Why Missouri’s Dennis Gates called timeout before court storming vs. No. 1 KU basketball
Seconds before Missouri’s upset win over No. 1-ranked Kansas became official, MU coach Dennis Gates couldn’t hide his annoyance.
Why?
The PA announcer at Mizzou Arena had warned fans not to storm the court — a warning that ultimately fell on deaf ears.
“I got upset at the table for making the announcement,” Gates said. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I was about to, in-game, take the mic and say, ‘Rush the damn court.’ For real.”
Although Gates didn’t do that, he did call a timeout with six seconds to play. The timeout allowed the Jayhawks to safely get off the court as the buzzer sounded on KU’s 76-67 loss to Missouri.
“Sportsmanship, that’s all it is,” Gates said. “That’s how I would want to be treated when I become a Hall of Fame coach and I’m the No. 1 team in the country. I would want my opponent to respectfully do the same. No matter what’s going on, I’m always going to treat people how I want to be treated. I think player safety is important.”
During that timeout, the KU players went to their sidelines. The coaches shook hands and Self waved to the MU bench.
“They (the fans) deserve that moment, but I didn’t want it at the cost of a player getting hurt, getting ran over, getting trampled,” Gates said. “It’s a tight squeeze in that area for the players to leave. It’s all about respect, man. Some people look at it a certain way. I just look at as that’s how I wanted to be treated.”
Self appreciated the gesture, calling it “classy” in his postgame news conference.
“We’ve been court-stormed on before — usually, I’m the one who calls a timeout and just tells the guys to stay on the sideline,” Self said. “That was a classy move by Dennis. Let’s just call it like it is. That was a class move. Somebody could have gotten hurt because that was real court-storming.
“Mizzou played great today, but that court-storming might have been even better than they played. That was a big-time court storming. I was glad (Gates) did that because that gave us a chance to get to the side. That was a class move.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2024 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Why Missouri’s Dennis Gates called timeout before court storming vs. No. 1 KU basketball."
