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Welcome Back to the Gates Bunch, Kaleb!

Mizzou Links for Wednesday, June 7

By Karen Steger
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WELCOME BACK, KALEB!

I, for one, am so happy to see Kaleb Brown exit the portal and come back home to CoMo. Ecstatic, actually. Love the Brown family; they’re good people. Kaleb seems like a great dude. He is the last of Zo’s guys. He works hard. He’s a culture guy. He’s appreciated here. Love.to.see.it.

NOTE: If you’re confused or angered (?!) by Kaleb returning and what that means, or demanding whether he’s taking a scholarship from someone (he’s not) or some other dumb — yes, I said it — DUMB reason, hush.

You know who else loves to see it? Dennis Gates. And his teammates. You know... the ONLY people who matter in this equation.

Kaleb played in 11 games for the Tigers this season, averaging 0.8ppg in 7.8 minutes. His best games of the season were probably in the V-Day loss at Auburn where he played 10 minutes and made a three, as well as against SIUE, where he had 4 points in 14 mins, shooting 100% from the field to go with an assist and a steal.

Now, will there be a bunch of playing time for Kaleb? And for that matter, will there be playing time for [gestures wildly] all these guys? I’ve never seen a Mizzou team this big, y’alI, but I also don’t get paid millions of dollars to figure that out. Remember, these things just seem to have a way of working themselves out.

The Tigers will have quite a bench this coming year, though, as even some of the PWOs had some legitimate offers. Here’s some stats about this roster from Watkins:

Wow.

So who are they? Presenting... The Gates Bunch. All 19 of ‘em.

Karen Steger Designs

Before we move on, here’s a really terrible song. Come on, you knew I couldn’t make this gorgeous, gorgeous graphic and NOT also try to write a rendition of my own to go with it.

Here’s a story, of a man named Dennis

Who was tasked with coaching a giant team

They might have come from, all over the country,

But they all have one dream

Here’s the story, of an assistant, C.Y.,

Who was busy helping Dennis all the time,

With 19 dudes out on the court, making passes

wondering about their playing time.

........ [I can’t think of what to put here so just hum the melody, please] ....

We know this group will somehow form a family.

That’s the way they will become The Gates Bunch.

I’m so sorry.

Now, perhaps you looked at the above family portrait and thought, “WHO?”. I get it. There’s so many.

Let’s review a few, courtesy of MUTigers.com:

  • Anthony Robinson II (Florida) is a Top 100 player per Rivals and was Gates’ first commit of the 2023 class. Leading Florida State University High School to the 3A state title, Robinson averaged 15.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game as a junior, while shooting 56 percent from the field. A top-20 point guard in the nation, he also plays for the Georgia Stars AAU program.
  • John Tonje (Colorado State, Omaha, NE) was the first transfer to make it official and collected 1,051 points, 359 rebounds and 102 assists during his career – shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from 3-point range. A 6-foot-5 guard, Tonje ranked second for the Rams in 2022-23 with a career-best 14.6 points per game. This season, he set personal bests with a field goal percentage of 47.3 and a 3-point clip of 38.9% along with 43 assists and 25 steals.
  • Danny Stephens (Augusts, Illinois) is a 6’7 shooting guard who led Southeastern High School to an Elite Eight appearance at the state championship as a junior. He was honored as 1st Team All-State by the IBCA and media, averaging 28.1 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 63 percent from the field and 94 percent from the free-throw line. He chose Missouri over Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, South Dakota and Southeast Missouri State.
  • JV Brown (Los Angeles, CA) is a 6-4 shooting guard who averaged 16.0 points per game with 62 made 3-pointers in 27 games for Rolling Hills Prep. Among his accolades as a senior, the team captain was named to the All-Coastal Team as well as earning Damien Classic and Mira Costa All-Tournament Team accolades. He was the 2nd leading shooter on his team behind a Stanford commit. team’s second-leading scorer.

Matt Harris tries to make sense of the rotation a bit

On to the Links!

Yesterday at Rock M

More Links:

Hoops

  • Our fearless leader Sam, visited the KTRS 550 Big Sports Show to chat Mizzou Hoops
  • New faces in CoMo:

Football

  • New faces at Faurot:
  • That’s a lot of tackles.
  • This is awesome.

Other Mizzou Sports

Mizzou in the Pros (or soon-to-be pros)

  • Congrats, Sarah!

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