Missouri’s game against Cleveland State on Friday afternoon will feature a coaching reunion between Dennis Gates and Rob Summers in Columbia, Mo.
Summers spent last season as an assistant coach under Gates at Missouri before becoming the head coach at Cleveland State.
From 2019-22, Summers served as an assistant coach under Gates at Cleveland State. Their strong connection led them to schedule this nonconference game at Mizzou Arena.
The Tigers (7-0) present a mismatch for the Vikings (3-5). While Gates has a strong nucleus of returning players, Summers had to rebuild his roster from scratch.
Missouri is led by forwards Mark Mitchell (18.1 points, 6.3 rebounds per game) and Jacob Crews (12.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and point guard Anthony Robinson II (11.6 ppg, 3.1 assists per game).
The Tigers lost guard Jayden Stone (13.3 ppg) for the rest of nonconference play with a hand injury suffered in practice, but that opened the door for Annor Boateng to assume a bigger role.
Boateng scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds as Missouri routed South Carolina State 98-66 on Tuesday.
“Annor is very gifted and talented,” Gates said. “It’s great to see him, from last year, grow into this season.”
While returning forward Trent Pierce has yet to play this season due to injury, 7-foot-5 center Trent Burns made his first Missouri appearance against South Carolina State. He missed all last season and the first six games this season with a foot injury.
Cleveland State rolled over Waynesburg 109-56 at home on Tuesday night before hitting the road. The blowout allowed the Vikings to test their bench while key players Tre Beard (15.5 points per game), Josiah Harris (10.1 ppg) and Foster Wonders (6.3 ppg) were unavailable to play.
“I was excited to see us get that win, especially being down three starters,” Summers said. “It allowed our guys that normally don’t get a ton of minutes to step up. I was excited to see Dayan Nessah lower his turnovers today. That was a big thing for him to take care of the basketball.”
Nessah (15.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg) turned the ball over just once against Waynesburg after committing 22 turnovers in his first seven games.
