Dennis Gates calls out Dan Dakich over Tamar Bates tweet

On Feb. 5, 2024, former Indiana basketball coach Dan Dakich called out Tamar Bates, claiming the program had “no chance to win with him.” Bates began his collegiate career at Indiana and played two seasons there before transferring to Missouri ahead of the 2023-24 season.

When Dakich tore into Bates on social media last season, Missouri finished without a win in conference play. Alas, the Tigers have been excellent this season, largely thanks to Bates. Nonetheless, Dakich doubled down on his previous criticisms, quoting his own tweet on Wednesday morning and writing, “I 1000% stand by this at #iubb.”

Bates certainly looked like he knew how to win a game on Wednesday night. The senior guard tallied 13 points and four steals while shooting 4-6 from the field in Missouri’s upset win over No. 4 Alabama. After the game, Missouri head coach Dennis Gates discussed Dakich’s harsh criticism of Bates.

“Let me answer this first,” Gates said. “I don’t approve of anyone directly attacking a great leader, a great young man, a dude who has never gotten in trouble, a guy that has done everything I have asked. I don’t know who he’s talking about.

“He may be confusing somebody for somebody else, but sometimes that happens, and what I’m proud of is you haven’t seen Tamar Bates respond on social media one time. And he keeps his focus because he’s grown from his experience at Indiana. He never says, ‘I wish I never went to Indiana.’ Tamar Bates says, ‘Thank you to Indiana.’ He has great friends. His daughter’s godfather was his teammate.

“So from the Indiana experience, we’re able to see this version of Tamar Bates, and I am absolutely proud of who he is as a man, what he stands for, his leadership qualities. I just want to sometimes make sure that our guys are told the things they’re doing well. It’s not about those types of tweets.”

Bates is averaging 13.2 points per game this season while shooting 50.2% from the floor and 39.6% from beyond the arc. In turn, Missouri is having a historic season, currently boasting a 20-6 overall record and a 9-4 mark in arguably the toughest conference of all time.

Dakich was Bowling Green‘s head coach from 1997-2007. He finished his time there with a 156-140 record. Dakich served as Indiana’s interim head coach at the end of the 2007-08 season after Kelvin Sampson resigned due to NCAA recruiting violations.

Indiana went 3-4 under Dakich’s guidance and lost in the first rounds of the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. If Bates and Missouri have any luck this postseason, they’ll be able to go further in the Big Dance and prove Dakich wrong.