Columbia News

A pair of Tigers players, Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill, have signed NBA contracts. Bates has joined the Denver Nuggets, while Grill has signed with the Chicago Bulls. This development marks them as the fourth and fifth players to move directly from their college team to an NBA franchise in three years under Whitten Family Head Coach Dennis Gates. Previous players include Kobe Brown, who was a first-round selection by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2023, D'Moi Hodge, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023, and Sean East II, who also joined the Lakers in 2024.

Bates concluded his senior season ranking third on his team with an average of 13.3 points per game. He achieved a shooting percentage of 50.8 percent from the field and 39.7 percent from beyond the arc while setting a school record with a national-leading free-throw percentage of 94.6 percent. His performance earned him second-team NABC All-Central Region honors along with averages of 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.

Caleb Grill received recognition as SEC Sixth Man of the Year after finishing second on his team with an average of 13.7 points off the bench. He also earned a spot on the NABC All-Central Region Second Team alongside Bates by leading his team and ranking nationally for his three-point shooting accuracy at 39.6 percent and averaging 2.69 triples per game nationally ranked at number seventy-eight. Grill contributed additional averages of 3.6 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.1 assists per game.

Both Bates and Grill played significant roles in leading their team to achieve twenty-two wins during the last season (2024-25), where Mizzou finished sixth in their conference—an SEC that sent fourteen teams to the NCAA Tournament for a record year—and posted victories over three schools ranked among the top five nationally for their first time since1988-89.