Hamilton’s tenure at FSU. They had missed four straight tournaments, but the idea of Isaac coming in as a top-10 prospect gave the administration confidence to give it another year.

“Gates also gets credit for discovering Mfiondu Kabengele, who was a major diamond in the rough that they turned into a first-rounder. He had no big offers before Gates came in. That was another one where Gates was tipped off by another coach. Which shows his connections.

He not only has the Chicago roots, but he played out west and had coached in different areas. And he’s very personable. Plus working for Hamilton for almost a decade, he now has picked up a lot of those connections.”

The main takeaway from his time in Tallahassee? “There are a lot of people here who hoped he would stay at Cleveland State until Hamilton retired so that he could come back here. But the fact that he’s up for all these high-major jobs makes me think that won’t happen now.”

Cleveland State lost to Xavier in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday night. The season is over and Gates is available at any time. I’ve got to admit, I like him more than I thought I did after looking into him further.

One other interesting note on Gates: Just before he was hired, Mike Alden was the interim AD there for a few months and I believe was involved in the hire. Scott Garrett officially took over as AD on April 24 and Gates wasn’t hired until July, but I was told Alden may have had some influence on the move.


So those are four guys we feel fairly confident saying Missouri is looking at. Now let’s get into something a little more hypothetical. The daily exercise seems to be which high major coaches might be looking to leave? In other words, is there another Mike White out there?

There are two names we’re going to talk about.
 
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