Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates walks right past Jacob Crews at some team practices. So do Mizzou’s players. And the Tigers’ staff.
They trot right past Crews, the transfer wing told the Tribune, and straight to his infant son, JJ, who was born in August.
That’s actually how Gates got Crews to commit in the first place.
This offseason, Crews was fresh off helping UT Martin win the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship by averaging 19.1 points per game with a 41.4% mark from 3, which he spliced with 8.2 rebounds per outing. Then he learned his coach, Ryan Ridder, left for the Mercer job, and Crews could enter the portal early.
When he did, reporting from On3’s Joe Tipton emerged that every team from Gonzaga to Kansas to Auburn to UCLA sniffed. Crews took every call alongside his wife, Karmen. There were enough for two, and then some.
Within eight days, Crews was committed to Gates and Missouri.
Pretty simple reason, too.
Gates knew Crews came with a team.
“First thing I was asked about from Gates was, ‘how is your wife, how is your kid?’” Crews said. “As soon as he knew about me having a wife and knew about her being pregnant, the first thing he did was ask for her. Before he asked anything about me, he was always about family, always about something outside of basketball.”
Gates could have made it about basketball; about how the Tigers had minutes available after a horrendous 2023-24 campaign; about how his fast-break, kick-out style could compliment Crews’ gaudy mid-major numbers; about how they could develop Crews in his final season, before whatever comes next.
But the coach went a different direction. And he might have been the only one to get the game-plan right.
“I made it about him and his wife, and more so his wife than him. And I guess I’m the only coach that talked about a newborn baby coming soon,” Gates said. “And my credits to our campus hospital, because at that point during his official visit, that is one of the things that we visited, and she was able to tour and little JJ was born in August.
… “He could have gone anywhere in the country. And that’s what it’s about: Not making it a transactional type of thing, but making it transformational.”
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As quick as Crews knew his choice, which was made official March 19, one day after the portal officially opened, his wife may very well have known sooner.
Remember, she was on the calls.
“The funniest thing was,” Crews said, “she was like, ‘when are you just gonna tell (Gates) you’re committed?’”
Crews, a 6-foot-8 wing, was first, and more high-profile commitments followed. That has made this an intriguing season for the Tigers, who are about to embark on Year 3 of the Gates tenure.
There’s Mark Mitchell, a forward from Duke with all the promise in the world. Tony Perkins, the second-team All-Big Ten point guard from Iowa, brings interesting physicality, size — 6-4 and 200 pounds — and versatility at the point. Northern Kentucky transfer Marques Warrick is the active leading points scorer in the NCAA. South Carolina big man Josh Gray should give MU something it struggled with underneath the rim last season.
Not much is settled about how the Tigers will line up this year. With Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates among the returners and a stout freshman class also in Columbia, the rotation could present a number of different ways.
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But it’s no far-flung theory to think Crews will play an important role come MU’s season opener Nov. 4 at Memphis, where the Tigers will get their first chance for a win in the calendar year 2024 after a winless SEC slate to close last season.
Crews has a pretty set goal — just as he did at championship-winning stops at Daytona State and UT Martin.
He’s got mere months left in a college career that has taken him from JuCo to the mid-majors to the SEC. Neither that, nor MU’s recent past, have him particularly phased.
“I’ve joined multiple teams in my career that had rough patches, and they’re two-for-two in championships in the last two years with both teams having rough years before,” Crews said. “So, I’m coming into this year thinking the same thing is gonna happen. I’m gonna go three-for-three and win a championship.”
The Tigers are about three weeks into official team practices, and have about three more weeks of preseason work until the new campaign begins. Crews brings his son along to some of those workouts and scrimmages.
JJ is committed to the Tigers, if you were wondering. Crews said Gates insisted the transfer was a package deal.
Mark one commit down for the Class of 2042, then.
Before then, his dad has a season to play and a college career to close. His family won’t be far from the action.
“I expect to win a championship, make it to the (NCAA) Tournament. I’ve never been to the tournament, so that’s something I really, really want to do as well,” Crews said. … “I know I came from mid-major and JUCO, and it’s like, ‘man, just be grateful you’re here.’ No. Like, I want to go to the big one. I want to win the big one.
“I want to be able to tell my kid, ‘this is what happened. You were part of this, too. Like, you were here, you were traveling. You were right there with me the whole time.’ You know, that’s the moments you don’t get back. (I’ve) got one more year. It’s the last ride, and I understand that. So, I really want to win.”
