Cal Basketball: Ex-Bears' Guard Dennis Gates Hired as Missouri Head Coach

Missouri, which hired a former Cal coach as its most recent basketball coach, is bringing in a former Golden Bears’ player as his successor.

Dennis Gates, 42, who played for Cal from 1998-99 through 2001-02, replaces Cuonzo Martin, who was fired earlier this month after leading the Tigers’ program the past five seasons following a three-year stint at Berkeley.

The Missouri job belongs to Gates, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, pending approval Tuesday morning from the UM System’s Board of Curators, which meets at 7 a.m. CT. Gates could be introduced as the Tigers’ next coach as soon as Tuesday afternoon, the newspaper reported.

Missouri made the hire official this morning. Terms of the deal were not announced, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Gates arrives in Missouri after three seasons as head coach at Cleveland State, where he won two Horizon League regular-season titles and earned an NCAA tournament bid in 2021. He was 50-40 in three seasons.

Gates was a defensive specialist for coach Ben Braun, averaging a career-best 5.6 points and 1.4 steals as a senior. He played 114 games for the Bears, starting 34 times.

He played on Cal teams that had winning records all four seasons, compiling a ledger of 83-46, including two trips to the NCAA tournament and two NIT bids. The Bears won the 1999 NIT when Gates was a freshman.

Braun, in an interview with the Post-Dispatch on Monday, said Gates’ recruitment as a player to Cal was different than most he’s conducted.

“He didn't ask a lot of questions,” said Braun. “He didn't say, ‘Can I play right away? Can I start right away?’ He said, ‘Do I have a chance to be a captain? Can I be a leader?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Dennis. We're always looking for leaders.’ That was his biggest interest. He wanted to be a leader in our program.”

Gates’ playing career ended at Cal, but he’d also envisioned a career in coaching and he got a break when he was in Los Angeles working with Chicago childhood buddy Quentin Richardson, who in his second season with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Clippers assistant Dennis Johnson offered Gates a position as a player development coach and a year later, while working at the Michael Jordan youth camp in Santa Barbara, he met camp director George Raveling, the former Washington State and USC coach.

Raveling eventually put Gates in touch with Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, according to the Post-Dispatch. He spent a couple seasons on Braun’s staff at his alma mater, had stints at Marquette, Northern Illinois and Nevada, then was hired by Hamilton at FSU.

That was Gates’ big break in coaching. He spent eight seasons with Hamilton and developed a reputation as a top assistant.

“He blessed me,” Gates said in a 2020 interview. “He showed me how to balance being a successful head coach with being a husband, being a great father and obviously pouring into the lives of these young people and putting your arms around them and building a bridge and making sure you coach them beyond just basketball but teach them about the nuances of life to help them navigate the hurdles.”

Missouri reached the NCAA tournament twice in five seasons under Martin, but never won more than 16 games his final four years and was 12-21 this season.

“I'm really happy for Dennis that he's getting this opportunity,” Braun said. “But I'm also happy for Missouri. I wish Cuonzo had gotten a little more time and I don't know that they gave him as much time as he should have gotten. You can quote me on that. I felt that Cuonzo could have gotten things going again like he did early. But by the same token, I understand this business and people are not as patient as they once were.”

Gates is one of two former Cal players under Braun who have gone to Division I coaching success. Ex-Bears guard Shantay Legans is now head coach at Portland in the West Coast Conference after directing Eastern Washington of the Big Sky to an NCAA bid a year ago.

Gates will be faced with the challenge of a Southeastern Conference that is better and deeper than ever, with programs such as Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina now challenging traditional SEC powerhouse Kentucky. Florida hired Todd Golden from USF as its new coach earlier this week.

The league becomes stronger still when Texas and Oklahoma jump from the Big 12 no later than July 1, 2025.

Cover photo of Dennis Gates by Katie Stratton, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo