My take on Frank Haith, started to erode more and more over the past two seasons, like a lot of other fans. He could recruit but could not coach. We had talent and pieces the last two years, but the teams overall lacked a finished product. I felt more frustrated than anything.
Overall, Frank Haith, left with a stellar winning percentage here(granted a lot of it was inherited thanks to his 2011-12 team). I don't know what kind of ultimatums and expectations he was given for his future, but the fact that he runs off without any kind of trying says a lot about his character. He either didn't think he had the ability to right the ship well enough, with pretty stellar talent or he just took the chicken shit way and left knowing he could get another secure job for a few more years. He might be doing the same thing three or four years later after Tulsa. The respect I had for him and what he accomplished here dissipated.
Of course this was a win for Mike Alden. Frank Haith was never a popular hire and with a struggling basketball team it put more emphasis on Alden's hiring decision. Haith, turning tail saved Alden from potentially having to fire Haith and let him try to find a better option.
I would have been happy with Ben Howland too. The only thing Howland could have brought over Anderson, was name recognition and a pedigree of success at U.C.L.A and bringing in major five-star talent. Gregg Marshall, on the other hand, who seemed to be every fan's pipe dream candidate, to me seemed just hot rising star candidate that we hear about every year when a mid-major team overachieves.
I like the Kim Anderson hire. He's what Missouri has needed, even after getting passed over and not even considered the last two times. Quinn Snyder was a good hire at the time, he just made one bad recruiting class and getting Ricky Clemons, which derailed his successes. Mike Anderson was as well, proven in his ability to right the ship in three years. Frank Haith was not so much, but after the first two years, it looked like another genius move on Alden's part. Now all of the know-it-all Tiger hipster douches, at Rock M Nation, held a level of scorn at even the possibility of Anderson being a serious candidate. It's been accepted positively a lot more, since they probably finally realized their wet-dream candidate Marshall wasn't coming.
Why Anderson? Because he wants to be here. A native son of Sedalia and a former player and assistant under Norm Stewart, this is his dream job. We don't have to worry about him wanting to step up the ladder to a bigger program or bigger payday. He wants to succeed at Missouri. He proved his chops at the Division II level at Central Missouri State, coming off a Division II championship.
The biggest pratfalls with his hiring were his age and his ability to recruit major names. I admit we'll be lucky to get ten years from him, compared to somebody younger who could build up the program and become the next Norm. But like Norm Stewart, Kim Anderson is a Missourian and Missouri Tiger, who bleeds black and gold. Anderson doesn't have the fiery, charismatic and larger than life personality that Stewart does, but he brings a more professional and good-natured style to the Missouri bench. I don't see him berating the refs and other coaches.
Recruiting wise was the biggest hurdle. When he was Stewart's assistant, he couldn't bring in the big name in state guys. Derek Hood, Jahadi White, Cookie Belcher, Ryan Robertson, Chris Carrawell, Loren Woods, Jaron Rush, all went elsewhere, at a time in the mid 90s when Missouri was still a strong program. So how would he change the fact that we still can't get in-state stars. In the 2011 class, we couldn't even nab one out of the four, of Ben McLemore, Bradley Beal, B.J. Young or Otto Porter and again Missouri was on a pretty strong high of tournament appearances and producing talent(A lot of this has to do with Mike Anderson spending more time looking at other jobs than recruiting too).
The biggest step he made in the right direction in this area, was keeping associate head coach Tim Fuller to be on his staff. Fuller, like Haith is a pretty strong recruiter and by staying on, four star recruit JaKeenan Gant is keeping his letter of intent. The ability to keep talent and bring them in every year is huge part of keeping a good program. In addition he is keeping on Director of Basketball Operations Bryan Tibaldi, another good move in keeping continuity. Anderson is regarded as good at X's and O's and having teams that can play defense, which we haven't had or seen in a while. Hopefully its a good meshing of styles and skills, that can produce victories on the court and in the classroom.
I feel really good about the future of Tiger basketball. I know that there is the fear of having expectations start to exceed realities. We'll have a young team, with no real experienced scorers or leaders. As of right now, the team is short in the backcourt, with only two point guards and a two guard. Plus we won't have a true small forward until Cameron Biedscheid is eligible at Winter Break.
I like Wes Clark stepping up to be the point guard, Johnathan Williams III has a lot of potential, Gant could be that deadly combo forward who could give match up problems and Biedscheid could be the scorer we need. Like I said there is a lot of talent and a lot of potential. The biggest thing for next year is not to have too high of expectations. As long as we have a NIT team, that shows competitiveness and improvement throughout the year, I'll still be optimistic about the future of Missouri basketball.
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