Nebraska Basketball: Cornhuskers Make Intriguing Hire Of Assistant Coach Armon Gates
By Bryan Mauro
Nebraska Basketball filled a void amongst the team’s coaching staff with the hire of Armon Gates. How will it affect the program going forward?
Less than a month ago Armon Gates left his job as a Northwestern assistant coach, to take the same position with the Florida Gators. Around that same time another Big Ten school was losing a well-respected assistant coach. The Nebraska Cornhuskers would lose assistant and lead recruiter Kenya Hunter to UConn. On May 7th, 2018 Gates was named the new assistant at Nebraska.
Gates was just hired at Florida, why would he leave? The fit between Gates and Florida never seemed right. Head Coach at Florida Mike White and Gates had different philosophies when it came to basketball. One of the crucial factors in Gates deciding that he wanted to leave Florida was his familiarity with the Big Ten, and with his new boss Tim Miles.
Looking at Gates career timeline, Gates had interviewed under Tim Miles twice before landing this job. Miles was quoted as saying it was a lack of experience for Gates the first two times. These two men respect each other and what they bring to the game of basketball. Gates being a star college guard on a Kent State team that won 20 or more games every year he was there, has a knack for coaching winners.
When Hunter left Nebraska, it left Miles and Nebraska scrambling. Not only to find a coach but to retain their current recruiting class, that Hunter had recruited most of. The Huskers did lose top commit in Xavier Johnson, who has now committed to Pitt. Hunter was the lead recruiter for Nebraska and was Coach Miles right hand man. Nebraska knew that this hire was going to be critically important to their future success.
The Cornhuskers would need to find someone who could recruit with the same prowess that Hunter could. The Nebraska staff lauded Hunter because of his ability to maintain relationships and act as a father figure to most of the players on the Roster. Miles would need to find a coach who was able to maintain the relationships with his players as well as be a huge X’s and O’s coach.
Gates was the perfect hire for Nebraska. Not only is he a fantastic recruiter, he also is a great X’s and O’s guy who brings tons of energy with him to the floor. While at Northwestern, Gates was the lead recruiter on the players that helped Northwestern get to the tournament and win a game. Gates helped bring Bryant McIntosh, Vic Law, Dererk Pardon, Aaron Falzon, and Barret Benson. He had a hand in helping bring Northwestern to the forefront of College Basketball the last two years.
The region that Gates makes his living recruiting in is the Chicago area, as he is originally from Chicago. He also has many recruiting pipelines on the east coast, especially at the highly touted Brewster Academy. Gates also attended Brewster Academy in New Hampshire and played for the current coach of Brewster Academy. Nebraska hopes he is able to help them lock these two areas down as the Huskers have been able to pluck a lot of talent out of the Chicago area in recent years with former player Ed Morrow, and current point guard Glynn Watson, as well as current wing Nana Akenten.
The Brewster Academy pipeline at Nebraska is a good one as they currently have two players to come from Brewster in Thomas Allen and Isaac Copeland. Keeping that relationship open is going to be important for a school like Nebraska. The Huskers who have zero tradition when it comes to basketball, usually need to find talent in all areas of the country. Brewster Academy is one of the best prep schools in the country and have numerous division 1 players on their roster all over. Even if Nebraska doesn’t get the highest rated players to come out of Brewster Academy, they are still going to be able to get good talent to build around.
One thing that remains to be seen is what position group Miles is going to have Gates coach. Gates is a former guard and coached the backcourt at Northwestern. Nebraska has a good assistant coach already coaching the backcourt in Michael Lewis. He’s a former point guard at the University of Indiana. Under Lewis tutelage last year, the Nebraska guards were able to move the ball better and shoot with more confidence than they had in the past. The one thing Nebraska fans would like to see if Glynn Watson take the next step, especially coming from a down year last year.
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Gates has made it known he is willing to coach the frontcourt, which also has some talented pieces especially junior Isaiah Roby. He’s poised to take the next step to be one of the very best players in the Big Ten next year. If Copeland and Palmer come back next year Gates will be able to influence the way they play as well, with Copeland in the frontcourt and Palmer as a wing and scorer. The one X factor for Nebraska going into the year could be junior Jordy Tshimanga.
He had a disappointing sophomore year and with a year under Gates he could potentially take himself to the next level, at least Nebraska fans are hoping. With the returning talent, and a new top assistant Nebraska finally has expectations for the first time in their programs history. Can they live up to them?