Mizzou’s Dennis Gates, Kobe Brown featured in SEC awards: All-SEC teams and honors
Missouri’s Dennis Gates was voted USA Today’s SEC men’s basketball coach of the year. The list of honorees was released on Monday.
His star player, Kobe Brown, earned two first-team All-SEC nods as well.
The honor came after Gates led a turnaround of the Tigers’ fortunes in his first season. After winning just 12 games in 2021-22, this year’s MU squad has 23 victories so far — and earned a double bye in the SEC tournament.
The Tigers were predicted to finish 11th in the SEC in the preseason media poll. Instead, they came in fourth, and would have been third if Arkansas had beaten Kentucky on the final day of the regular season.
The SEC awards voted on by the coaches were also released on Monday; Gates was not selected as the conference’s coach of the year, as Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams and Vanderbilt’s Jerry Stackhouse won co-coach of the year honors.
Even without the conference-wide honor, Gates revived MU basketball with a team he largely constructed from scratch. Missouri had just three returning players this season and just one freshman receiving significant playing time. The rest of the team’s production came from the transfer portal.
The Tigers, who won just five SEC games last season, improved to 11 conference victories this year. Those included wins over Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee.
Gates was not the only Tiger to earn USA Today honors from the 13 voters in the poll, all of whom are local beat writers covering SEC teams. Kobe Brown made USA Today’s All-SEC first-team and the SEC’s all-conference first-team voted on by coaches.
Brown, one of MU’s three returning players, has improved his game in his first season under Gates, adding a three-point shot to his repertoire, which helped open up his offensive game. Brown has also been helped by not being Missouri’s only option offensively — the Tigers have four others averaging at least 9.5 points per contest.
His three-point shooting percentage has improved from 20.6% last season to 45.3% in 2022-23. Brown is averaging 15.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game this year.
Gates had also been stumping for Missouri’s D’Moi Hodge as defensive player of the year. Hodge received votes in the USA Today poll, but not enough to beat out Florida’s Colin Castleton. Hodge was not named to the SEC’s all-defensive team, either.
The Tigers will be back in action in the SEC tournament on Friday. They will play the winner of Tennessee vs. Ole Miss or South Carolina, and the game will be aired on ESPN.
Here’s a look at the entire USA Today All-SEC team, with individual award winners.
Player of the year
Brandon Miller, Alabama*
Coach of the year
Dennis Gates, Missouri
Defensive player of the year
Colin Castleton, Florida
First team
F Brandon Miller, Alabama*
F Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
F Colin Castleton, Florida
G Kobe Brown, Missouri
G Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
Second team
F Tolu Smith, Mississippi State
F KJ Williams, LSU
F Johni Broome, Auburn
G Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
G Ricky Council IV, Arkansas
*Unanimous selection
Voters: Emily Adams, Greenville (South Carolina) News; Ryan Black, Courier Journal; Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun; David Eckert, Clarion Ledger; Aria Gerson, Tennessean; Nick Kelly, Tuscaloosa News; Stefan Krajisnik, Clarion Ledger; Christina Long, Southwest Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas); Koki Riley, Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, Louisiana); Richard Silva, Montgomery Advertiser; Matt Stahl, Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune; Marc Weiszer, Athens (Georgia) Banner-Herald; Mike Wilson, Knoxville News Sentinel.
The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.
