Dennis Gates announces ‘indefinite suspension’ for transfer forward
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Dennis Gates will be starting the 2026-27 season without his full roster, after the Mizzou head coach announced on Monday afternoon that transfer forward Jaylen Carey has been suspended indefinitely because of a violation of team rules.
Carey was set to be a huge contributor for the Tigers this season and still could be. But he won’t start his first season in Columbia the way he wanted to after transferring from SEC rival Tennessee in the spring.
The senior out of Miami has had a whirlwind college basketball career even before playing his first game at Mizzou. Carey has a wealth of NCAA Tournament experience during stops at James Madison, Vanderbilt and then Tennessee, where he helped lead the Volunteers to the Elite Eight last season.
It’s still unclear if Carey will even get his chance to play at Mizzou this season, with Carey’s suspension being imposed on the eve of the start of the Tigers’ season. Mizzou is set to host Cleveland State in its season opener on Tuesday night (8 p.m. ET, SEC Network+), but it will play that game and maybe many more without its prize transfer.
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Gates didn’t provide reporters with any additional details regarding Carey’s suspension, only saying that it was for a “violation of team rules.”
The 6-foot-8, 255-pound Carey averaged 7.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists for Tennessee last season, so Mizzou was getting a frontcourt player who could crash the boards as well as contribute on the offensive end.
But that’s in doubt now with the suspension, after Carey didn’t play in either of Mizzou’s public exhibition games against Kansas State and UNLV.
Carey was present and practiced at the Tigers’ pro day back on Oct. 11.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
