The Low and High Times of Missouri Basketball

The last time I wrote about Missouri Tigers basketball, was twice in a couple weeks span in 2014, with an end of season review and then with the news of the Kim Anderson era happening after Frank Haith's escaping the posse out of town. Then between starting college classes and not having the free days off  I used to have from work, my overall blogging slipped and well, Missouri basketball under Kim Anderson didn't exact inspire much to write about....The last three seasons of Missouri basketball produced less than 30 wins combined. As many point out, Frank Haith won that many in his first year at Missouri...

Then the official word, what many of us fans expected sooner, happened after the final regular season game of the season, was that Kim Anderson wasn't coming back for next season. I had decent hopes for Kim Anderson at Mizzou, but he was in over his head, inheriting not the best of situations; a young inexperienced team, as well as a horrendous APR score and the beginnings of an NCAA investigation, that Anderson didn't even get told about until the took the job.

But it wasn't as horrible a situation as his defenders made it out to be. He had quite a bit of talent on his first roster with Jonathan Williams III(who's now starting for the possible NCAA Champion Gonzaga Bulldogs) and several other four stars, recruiting and rerecruiting  some back on board. The biggest knock on Anderson was that people didn't think he'd be able to recruit at a Division I Power 5 conference level, but he'd be good with the x's and o's and developing his players.

Except it turned out to be more the opposite. His first season he had a talented young roster, that seemed on the cusp of getting over their humps, but an injury to their best scorer, Montaque Gill-Caesar , derailed what progress was being made on a team that struggled to make 60 points. And then the transfers started, with multiple players leaving on a yearly basis. This wasn't what people meant by bringing back the years of Norm, specifically the mid-90s version of Norm.

And there seemed to be no progress among players, no continuity, no development and no sense that things were going to get better. Many felt he was lucky to get a third year. His tenure started with an embarrassing home loss to UMKC and this season featured three more home losses to low majors at home that probably sealed his fate for good.

As the lows started to wear off, with the excitement of a coaching search(which happens too frequently with MU for my tastes), things seemed to be on the right track. Early signs seemed to be that Tom Crean, who was running out of favor, with a cutthroat fan base at Indiana that's stuck in the 1980s, was the man for the job. I was totally on board for this. He's a great coach that's proven he can build up a major conference team, take a team to the Final Four and bring in major talent. Hell, he's recruited Missouri better than Missouri has.

Alas the behind the scenes wrangling didn't pan out and it was soon announced that Cuonzo Martin was offered the job and sources early on indicated he was going to take it. I'd rather have still had Tom Crean, but Martin has shown he can recruit high level talent and build decent teams, where down years are NIT years. The biggest concern is whether he can get over the hump of hovering around 20 wins and not be perceived as a job jumper. I really think he'd still be at Tennessee if not for sort of being Frank Haithed out of town. We want a guy that wants to be here for the long haul and at least in the press conference that's what Martin alluded to too. 

Of course that same day or the day after, it was announced that Washington was parting ways with Lorenzo Romar, for six straight years of missing the NCAA Tournament, while having stellar talent and recruiting classes. And he happened to have the number one recruit by many services coming in, whose father happened to be an assistant coach for Romar. When that axe fell, Michael Porter Sr. started making plans and rumors of a job offer to be an assistant at Missouri, where he previously coached on the women's team(His sister-in-law is the coach) started swirling.

When that became official, it was pretty clear that Michael Porter Jr. was coming to the Tigers. The number one player in the country was coming back home and going to play for Ol' Mizzou. For a MU fan, the 180° turnaround in a matter of weeks has been something out of our wildest dreams. Good things don't happent ot Missouri.  Martin has gotten interest drummed up, all while he's still not even done recruiting  and not even coached a game for us yet!

All I know, is that I'm ready for next fall.

My First Blog of 2015...On December 28?!

I noticed a few months ago, that I've horribly neglected this blog during 2015 and hadn't made a single post. Going by my past, this odd numbered year, should have seen and uptick from last year...

But there have been several factors. Like last year, when I only went to one concert, this year I didn't go to any. I should have seen the Who, but they postponed their St. Louis show twice, from May to December to now in March 2016 (If they don't cancel again). And I balked at going to see the Stones at Arrowhead. In hindsight, I wish I would have, I took that weekend off, but the astronomical ticket prices, plus parking and a long drive to K.C. made me hesitate.

The other key factor that started taking up a lot of my time, was I finally decided to return to college in June. I started doing online classes going for my Bachelor's in Business Management. While I've had free time, after spending copious amounts of time behind a computer typing, spending more time didn't seem as fun of  a way to spend leisure time. If I did any online stuff, it was helping do work on Herocopia, the Astro City wiki. Which I've still slacked off there too...

Not to mention just being on Facebook, a) lets me vent issues of the day and b) tires me out of talking about issues. And there's that whole professionalism thing and wanting to grow up...Maybe...

 And I didn't even do my follow up thoughts to the Missouri Tigers Basketball season, because they were horrible in 2014-15. And they're not looking too good this year as well. I'm hoping the recent game against Illinois, even though a loss, can be a springboard to a more competitive team....

