I got asked to go on the Southeastern 16 podcast to talk about Missouri for the first time a few weeks ago. I’ve met all the guys on that show in person, they’re awesome, I was happy to say yes.
However, I’m always nervous to be on camera or talk into a microphone. Have you ever recorded the sound of your own voice and listened back to it? It’s a disgusting exercise. I prefer to be a writer. I prefer to be the interviewer, not the interviewee. I like being able to convey what I want to say exactly how I want to say it and it’s usually difficult for me to do that off the cuff (like the time I went on Sunday Sitdown with Nathalie Jones and said “bigh har” instead of “high bar”). I have a huge admiration for people who are naturals at it (and for the record, I think @JHamilton23 is one of those people).
I don’t have a ton of experience doing TV/radio/podcast hits (which is why I’ll almost always say yes if I get invited on despite my nerves — I need the reps), so the best thing I figure I can do before going on is just to do my homework and be knowledgable about the team. So for my appearance on the Southeastern 16 show, I went through and refreshed myself on who the team brought in, who stayed, how I think the pieces fit on paper, etc.
While doing all that, this question floated to the top of my mind: Could this offseason realistically have gone better for Dennis Gates? Don’t get me wrong, last season was a disaster. It was historically bad and is going to stick with him as a head coach probably until he does something historically good. But what kind of consequences did it actually have on his ability to bring in new talent?
One of the questions a few people asked me while Missouri was going through its 19-game losing streak was, “Do you think any of the freshmen decommit because of this?” And my general thought was that it wouldn’t, mainly because all five had already signed their NLI and would’ve had to request to be released from it, which doesn’t happen very often. But also because I think for freshmen specifically, the players’ relationship with the staff plays a bigger part in the recruitment and that’s typically been something Gates invests a lot in.
Where I thought last season would be a bigger detriment was in the Tigers’ ability to recruit the transfer portal. You knew there would be plenty of holes to fill, but I just wasn’t all that sure how well they’d be able to bring in winning players. And yet, here we are in mid-July and Mizzou is sixth in EvanMiya.com’s overall transfer activity rankings. For context, the team ranked eighth in 2023 and sixth again in 2022.
What would have gone differently had MU made the NCAA tournament instead of going winless in conference play? I’d assume that would’ve meant that some of the guys who exited this offseason like John Tonje, Curt Lewis and Jesus Carralero Martin would’ve made a bigger impact and that there probably would’ve been more of an effort made to retain them, meaning fewer roster spots open for newcomers. The Tigers probably wouldn’t have gotten Tennessee Martin transfer forward Jacob Crews since he became available before the portal was officially open and committed before the tournament’s First Four games had tipped off. But even if Gates brought in a smaller group, who could he have added that would’ve been significantly better talent-wise than guys like Mark Mitchell, Tony Perkins and Marques Warrick?
The only two players I remember Missouri taking a notable interest in and striking out on were Tarris Reed Jr. and Jevon Porter (the team was linked to others like Dug McDaniel and Kasean Pryor, though I’m not sure how far those conversations got). Reed ended up at UConn and I don’t think Mizzou making the tournament would’ve necessarily swayed him from going to a back-to-back national champion that loves to run its offense through its bigs. There were also obviously a lot of outside factors that complicated Porter’s recruitment that didn’t have anything to do with what the team’s record was last year.
I asked Gabe the question when I thought of it. I asked the question when I went on the Southeastern 16 podcast two weeks ago (which you can watch here). And I asked it again when I went on The Unwritten Rule podcast last week (which you can watch here). And so, after talking with them and thinking on it for a while, I’ve kind of settled on the opinion that I think the Tigers would’ve ended up in a similar place roster-wise. Maybe they get one more big name or maybe the process goes a little easier if they’re coming off back-to-back tournament appearances. But on paper, I think it would’ve been difficult to do much better than a transfer class headlined by the guys they’ve already got.
That still has to translate onto the court and we’re a good four-ish months away from the start of next season. But after watching the team practice last week, I think there are reasons to be optimistic about this roster.
I got the chance to talk to a trio of newcomers after watching practice. Here are a few takeaways I had from each interview:
The shooting part of it was the most obvious — how he’s not only got to tweak his mechanics, but how he’s got to tweak his mentality, too, and become more confident in himself as a shooter. The other part that stood out was his connection with Tamar Bates and how they’ve known each other for pretty much their whole lives, how Bates was the first person Mitchell reached out to once he hit the portal.
Back in March, when Mizzou’s season ended with a loss to Georgia at the SEC tournament, I interviewed Bates in the locker room. After he told me he felt like he was returning, I asked him what he thought needed to change for a bounce back to happen. He said, “We just gotta, obviously, get the right pieces. We've got a good class coming in and, in terms of the transfer portal, you know, we'll all be in communication with the coaches in who we think fits our culture and our style of play. But I mean, it just comes down to, you know, guys who are going to be willing to win and then kind of inherit the pain that we went through last year and the sense of urgency that we'll have approaching this next season.”
After talking with Mitchell, I’ve come away thinking that the Tigers wouldn’t have landed him without Bates.
Perkins talked a ton about Missouri’s defense and development. What’s stood out to him the most about the team? The defense. What’s been his biggest learning curve? The defense. When I asked him about some of the similarities between here and Iowa, I somewhat expected him to say something about how both teams like to play up-tempo on offense. But instead, he struggled to come up with an answer and just settled on “the area” and the team environment. He didn’t have to think nearly as hard about the differences between the two schools — “just the player development they have here, the way they practice.” When I asked about what he wanted to get better at this summer, he had a long list. I think the floor of this team will be higher than last year solely because the defense should be significantly better. I think the team’s ceiling will be determined by how well Gates and his staff can progress the roster on the offensive end.
