Tre Gomillion knew it was over.
His chance had been forced out of his hands. Gomillion’s dream of playing professional basketball was a goal he had written on a list that was pinned at the back of his closet. It was going to go unfulfilled.
Gomillion had tried, after all. And through the pain of a lingering groin injury, the Missouri basketball alum had come quite close.
He’d spent time in training camp with the Rip City Remix, who are the Portland Trail Blazers’ G-League affiliate. Gomillion had offers from overseas stifled by his injury rehab, but he felt very much like he was closing in on more opportunities.
Nothing had quite landed, though. A year passed and he kept training, but a lack of live tape was hurting his hopes.
Then, the back-breaking feather: Career-ending groin and abductor surgery.
Gomillion knew he wasn’t to blame for the premature end, even as he let intrusive thoughts — ‘I wasn’t good enough,’ he would tell himself as anger swelled — enter his head. He knew the injury was the dealbreaker. But that wasn’t easy to internalize.
“For the longest (time), I had a resentment or anger toward the game of basketball, just because of the way it ended,” Gomillion said. “But over time, I realized more and more I had to get back around the game. I had more to offer.
“You know, my purpose in this world — I know too much basketball to just be doing any other job.”
Lightbulb.
He prayed on his next move. He talked to his loved ones. Gomillion made peace with his reality, and he made a decision. He picked up the phone for a call he’d long ago been invited to make.
Gomillion was hired by Mizzou basketball in June as a graduate assistant for the upcoming season, rejoining his former coach Dennis Gates to patrol the sidelines in Mizzou Arena, where he spent the 2022-23 season and helped take the Tigers to the SEC Tournament semifinals and the NCAA Tournament second round.
Gomillion had figured this was where his career would go, but not this early in life. He’s on board and committed, even if there’s some lingering sting about the way his playing days ended.
But a few months into the gig, he’s settling — finding comfort — in his new, familiar place.
Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates predicted Tre Gomillion’s return
Gates, who Gomillion followed from Cleveland State to Mizzou, predicted this moment.
“He’ll be on our staff one day,” the coach called his shot Feb 21, 2023, after Missouri beat Mississippi State in overtime. “I’m just being honest with you.”
Gomillion had sat for several straight games with the groin injury that two years later ended his career. He called a meeting with his head coach before the Tigers took on Mississippi State, an NCAA Tournament berth and SEC Tournament double-bye within reach, and gave him a message: Play me.
He came off the bench to deliver eight points and 11 rebounds in the win. His honestly prompted Gates to call him a future MU staffer and college head coach in the postgame press conference. Gates said he saw his younger self in Gomillion that day.
Early on in Gomillion’s post-Mizzou career, as the player rehabbed and sought out shots with pro teams, Gates had been in his ear about considering coaching opportunities, the player said.
“He didn’t sugar coat anything. And throughout that early process with playing, he was like, ‘you need to get into coaching,’” Gomillion said. … “And me, just being hard-headed and angry, at the time, I wasn’t listening.”
But the offer didn’t expire.
When the time came to take him up on it, Gomillion first called Missouri assistant coach Ryan Sharbaugh and then-chief of staff Chase Goldstein to get the ball rolling. The door was open, but only creaked.
The Tigers still made him put on a suit and tie, hop on a Zoom call and go through the normal interview process. Nothing was given.
Gates and the staff needed to know if he was all the way bought into the career change and wasn’t going to “U-turn” back into playing opportunities, Gomillion said.
On June 12, the former Mizzou player was officially added to the staff.
In the nearly 500 days in between prediction and fruition, and after some early encouragement, Gates didn’t push his prediction any more. Gomillion said they were in contact, but he knew the coach was letting him “go through it as a man” and letting him “figure out life.”
Life took Gomillion plenty of directions.
First, there was an opportunity to play in Germany. He liked the coach, he liked the team, but ended up turning the chance down. The groin injury hadn’t healed. He needed top-end team medical facilities just to counter the pain and compete, and he felt he needed more help than what the team could offer.
Then, he was part of the Rip City Remix’s training camp roster. He was encouraged by the contact between his agent and the GM in Portland, but “out of left field, they kind of hit me with a meeting in the morning.” He was cut shortly before the season began.
To tie him over and make some money, he went to work with his cousin. Roofing. Indoor remodeling. A trade here, a trade there.
That was fine, for a while. Gomillion learned a lot. But it wasn’t his calling.
That had been left behind on the court.
“Just doing that kind of made (it clear): I’m not supposed to be doing this,” Gomillion said. “You know, I know too much basketball to be doing this stuff. No disrespect to it, but I just know too much basketball to continue to do this. So, that’s when I made the call.”
That call landed him back in the basketball business. Still, there’s a part of it all that stings.
As Missouri ran through a closed-doors practice, a little more than a month out from beginning its new season, Gomillion is patrolling the sidelines for one of the first times in his new role.
He jaws with fellow Mizzou coaches and players as the Tigers run through scrimmages. Mimicking an MU player’s erratic swipes trying to escape a trap underneath the basket, Gomillion thrashes his head back and forth like a rhino.
There’s a basketball in his hands that doesn’t leave his palms the entire practice. It’s no secret where he’d rather be.
“I did (want to be out there). Bad,” Gomilion said. “I did so bad.”
Coach Gomillion and the 2024-25 season
There’s just one holdover this season from Gomillion’s team, Aidan Shaw. Even from last season, this is a fresh Mizzou squad with six new transfers and four true freshmen.
The Tigers are leaving behind a winless conference season — among the worst in Missouri basketball history. There has not been an MU win this calendar year.
All that, a year on from the team Gomillion helped take to the NCAA Tournament second round, which was the first time the Tigers had reached that stage since 2010.
Now, even if it hurts, he’s trying to help get Mizzou back to that level without a ball in his hands.
Gomillion isn’t sure what it’s going to feel like when he steps into the arena but never makes it further than the sideline. The first time will be Nov. 4 against Memphis on the road. His Mizzou Arena return comes Nov. 8.
Ask him.
His cadence slows, his voice drops. His words become expressly deliberate; considered.
His eyes turn back to the court where freshman point guard T.O. Barrett is alone on the court practicing free throws. That used to be him.
“I’m not really sure, man, that’s gonna be something that we just see how happens when it plays out,” Gomillion said. “But I don’t really think it’s gonna be nothing crazy. You know, all my focus is gonna be on the guys. So, I mean, I know the fans and all that are gonna be noticing me, recognizing me. But, you know, we’re all focused on this group here and trying to get us to the NCAA Tournament, national championship.”
Gomillion wanted this stage of his career — the coaching career, like Gates tabbed him for — to be a “retirement plan.” In a way, he was right. It just came quicker than he imagined.
He’s angry. A piece of an envisioned, sought-after future was taken out of his control. The list of goals on the back of his closet will always be incomplete.
Gomillion is finding a way to use that.
Always did.
“I try to coach with the anger or passion that I have from not making it. I try to not live through them, but I try to — they’re kind of filling that void. They’re helping me get that closure,” Gomillion said. … “I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I made. I want them to fulfill their dreams and do the things that I didn’t get a chance to do.”
