Teammates at last: Childhood friends reunited through Mizzou basketball

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

When former Duke standout forward Mark Mitchell transferred to Mizzou in the offseason, it gave Tiger fans a big reason to rejoice after a long, winless SEC season. However, the move meant a lot more than anyone realized to one member of MU hoops.

"It's actually crazy how everything happened," senior guard Tamar Bates said.

Bates and Mitchell will join forces on the court in the upcoming 2024-25 campaign, but it will be far from the first time those two have hooped together. In fact, no one quite knows each other's game as well as this duo from the Kansas City, Kansas area.

A friendship for the ages all got started in fifth grade, when Bates and Mitchell were each playing in a tournament in Lawrence, Kansas. Although on different teams, at the time, it didn't take long for each family to take notice of the other.

"The reason why Mark played with Tamar in the first place was because he was a lefty," Mark's dad Mark Mitchell Sr. said. "I said, there's a left-handed player over there on that team. I like that team over there."

The rest is history.

"We were pretty good. You know, I remember the first time I played with him...I remember he shot a nice lefty jumper, the same way he shoots now. I was like dang, that was a pretty jump shot," Mitchell said.

Bates added that his friend always had game, as well, "He could shoot with both hands, obviously had size and it's just like he had skill."

The duo played together all through grade school and continued with a friendly rivalry in high school, as Tamar went to Piper High School and Mark attended Bishop Miege.

As for the families - they were destined to meet through basketball, as well.

"This is family, family. This is more than them two just being teammates," Mark's brother Brandon Mitchell said. "All the year, it's just grown into a deeper bond. Simply put, we're just family."

With all that history, it only seemed natural that college would be the next step. Tamar's dad said that both players were not concerned with going to the flashiest college, but instead wanted to find the place they would grow the most as a player and a person.

While Kansas was right in their backyard, both ended up taking a visit to Mizzou together. You can see a picture from that visit, courtesy of the Bates family, below.

The two explored their options and landed on two different colleges. Bates decided to go to Indiana and Mitchell became a Duke Blue Devil.

"We're thankful for those years that [Mark] had at Duke, you know, good and bad," Brandon said. "It put some character on him that, you know, we feel like was necessary."

Bates spent two years at Indiana, before transferring to Mizzou to join head coach Dennis Gates ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.

Although his first season in the black and gold ended with a 8-24 overall record and a winless mark in conference action, Bates emerged as an impact player for Coach Gates, doubling his career average and ranking second on the team with 13.5 points per game.

"I had seen how he had come from Indiana and obviously he was fine at Indiana, but seeing how he came [to Mizzou] and looked like himself again. It's something that I need to get back to also," Mitchell said.

When the 2023-24 campaign came to a close, Mitchell, after two seasons in Durham, decided to enter the transfer portal.

"Oh yeah, I was on it. I can't even lie to you. s soon as he told me that he was going into the portal, I was like yeah this is over with," Tamar said. "I didn't care who called, I was like I'm getting this done. I even told the coaches, I said, 'don't even worry about it, I got it.'"

Bates kept his promise, too.

In April, Mitchell, one of the top prospects in the transfer portal, announced his decision to come to Columbia.

"Obviously, what happened last year wasn't the year they expected, but I seen the culture, I seen how they carry themselves, I seen how they practice, things like that," Mitchell said. "That was really important to me, knowing that this is a winning program and has a winning culture."

In November, when the season tips off, Bates and Mitchell will be joining forces for the first time in quite some time and it's a moment their families could only dream of for years.

"Just the energy and the focus that they're going to have and what life they are breathing into this team is just gonna be, you know, overwhelming for me," Tyrone said.

The Bates and Mitchell families will get to see a childhood dream realized in November when the 2024-25 campaign tips off for Gates and company.