They were one of college basketball’s worst teams. Now they own a historic turnaround and NCAA tournament dreams.
Missouri was 0-18 in the SEC last season. Now they are one of the conference's top teams and an NCAA Tournament threat
Find a team on a losing streak, and you’ll find a coach who has trouble sleeping.
Last year, on the many nights when Missouri coach Dennis Gates was awake well past midnight processing how his Tigers were on their way to an 0-18 regular-season record against conference opponents — the school’s worst in more than a century — he didn’t pass them alone. He dialed longtime mentor Leonard Hamilton, the head coach at Florida State.
Gates had hung on Hamilton’s every word as a Seminoles assistant for eight years before leaving in 2019, from listening to his press conferences to taking notes on his laptop as Hamilton told stories in his office. One that Hamilton relayed during those sessions was about his 1993-94 season coaching Miami, as the Hurricanes endured an 0-18 record in Big East play.
Facing his own winless winter last year, the 45-year-old Gates “called his cellphone at 2 in the morning,” Gates told NBC News.
“If he don’t pick that up, I called his house 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning. You can hear him clear his throat. I said, ‘Coach, you asleep?’ He said, ‘No, I’m waiting on your call.’”
Rating: 5