Tre Gomillion returns as a graduate assistant for Missouri basketball. Here is his journey

Tre Gomillion He knew it was over.

His chance had been taken away from him. Gomillion’s dream of playing professional basketball was a goal he wrote on a list he kept at the back of his locker. It would leave before it happened.

After all, Gomillion had tried. And with the pain of a lingering groin injury, Missouri basketball graduate It was pretty close.

He spent time in training camp with Rip City Remix, the G-League affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers. Gomillion blocked offers from abroad due to injury rehabilitation, but felt he was approaching more opportunities.

But nothing was quite right. A year passed and he continued training, but the lack of live tape was crushing his hopes.

Then, the sobering feather: Career-ending groin and incontinence surgery.

Even as Gomillion allowed intrusive thoughts—”I wasn’t good enough,” he would tell himself as his anger welled up—into his head, he knew he wasn’t to blame for the premature end. He knew the injury was the deal breaker. However, it was not easy to internalize this.

“For the longest time, I had resentment or anger towards the game of basketball just because it ended the way it did,” Gomillion said. “But over time I realized more and more that I needed to get back into the game. I had more to offer.

“You know, my purpose in this world is; I know too much about basketball to do anything else.”

Lightbulb.

He prayed for his next move. He talked to his loved ones. Gomillion made peace with his reality and made a decision. He picked up the phone for a call to which he had been invited a long time ago.

Gomillion was hired by the Mizzou basketball team in June as a graduate assistant for next season, rejoining former coach Dennis Gates to patrol the sidelines at Mizzou Arena, where he spent the 2022-23 season and helped the Tigers reach the SEC Tournament semifinals. attended. NCAA Tournament second round.

Gomillion thought his career would reach this point, but not this early in his life. Even if there are some gripes about his playing days being over, he is in the team and is determined.

But a few months after starting work, he settles into his new, familiar place, finds comfort.

Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates predicts Tre Gomillion’s return

Gates, whom Gomillion followed from Cleveland State to Mizzou, predicted this moment.

“He will be in our squad one day” coach stole his shot on February 21, 2023, After Missouri beat Mississippi State in overtime. “I’m being honest with you.”

Gomillion missed several consecutive games due to a groin injury that ended his career two years later. He held a meeting with his head coach before the Tigers faced Mississippi State, which is in the NCAA Tournament and has received two byes to the SEC Tournament, and gave him a message: Make me play.

He came off the bench and recorded 8 points and 11 rebounds. His honest speech led Gates to name himself a future MU staff member and college head coach at the post-game press conference. Gates said he saw his younger self in Gomillion that day.

The player said early in Gomillion’s post-Mizzou career, as the player was rehabbing and trying to play for a professional team, Gates was in his ear about considering coaching opportunities.

“He didn’t sugarcoat anything. “You need to get into coaching,” Gomillion said throughout this initial phase of the game. … “And I wasn’t listening at the time because I was opinionated and angry.”

However, the offer did not expire.

When it came time to address the issue, Gomillion first called on Missouri assistant coach Ryan Sharbaugh and then chief of staff Chase Goldstein to get to work. The door was open but it just squeaked.

The Tigers had him dress up in a suit and tie anyway, hopped on the Zoom call, and started the airtime process. Nothing was given.

Gomillion said Gates and the team need to know whether he is fully convinced of his career change and whether he will make a “U-turn” on playing opportunities again.

On June 12, the former Mizzou player was officially added to the roster.

With nearly 500 days between prediction and realization, and after some early encouragement, Gates did not push his prediction any further. Gomillion said they had been in contact, but he knew the coach was allowing him to “go through this process as a man” and “figure out life.”

Life has given Gomillion many directions.

First, the opportunity arose to play in Germany. He loved the coach, he loved the team, but in the end he turned down the chance. His groin injury had not healed. He needed the team’s top-notch medical facilities to relieve the pain and compete, and he felt he needed more help than the team could offer.

He later became part of 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 hit me with a meeting in the morning.” It was cut shortly before the season started.

He went to work for his cousin to tie her up and earn some money. Roofing. Interior renovation. A trade here, a trade there.

This was fine for a while. Gomillion learned a lot. But this was not his calling.

He was left behind on this field.

“Just doing that made it (obvious) that: I shouldn’t be doing this,” Gomillion said. “You know, I know too much basketball to do this job. With all due respect, I know too much basketball to keep doing this. That’s when I made the call.”

This call allowed him to return to basketball. However, there is one part that bothers you.

As Missouri practices behind closed doors with just over a month until the start of its new season, Gomillion is patrolling the sidelines for the first time in his new role.

He chats with other coaches and players at Mizzou as the Tigers go on offense. Imitating the erratic strokes of an MU player trying to escape the trap under the basket, Gomillion bobs his head back and forth like a rhinoceros.

They have a basketball in their hand, which does not leave their palm throughout the entire training. It’s no secret where he prefers to be.

“I did (I want to be there). Bad,” Gomilion said. “I did very badly.”

Coach Gomillion and the 2024-25 season

There is only one thing left from Gomillion’s team this season: Aidan Shaw. Even compared to last season, this is a new Mizzou roster, with six new transfers and four true freshmen.

The Tigers are coming off a winless conference season, one of the worst in Missouri basketball history. There was no MU win this calendar year.

All of this helped Gomillion’s team advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament a year later, the first time the Tigers had reached that stage since 2010.

Now he’s trying to help Mizzou get back to that level without the ball in his hands, even though it hurts.

Gomillion isn’t sure what it will feel like when he steps into the arena, but he never makes it beyond the sideline. Our first game will be played away against Memphis on November 4th. His return to Mizzou Arena will take place on November 8.

Ask him.

His tempo slows down, his voice drops. His words become clearly deliberate; taken into account.

His eyes turned to the field, where freshman point guard TO Barrett was practicing free throws, alone on the field. This used to be him.

“I’m not really sure man, it’s just going to be something we’ll see how it plays out when it plays out,” Gomillion said. “But I really don’t think it would be anything crazy. You know, all my focus will be on men. So I know the fans and everyone will notice me and recognize me. But, you know, we’re all focused on this group here and trying to get us to the NCAA Tournament, to the national championship.”

Gomillion wanted this phase of his career – the coaching career that Gates envisioned for him – to be a “retirement plan”. In a way, he was right. It came faster than you imagined.

He is angry. A piece of the imagined, sought-after future was taken from his control. The goal list at the back of your cupboard will always be incomplete.

Gomillion finds a way to exploit this.

It always was.

“I try to coach through the anger or passion I feel for not succeeding. I try not to experience these, but I try; they kind of fill that gap. They are helping me get this closure,” Gomillion said. … “I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I made. “I want them to achieve their dreams and do things that I never had the chance to do.”

This article first appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune: Tre Gomillion’s journey brought him back to Missouri basketball as a GA