The $25M buyout is excessive, but Gates proved that he's
worthy of an SEC job. I had concerns about hiring a low-major coach from the Horizon League, but Gates found a way to be competitive in year one without Mosley, and with only one SEC-caliber player inherited from his predecessor.
Yesterday's loss to 15-seed Princeton was a bad (and quite frankly, very Mizzou-like) way to end the season, but it doesn't erase 25 wins, a 4th place SEC finish, wins over Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee (twice), our first NCAAT win in over a decade, and — overall — exceeding expectations by a pretty large margin.
And again, all of that was without Mosley — who was supposed to be our star player.
I definitely have more confidence in Gates' *now* than I did in November, and I don't expect him to fizzle out like our previous coaches did after having impressive first-year campaigns.
Overall, I feel pretty good about the future.
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