However, I’m always nervous to be on camera or talk into a microphone. Have you ever recorded the sound of your own voice and listened back to it? It’s a disgusting exercise. I prefer to be a writer. I prefer to be the interviewer, not the interviewee. I like being able to convey what I want to say exactly how I want to say it and it’s usually difficult for me to do that off the cuff (like the time I went on Sunday Sitdown with Nathalie Jones and said “bigh har” instead of “high bar”). I have a huge admiration for people who are naturals at it (and for the record, I think @JHamilton23 is one of those people).
I don’t have a ton of experience doing TV/radio/podcast hits (which is why I’ll almost always say yes if I get invited on despite my nerves — I need the reps), so the best thing I figure I can do before going on is just to do my homework and be knowledgable about the team. So for my appearance on the Southeastern 16 show, I went through and refreshed myself on who the team brought in, who stayed, how I think the pieces fit on paper, etc.
While doing all that, this question floated to the top of my mind: Could this offseason realistically have gone better for Dennis Gates? Don’t get me wrong, last season was a disaster. It was historically bad and is going to stick with him as a head coach probably until he does something historically good. But what kind of consequences did it actually have on his ability to bring in new talent?
One of the questions a few people asked me while Missouri was going through its 19-game losing streak was, “Do you think any of the freshmen decommit because of this?” And my general thought was that it wouldn’t, mainly because all five had already signed their NLI and would’ve had to request to be released from it, which doesn’t happen very often. But also because I think for freshmen specifically, the players’ relationship with the staff plays a bigger part in the recruitment and that’s typically been something Gates invests a lot in.
Where I thought last season would be a bigger detriment was in the Tigers’ ability to recruit the transfer portal. You knew there would be plenty of holes to fill, but I just wasn’t all that sure how well they’d be able to bring in winning players. And yet, here we are in mid-July and Mizzou is sixth in EvanMiya.com’s overall transfer activity rankings. For context, the team ranked eighth in 2023 and sixth again in 2022.
What would have gone differently had MU made the NCAA tournament instead of going winless in conference play? I’d assume that would’ve meant that some of the guys who exited this offseason like John Tonje, Curt Lewis and Jesus Carralero Martin would’ve made a bigger impact and that there probably would’ve been more of an effort made to retain them, meaning fewer roster spots open for newcomers. The Tigers probably wouldn’t have gotten Tennessee Martin transfer forward Jacob Crews since he became available before the portal was officially open and committed before the tournament’s First Four games had tipped off. But even if Gates brought in a smaller group, who could he have added that would’ve been significantly better talent-wise than guys like Mark Mitchell, Tony Perkins and Marques Warrick?
The only two players I remember Missouri taking a notable interest in and striking out on were Tarris Reed Jr. and Jevon Porter (the team was linked to others like Dug McDaniel and Kasean Pryor, though I’m not sure how far those conversations got). Reed ended up at UConn and I don’t think Mizzou making the tournament would’ve necessarily swayed him from going to a back-to-back national champion that loves to run its offense through its bigs. There were also obviously a lot of outside factors that complicated Porter’s recruitment that didn’t have anything to do with what the team’s record was last year.
I asked Gabe the question when I thought of it. I asked the question when I went on the Southeastern 16 podcast two weeks ago (which you can watch here). And I asked it again when I went on The Unwritten Rule podcast last week (which you can watch here). And so, after talking with them and thinking on it for a while, I’ve kind of settled on the opinion that I think the Tigers would’ve ended up in a similar place roster-wise. Maybe they get one more big name or maybe the process goes a little easier if they’re coming off back-to-back tournament appearances. But on paper, I think it would’ve been difficult to do much better than a transfer class headlined by the guys they’ve already got.
That still has to translate onto the court and we’re a good four-ish months away from the start of next season. But after watching the team practice last week, I think there are reasons to be optimistic about this roster.
I got the chance to talk to a trio of newcomers after watching practice. Here are a few takeaways I had from each interview:
- Assistant coach Rob Summers
The shooting part of it was the most obvious — how he’s not only got to tweak his mechanics, but how he’s got to tweak his mentality, too, and become more confident in himself as a shooter. The other part that stood out was his connection with Tamar Bates and how they’ve known each other for pretty much their whole lives, how Bates was the first person Mitchell reached out to once he hit the portal.
Back in March, when Mizzou’s season ended with a loss to Georgia at the SEC tournament, I interviewed Bates in the locker room. After he told me he felt like he was returning, I asked him what he thought needed to change for a bounce back to happen. He said, “We just gotta, obviously, get the right pieces. We've got a good class coming in and, in terms of the transfer portal, you know, we'll all be in communication with the coaches in who we think fits our culture and our style of play. But I mean, it just comes down to, you know, guys who are going to be willing to win and then kind of inherit the pain that we went through last year and the sense of urgency that we'll have approaching this next season.”
After talking with Mitchell, I’ve come away thinking that the Tigers wouldn’t have landed him without Bates.
Perkins talked a ton about Missouri’s defense and development. What’s stood out to him the most about the team? The defense. What’s been his biggest learning curve? The defense. When I asked him about some of the similarities between here and Iowa, I somewhat expected him to say something about how both teams like to play up-tempo on offense. But instead, he struggled to come up with an answer and just settled on “the area” and the team environment. He didn’t have to think nearly as hard about the differences between the two schools — “just the player development they have here, the way they practice.” When I asked about what he wanted to get better at this summer, he had a long list. I think the floor of this team will be higher than last year solely because the defense should be significantly better. I think the team’s ceiling will be determined by how well Gates and his staff can progress the roster on the offensive end.
