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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — There’s a little more respect for Missouri men’s basketball within the Southeastern Conference this year.

The Tigers were voted seventh in the preseason rankings, which is right where they finished last year. For the first time under Dennis Gates, Mizzou has a preseason All-SEC player in Mark Mitchell.

And the first question Gates was asked Wednesday at the SEC’s preseason media days was about his program pushing toward the top of the league’s hierarchy.

“All I did was reset the program as if it was Year 1,” Gates said. “Our players bought in. We recruited the right players.”

With the start of the 2025-26 season, a Nov. 3 game at Howard, just under three weeks away, there’s no reset happening inside Mizzou Arena. There are new pieces, sure, like with every team. The reason for optimism — for respect around the league — is what’s carrying over from last season’s seventh place finish in the SEC and NCAA Tournament bid.

However the MU hype train can be characterized, it’s retention that’s fueling it.

“That’s the fabric I’m cut from,” Gates said. “Traditionally, if you look at the teams that we had at Florida State when I was an assistant, but also at Cleveland State, we did it with some matriculation within our program. Whether it’s juniors becoming seniors or sophomores becoming seniors or freshmen becoming seniors. That retention factor, you have to protect it.”

That Gates wants his Missouri program to operate that way, with a spine of recruited and developed players supplemented via yearly transfer portal hauls, is not news. But heading into his fourth year, the approach has crystallized into a retained core.

Gates sees teams capable of contending for the national title more often than not having three returners in their starting lineup — and as he’s quick to remind, he has the Tigers in that contender category. Mitchell and point guard Anthony Robinson II give him two starters written in pen. He then has options like guard T.O. Barrett and wings Trent Pierce and Jacob Crews to insert into the starting five as returners.

Having that continuity in the starting lineup allows a team to “move forward,” Gates explained.

Mitchell is a perfect example. Last season was by all accounts a solid debut for the Duke transfer. He was Mizzou’s best player at times and almost always a reliable option.

The bar is higher for Mitchell’s second season in black and gold because it can be.

“My expectation is that Mark Mitchell will become more of an aggressive player,” Gates said. “We all saw a shell of him.”

There’s a rebounding element to Gates’ challenge, and probably a scoring one too until it becomes clear who else can round out the Tigers’ cast of night-in, night-out bucket-getters.

The tinkering doesn’t stop with the preseason all-conference selection. When one media days question alluded to Robinson’s developmental leap from his freshman season to last year’s breakout, Gates praised the work Robinson logged to improve his shooting percentages.

But then: “I’m looking forward to the other jump that he makes this year,” Gates said, with an eye toward continued progress on Robinson’s jumper.

With a 3-point shooting void left by the departures of Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill, Gates wants Crews to fill it with 100 made triples. There are paths laid out for Pierce, Barrett and sophomore Annor Boateng.

Because retaining players is one thing. It’s important and impressive in a period where players are unrestricted free agents each spring. But it’s how the coaching staff is able to build from the first to the second to — if they’re lucky and effective — the third or fourth seasons working with these players.

“Recruiting is important,” Gates said, “but (so is) getting kids better. They can see it visually. Their parents can see it.”

He hailed back on Wednesday to his first job in basketball after his playing career at Cal, working in player development for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. While Gates is more prone to talking about his long tenure as an assistant under legendary coach Leonard Hamilton at Florida State, the echoes of that short stint with the Clippers are still evident.

“I think our staff, we have a management style that allows us to protect our culture,” Gates said, “but we also have a recruiting style that attracts young men that want to be a part of the program and wanted to be coached by myself and also the staff.”