Dennis Gates has been Missouri’s basketball coach for ten days officially. After ten days his staff officially consists of: Dennis Gates.
Is it weird that Mizzou hasn’t officially announced a single staff member—much less any of Gates’ three assistant coaches? Yeah, I think it’s a little weird. It doesn’t have to be bad, but it is a little strange that we’re more than a week in and we don’t officially know a single person who is going to be working in the basketball program.
There could be a number of reasons for that. Maybe he’s waiting on answers from candidates. Maybe he’s still deciding who he wants on his staff. Maybe he already has coaches lined up who are still coaching or can’t be announced for some other reason for a few days. Most likely, he is waiting until after the Final Four. That event usually serves as a coaches’ convention and there is all kinds of job-hopping that happens in the week or two after the end of the season. Gates is certainly doing some talking/interviewing this weekend. When Missouri hired Cuonzo Martin, the additions of Cornell Mann and Chris Hollender weren’t announced for more than two weeks.
So it’s a little weird in this microwave society of give me the news now, but it’s not all that unusual or anything Missouri fans should be overly concerned about. Eventually, he’s going to have a staff. Here we’ll get into some of the names that have come up. The names listed below are all names we've had mentioned to us by at least one person since Gates was became the clear top target 13 days ago.
Matt Cline: Cline was the special assistant to the head coach for Gates at Cleveland State. We expect him to be in some sort of similar administrative role at Missouri.
Ryan Sharbaugh: Sharbaugh was a full-time assistant at Cleveland State. From the sound of things, he is likely to be involved in the program here, but our indications are that it might not be as one of the three full-time assistants on the bench.
Rob Summers: Summers was Gates’ lead assistant at CSU and the “offensive coordinator.” He started his coaching career at Glenville State, then was a head coach at Division II Urbana (OH), then an assistant at James Madison. CSU athletic director Scott Garrett said that Summers would be interviewed as Gates’ successor.
Dru Joyce II: Joyce was an assistant and the recruiting coordinator for Gates at CSU. This was Joyce’s first coaching job after a 12-year overseas playing career. He was a high school teammate of LeBron James at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s where his father is still the head coach.
Jerrance Howard: Howard just finished his first year on Chris Beard’s staff at Texas. He has previously coached at Illinois (his alma mater), SMU, Texas A&M and Kansas. He is a Peoria, IL native and is just a year younger than Gates. His name was one of the first to surface in the rumor mill after Gates was hired, but there have been no new developments and our belief is that he’s unlikely to come to Mizzou at this point.
Chin Coleman: Coleman is another Chicago product who has coached at Colorado State, Nebraska, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois and is now at Kentucky. He began his coaching career with legendary AUU program, Mac Irvin Fire, in Chicago. His name popped up shortly after Gates’ hire, but like Howard, the chatter seems to have died down and sources have indicated they now expect Coleman to stay in Lexington.
Kyle Smithpeters: Smithpeters has spent the last eight years as the head coach of John A. Logan CC in Carterville, IL. He’s coached more than 40 Division One players including eight junior college all-Americans. Prior to being the head coach, he was an assistant at JALC for four years and was on Paul Lusk’s staff at Missouri State for a year before returning to Logan as the head coach. On his roster this year is Region 24 player of the year Sean East, a point guard who was in Columbia for an official visit last weekend. If there’s a guy on this list we would say we are most confident in being added to the staff at this point, it would be Smithpeters. Should be clear we certainly haven’t been told anything is done, but we’ve gotten confirmation from a few different places that there is mutual interest. And getting East would be a bonus, but it wouldn’t be the sole reason he would be hired.
Pat Baldwin, Sr.: Baldwin was fired at Milwaukee after this season, having gone 57-92 in four years. Baldwin grew up in Leavenworth, KS and began his coaching career as an assistant at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. He then moved to Green Bay, Loyola-Chicago, Missouri State and Northwestern, his alma mater. His son, Patrick Baldwin, Jr., was the nation’s No. 8 prospect in the Class of 2021. He signed with Milwaukee—the highest rated recruit in Horizon League history—but battled injury and COVID and appeared in only 11 games. Obviously a big draw of hiring the father would be the opportunity to get the son, but he has not yet entered the transfer portal. If he does, he’ll have suitors across the country—Duke was the runner-up for him out of high school—but many expect him to enter the NBA Draft.
Nick Irvin: Irvin is the son of Mac Irvin, the original sponsor of the Mac Irvin Fire. He is the younger brother of former Mizzou player Byron Irvin. He was a long-time head coach at Morgan Park High School in Chicago where he won ten straight regional titles and four state championships coaching the likes of Adam Miller and Ayo Dosunmo. He was hired as an assistant at Western Illinois prior to the 2020-21 season.
This is probably not a comprehensive list of candidates to join Gates’ staff. These are the names we’ve heard at one time or another since Gates was hired as possibilities. We’ll continue to track the rumors and update you guys on what we hear until a staff is officially announced.
