Norm Stewart gave it to Dennis Gates straight.

“‘You're not a head coach here,’” Gates said Stewart once told him, “‘unless you beat Kansas.’ That’s what he said.”

That was a challenge. It’s a rite of passage ’round these parts. Beat that team to the west, and the Missouri basketball fans won’t forget you. It’s a milestone Gates has achieved now, too. It took three tries, but the Tigers got it done last December.

Gates said he went to breakfast with Stewart, the now 90-year-old Hall of Fame head coach whose name is on the Mizzou Arena floor, on the morning after Mizzou beat Kansas 76-67 last season. The one when Missouri fans poured onto Stormin’ Norm’s court.

Gates was officially a Mizzou coach in Stewart’s book. Surely, that earned a pat on the back or an attaboy. Need a news b

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