Remember Connor Vanover? He's Heading to Missouri Now

Former Cal center Connor Vanover announced on social media that he is transferring to Missouri to play for former Cal player and assistant coach Dennis Gates, who is entering his second season as Missouri’s head coach. It will be the fourth different school for Vanover, who played this past season at Oral Roberts.

The Golden Bears thought they had a future star in the 7-foot-5 Vanover, who was an excellent shot-blocker who could also make three-pointers. He became a starter in the second half of his freshman season at Cal in 2018-19 and scored in double figures in seven of Cal’s final 11 games. That included a 24-point effort against Stanford in the next to last game in which he went 4-for-6 on three-pointers.

However, that made him a hot commodity, and after his freshman season he transferred to Arkansas, where he played two seasons. After redshirting the 2019-20 season, Vanover started 27 games the next season and averaged 6.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks while hitting 32.4% of his three-point shots. Ultimately that pandemic-influenced season did not count against his college eligibility.

Vanover’s playing time decreased significantly in 2021-22. Although he started 10 games, he played in just 15 games and averaged 3.9 points and 2.1.

So he transferred to Oral Roberts and was a major reason the Titans went 30-5 this past season, including a 17-game winning streak that ended with a loss to Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament. He was named to the first-team All-Summit League squad after averaging 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds, and his 3.2 blocks per game ranked second in the country. He blocked eight shots twice this past season and blocked seven shots in two other games.

That made him attractive to high-profile programs again and will spend his final season at Missouri playing for Gates.

Gates played at Cal from 1998-99 to 2001-02. The Bears won at least 18 games in each of his four seasons, and they got to the NCAA tournament in his final two seasons at Cal under head coach Ben Braun. He graduated from Cal in three years and played his final season at Cal as a master’s candidate.

Gates then became an assistant coach at a number of high-profile programs, including two years at Cal (2005-06 and 2006-07) under Braun.

Gates got his first head coaching job at Cleveland State in 2019, and turned the Vikings program around in his three seasons there.

That allowed him to land the head coaching job at Missouri a year ago, and he led the Tigers to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his first season.

Cover photo of Connor Vanover (35) is by Steven Branscombe, USA TODAY Sports

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