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(04-12-2021 10:09 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Why are people so impressed with Dennis Gates?

Sure, he went 19-8 at Cleveland State this year. But that's the only impressive thing on his resume.

He was 0-4 this year against teams outside the Horizon League. One of the losses was by 55 points to an Ohio team that finished 5th in the MAC.

He's only been head coach for 2 years. His first year he was 11-21.

He's been on three separate coaching staffs that got fired soon after he left. California (05-07, head coach fired in '08), Northern Illinois (07-09, head coach fired in '11), and Nevada (09-11, head coach fired in '15 after never making the NCAA tournament in 6 years).

Is he a guy who is a lot more impressive than his resume suggests? Cause he doesn't have the resume.

I'm with you on this, though he did have a very good run as an assistant at Florida State. As a young coach you don't always luck into finding a good staff, and at a certain point you just need a job, any job to learn and grow.

That said some of my friends who are deep into college basketball say that Gates is very much a motivational coach, and not so much an X's and O's guy. They commented that his offensive game plan seemed very uninspiring.