Four years ago, after taking over as the new head coach at Missouri, Dennis Gates heard a lot of criticism for his approach to recruiting.
Gates, who had been hired following three seasons at Cleveland State (2019-22), was casting a wide net in the high school ranks, offering loads of scholarships. It was a tactical move, even if the Tigers were only landing a few prospects per class.
“My first year as a head coach was the first year that the transfer portal existed, and I knew that a majority of the kids that I signed at Cleveland State were kids that I had to have a pre-existing relationship with (from my time) as an assistant at Florida State,” Gates tells Hoops HQ. “So now if I’m forecasting what this profession will be and I’m able to build the first touch point in high school recruiting, that gives me an opportunity to rekindle, not introduce myself.”
In other words, Gates understood that building relationships with high school recruits who committed elsewhere could still benefit Missouri in the long run, giving the program a significant edge should those players opt to transfer. That big-picture approach has paid off throughout his tenure in Columbia, never more so than this offseason.
Since late March, the Tigers have assembled one of the nation’s premier transfer classes (No. 11 in 247Sports’ rankings). All four of their commits — 6-foot-6 junior wing Kennard Davis Jr. (BYU), 6-foot-6 freshman forward Jamier Jones (Providence), 6-foot-11 freshman forward Bryson Tiller (Kansas) and 6-foot-8 junior forward Jaylen Carey (Tennessee) — had pre-existing relationships with Gates before entering the portal. The Tiller signing is especially impressive given that the 20-year-old spent last season with Missouri’s archrival Kansas, becoming the first player in the history of the Border War to transfer directly from one program to the other.
Combine that portal haul with a star-studded freshman class and Missouri should open the 2026-27 campaign ranked in the top 25. On paper, the new team looks like a contender to win the program’s first-ever SEC title and snap its long Sweet Sixteen drought, which dates back to 2009.
When Gates succeeded Cuonzo Martin in 2022, Missouri was in the midst of a disappointing stretch. Over the preceding eight years, it had suffered six losing seasons and reached the NCAA Tournament just twice.
Under Gates, the program has made three trips to the Big Dance in four years, steadily rebuilding its national reputation. After a disastrous 2023-24 campaign in which it finished 0-18 in SEC play, Missouri has won 10 league games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since joining the conference in 2012. Gates’ current recruiting class features two of the highest-ranked signees in school history in 6-foot-3 point guard Jason Crowe Jr. (No. 9 in the 247Sports Composite) and 6-foot-9 forward Toni Bryant (No. 24).
While he is proud of the steps the Tigers have taken, Gates also stresses that they are in the “infant stages” of their development.
“When you look at our fan base, things have happened that made our fans feel like man, why is this always happening to us?” he says. “So you transition them from disbelief to belief in a way, and that turns into the expectation, and the expectation turns into our brand around the country, and now that thought cements us to where we’re a major factor in recruiting and in the season. And we cannot be left behind. We have to continue to move our program forward.”
Missouri went into the offseason with some significant gaps to fill. Three starters had exhausted their eligibility, including leading scorer Mark Mitchell, a 6-foot-9 forward who earned All-SEC Second Team honors with averages of 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists. The program lost a few key pieces to the portal as well, most notably 6-foot-3 junior guard Anthony Robinson II.
Still, Gates had a strong foundation to build around with returning 6-foot-10 junior forward Trent Pierce (10.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game) and a loaded crop of incoming freshmen featuring Crowe, Bryant and four-star wing Aidan Chronister.
An exceptionally skilled lead guard out of Inglewood High School, Crowe is the Tigers’ top-rated recruit since Michael Porter Jr. in 2017. He led the entire 2025 Nike EYBL circuit in scoring and concluded his prep career with a California state record 4,718 points. Bryant is a versatile two-way forward who averaged 13.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in last year’s Puma Pro16 circuit, while Chronister is considered one of the top shooters in the 2026 class.
Gates attacked the portal hoping to offset the weaknesses of most freshmen: strength, physicality and experience. The first domino to fall was Jaylen Carey, a bruising, 267-pound forward who averaged 7.4 points and 6.0 rebounds as a junior at Tennessee. Gates had previously recruited Jaylen’s older brother Vernon, a one-and-done star at Duke in 2019-20, so he already knew the Carey family well.
Shortly after Carey committed, Missouri landed rising sophomores Jamier Jones and Bryson Tiller, two more athletic, physically imposing big men. Jones was named to the Big East All-Freshman Team after averaging 11.9 points and 4.5 rebounds at Providence. Tiller had an impressive redshirt freshman season with the Jayhawks, posting 7.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per contest. In a Border War battle against the Tigers on Dec. 7, he registered 13 points, 5 rebounds and 5 blocks. Gates recruited and offered scholarships to both guys when they were in high school. His relationship to Tiller dates back to when the former four-star prospect was a freshman at Pace Academy in Atlanta.
The final piece of the puzzle was BYU transfer Kennard Davis Jr., who committed on Friday. An elite perimeter defender and solid shooter, Davis started alongside AJ Dybantsa and Rob Wright III in his sole season in Provo, averaging 8.5 points. The 20-year-old combo guard is a St. Louis native who was heavily courted by Missouri last spring when he entered the portal following a breakout at Southern Illinois.
“Those pre-existing relationships helped us,” Gates stresses. “(The portal) is a quick speed dating process where you only have film, not live evaluations. The live evaluations happen in high school. You just compare the two in terms of how kids have gotten better, but the relationship is the weight of the decision, especially in this quick moment.”
As a whole, Missouri’s reconstructed roster has an intriguing blend of size, versatility and star power. Led by a sensational talent in Crowe, the offense has the potential to be explosive. Gates is also confident that the defense, which was a persistent issue throughout the 2025-26 campaign, will be much improved given the boxes he checked in the portal.
The Tigers are back on the national map, but they have yet to make a considerable postseason splash in the Gates era, falling in the first round of March Madness in consecutive years. This group could be the one to finally take the program to the second weekend — and perhaps beyond.
“I often use the term ‘infant stages’ of building,” Gates says. “I think we’re on our way out of that infant stage, but there’s still some work to do as it relates to getting to that Final Four and national championship game.”
Meet your guide