Is it weird that Mizzou hasn’t officially announced a single staff member—much less any of Gates’ three assistant coaches? Yeah, I think it’s a little weird. It doesn’t have to be bad, but it is a little strange that we’re more than a week in and we don’t officially know a single person who is going to be working in the basketball program.
There could be a number of reasons for that. Maybe he’s waiting on answers from candidates. Maybe he’s still deciding who he wants on his staff. Maybe he already has coaches lined up who are still coaching or can’t be announced for some other reason for a few days. Most likely, he is waiting until after the Final Four. That event usually serves as a coaches’ convention and there is all kinds of job-hopping that happens in the week or two after the end of the season. Gates is certainly doing some talking/interviewing this weekend. When Missouri hired Cuonzo Martin, the additions of Cornell Mann and Chris Hollender weren’t announced for more than two weeks.
So it’s a little weird in this microwave society of give me the news now, but it’s not all that unusual or anything Missouri fans should be overly concerned about. Eventually, he’s going to have a staff. Here we’ll get into some of the names that have come up. The names listed below are all names we've had mentioned to us by at least one person since Gates was became the clear top target 13 days ago.
Matt Cline: Cline was the special assistant to the head coach for Gates at Cleveland State. We expect him to be in some sort of similar administrative role at Missouri.
Ryan Sharbaugh: Sharbaugh was a full-time assistant at Cleveland State. From the sound of things, he is likely to be involved in the program here, but our indications are that it might not be as one of the three full-time assistants on the bench.
Rob Summers: Summers was Gates’ lead assistant at CSU and the “offensive coordinator.” He started his coaching career at Glenville State, then was a head coach at Division II Urbana (OH), then an assistant at James Madison. CSU athletic director Scott Garrett said that Summers would be interviewed as Gates’ successor.
Dru Joyce II: Joyce was an assistant and the recruiting coordinator for Gates at CSU. This was Joyce’s first coaching job after a 12-year overseas playing career. He was a high school teammate of LeBron James at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s where his father is still the head coach.
Jerrance Howard: Howard just finished his first year on Chris Beard’s staff at Texas. He has previously coached at Illinois (his alma mater), SMU, Texas A&M and Kansas. He is a Peoria, IL native and is just a year younger than Gates. His name was one of the first to surface in the rumor mill after Gates was hired, but there have been no new developments and our belief is that he’s unlikely to come to Mizzou at this point.
Chin Coleman: Coleman is another Chicago product who has coached at Colorado State, Nebraska, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois and is now at Kentucky. He began his coaching career with legendary AUU program, Mac Irvin Fire, in Chicago. His name popped up shortly after Gates’ hire, but like Howard, the chatter seems to have died down and sources have indicated they now expect Coleman to stay in Lexington.
Kyle Smithpeters: Smithpeters has spent the last eight years as the head coach of John A. Logan CC in Carterville, IL. He’s coached more than 40 Division One players including eight junior college all-Americans. Prior to being the head coach, he was an assistant at JALC for four years and was on Paul Lusk’s staff at Missouri State for a year before returning to Logan as the head coach. On his roster this year is Region 24 player of the year Sean East, a point guard who was in Columbia for an official visit last weekend. If there’s a guy on this list we would say we are most confident in being added to the staff at this point, it would be Smithpeters. Should be clear we certainly haven’t been told anything is done, but we’ve gotten confirmation from a few different places that there is mutual interest. And getting East would be a bonus, but it wouldn’t be the sole reason he would be hired.
Pat Baldwin, Sr.: Baldwin was fired at Milwaukee after this season, having gone 57-92 in four years. Baldwin grew up in Leavenworth, KS and began his coaching career as an assistant at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. He then moved to Green Bay, Loyola-Chicago, Missouri State and Northwestern, his alma mater. His son, Patrick Baldwin, Jr., was the nation’s No. 8 prospect in the Class of 2021. He signed with Milwaukee—the highest rated recruit in Horizon League history—but battled injury and COVID and appeared in only 11 games. Obviously a big draw of hiring the father would be the opportunity to get the son, but he has not yet entered the transfer portal. If he does, he’ll have suitors across the country—Duke was the runner-up for him out of high school—but many expect him to enter the NBA Draft.
Nick Irvin: Irvin is the son of Mac Irvin, the original sponsor of the Mac Irvin Fire. He is the younger brother of former Mizzou player Byron Irvin. He was a long-time head coach at Morgan Park High School in Chicago where he won ten straight regional titles and four state championships coaching the likes of Adam Miller and Ayo Dosunmo. He was hired as an assistant at Western Illinois prior to the 2020-21 season.
This is probably not a comprehensive list of candidates to join Gates’ staff. These are the names we’ve heard at one time or another since Gates was hired as possibilities. We’ll continue to track the rumors and update you guys on what we hear until a staff is officially announced.
