LSU Basketball: 7 candidates to replace Will Wade as head coach
By Joey Loose
Dennis Gates
Why not look after one of the up-and-coming days in the college basketball coaching business? Why not look closely at someone with a ton of experience on some great coaching staffs? Why not think about a young coach who engineered an amazing turnaround at a mid-major program that was in the dumpster before his arrival.
Gates checks all these boxes, having played at California and then spending nearly two decades as an assistant coach at schools like Marquette, Nevada, and Florida State. After eight years under Leonard Hamilton, he inherited a mess at Cleveland State in 2019 and already had the Vikings in the NCAA Tournament just two seasons later.
Jumping from the Horizon League to the SEC is no joke (just ask Bryce Drew), but Gates just spent a near-decade recruiting and coaching in the ACC. He can handle the jump in talent; it becomes a question of how he fits in Baton Rouge. LSU will certainly shoot for higher than Gates, but he will absolutely be a steal for whichever program snatches him away from Cleveland State.