'Cut your teeth in adversity': Why Dennis Gates remains consistent as Mizzou hoops struggles

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Dennis Gates is a consistent man.

The second-year Missouri men’s basketball coach wears the same outfit to each game: black suit, white shirt, old gold tie. He debuted the combination at his introductory news conference, and it has stuck around.

Gates ends his news conferences with a decisive “M-I-Z” into the microphone, even if the journalists in the room aren’t to respond. He begins those conversations with a fist-bump for every reporter and staff member in the room.

This season, his talking points often have been the same. An inability to get to the free-throw line. A wrong-sided assist-to-turnover ratio. Injuries. Needing more rebounding from his big men. The quality of the…