'The most valuable player we have': How Tre Gomillion calling a meeting helped Missouri basketball win

Tre Gomillion needed to have a chat with his coach. After Missouri lost to Auburn 89-56 last Tuesday, the graduate guard was fed up, so he called a meeting with Dennis Gates.

Gomillion wanted to play. He’d been out with a groin injury, last playing on Jan. 21 against Alabama, and felt like he needed to get back on the court to give the Tigers a boost late in the season.

“He respectfully challenged me in my office, and said ‘Coach, I’m ready to play,’” Gates said of the encounter. “I gotta listen at that point, because when you teach your players to grow up and have man-to-man conversations, it may be uncomfortable and difficult, but they have to do it and I thought he was able to do that.”

Gomillion got on the floor in Missouri’s next game, a loss to Texas A&M, playing just three minutes and not making much impact. In the Tigers’ 66-64 overtime win over Mississippi State on Tuesday, which snapped a two-game losing streak and got MU to 20 wins for the first time since the 2017-18 season, the Augusta, Ga. native made his presence more known.

He played over 28 minutes against the Bulldogs, finishing with 10 rebounds, eight points two assists and two steals. In crucial late-game possessions, Gomillion came up big on both ends of the floor.

“Can’t really put a word on it, he’s just a valuable player,” Nick Honor, who hit the game-winning shot against MSU, said of Gomillion’s contribution to the team. “Probably the most valuable player we have. He’s a glue guy, he just does everything nobody else wants to do.”

Gomillion followed Gates to Missouri from Cleveland State, where he had been a longtime starter for the Vikings. He assumed a captain role with the Tigers and was bouncing in and out of the starting lineup before his injury.

On Tuesday, starter DeAndre Gholston struggled, and Gomillion had to be big. He did what he needed to in helping Missouri seal its victory.

Afterward, Gomillion thought back to watching his team get battered by Auburn, leading him to challenge Gates.

“I just felt like, that game, we might have lacked some energy or spark,” Gomillion said. “The meeting was gonna have to happen either when we got back, so he talked to me. It was man-to-man, there was no raising of the voice. We let each other talk and I think it kind of worked out tonight.”

While his stats aren’t gaudy, with an average of 5.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, the energy he mentioned is what Gomillion is known for. It’s what Gates constantly praises him for and why he remained so valuable to the team, even while he wasn’t playing.

It’s not just coaches either. His teammates know full well what Gomillion brings to the table.

“He just brings a lot of energy by leadership,” Honor said. “He’s a veteran guy and one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. I don’t think he gets enough credit, but I mean, you guys see it if you really watch the game, you see the impact that he makes.”

Gates made the pitch for a team to give Gomillion a chance at a pro basketball career. But even if that happens, eventually the guard’s playing days will be over.

When that happens, Gates predicted his future.

“He’ll be on our staff one day,” Gates said. “I’m just being honest with you.”

Gates has nicknamed Gomillion “Coach Cameron” in the past (Gomillion’s given first name is Cameron). He’s said over and over how he expects his current pupil to one day have a team of his own.

Missouri’s first-year head coach even saw a bit of himself in Gomillion. Gates said he would expect Gomillion to lead the nation in technical fouls.

“He’ll probably be impatient, and it sounds like how I was as a player,” Gates said. “That’s how I was, I had to learn. The docile, sideline version of me now is what I’ve learned... I’ve had to learn that and evolve. He’ll evolve, but we don’t need him to evolve any time soon. He plays with a lot of passion, and that passion can be seen.”

Gomillion and his Tiger teammates will be back in his home state on Saturday to take on Georgia. The game is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. and will be aired on the SEC Network.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Tre Gomillion's return helps Missouri basketball beat Mississippi State