I've already have one concert lined up, and Springsteen is always tempting. Though my classload will start getting worse; upper level classes that will require more writing and research. Something I haven't had to really do in over ten years. So, hopefully 2016 will be a better year for me in general and give me something to post or at least rant about...

Enter the Kim Anderson Era

A little over a month ago, I wrote my thoughts on the Missouri Tigers men's basketball 2013-14 season and a look toward the future. None of us had any idea the future would be changed like it has in the past two weeks. Frank Haith pulled a Richard Nixon, leaving before he would get fired and we ended up with a "true son" of Missouri and Missouri basketball at the helm, in Kim Anderson.
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. 

You Can't Win 3 on 5; Review of the 2013-14 Missouri Tigers Basketball Season

 Another disappointing year for Tiger basketball, has become a theme for the Frank Haith era.  I honestly don't think Frank Haith, will have too many more years at the helm in Columbia. The last two coaches, Quinn Snyder and Mike Anderson took the team in their third year to the Elite Eight. Haith led the Tigers into the second round of the N.I.T. and couldn't even pull out a home win then.
I know, I know, different players, different philosophies, yeah, yeah. But Haith like Snyder, inherited a talented club, but Snyder was able to bring in more talented recruits, Kareem Rush, Ricky Paulding, Arthur Johnson and Travon Bryant, in addition to the talent already at the school. Anderson by contrast had to build up a team, dealing with the leftovers of Quinn Snyder's lackadaisical last two teams and recruiting classes.
Yes, I know Anderson left the cupboard bare recruiting wise, but Haith inherited a senior laden talented team. He's managed to fill gaps with transfers the past three years, but these past two years have seen an almost regression throughout the season.

This year started off well  record wise. Even with Haith suspended, the Tigers almost made out perfect through the non-conference season, but once SEC play hit, the team seemed to hit a brick wall, coughing up right off the bat to Georgia at home and losing other road games against very sub-par performers in a weak SEC.
The lack of scoring production inside was the biggest problem. Johnathan Williams III showed a lot of promise and could be a monster rebounder, even with more of a small forward frame and fellow Freshman Torren Jones, showed lots of potential, but came across as, well, a Freshman. Ryan Rosburg is more of a work horse, rarely contributing scoring and frequently coming up with less rebounds than the starting guards many nights.
No inside production led to over 70 percent of the scoring being done from the trio of Jordan Clarkson, Jabari Brown and Earnest Ross for good and bad. Mostly bad. You're not going to win a lot playing essentially three on five. These guys were the most talented and did what they had to win, but it felt too much like they trying to improve their NBA draft stock by February, rather than building a winner.

Like last year with the ghost of Michael Dixon, hampering the team, this year it was the ghost of Phil Pressey that hurt the team. Pressey left early and left Haith without an experienced point guard. While there were two Freshmen in Wesley Clark and Shane Rector, the starting job and majority of the ball handling went to Clarkson. Clarkson is a good ball handler, but not adept at running the point. He had too much of a scoring mentality, which was evidenced down the stretch of games, when it was him trying to do everything. It just leaves me to wondering how good a back court of Pressey and Clarkson would have been this year...

As for next year, there is the promise, but what will the reality be? Clarkson and Brown seem to both be likely bolting for the N.B.A. Experience wise it will hurt, like Pressey leaving last year. Last year I thought it would foster a better team mentality. Except, only two guys stepped up their game.
And it would leave Ryan Rosburg as the most experienced Tiger upper-classman. Keanau Post with a monster body, only really produced in one game. So leadership and experience might be the biggest hurdles.
In addition to Wes Clark, showing improvement handling the point and Williams and Jones at the forward spots, there are at least five newcomers coming in. Four star recruits in forward JaKeenan Grant and shooting guard Namon Wright. Plus transfers, David Price,( a former four star recruit) a 6'10 center from Louisville, 6'4 Deuce Bello from Baylor and eligible after first semester 6'7 Cameron Biedscheid, a St. Louis native arriving from Notre Dame.
The talent or at least the potential is there for a decent team, that should be better in March than it is in November, but that's no guarantee. One of Haith's biggest faults, is that he is a great recruiter, but not that great of a coach. There's a lot of though that after he lost Ernie Nestor, who was regarded as his X's and )'s man, after his first season in Columbia, is where a lot of the offensive troubles have come from.
If Haith can put it together, and at least show us that this is a program on the rise, he should be safe. But with a first round NCAA Tournament loss to a 15 seed in his first year, an uneven second year with lots of talent  and an par year three, his seat might be getting a little bit warm.

The Ghost of Mike Dixon and the Missouri Tigers 2012-13 Season and Beyond

Last year, I wrote about Frank Haith's successful first season, albeit with a disappointing finish and wondering if 2011-12 was going to be as good as it got for Haith. He had a tight knit senior laden club with the talent to make it to the Final Four and would lose all but two of players from that team.
But with the news that former UConn Center Alex Oriakhi was coming to Mizzou, joining a super backcourt of Phil Pressey and Michael Dixon and fifth year senior Lawrence Bowers back after an injury, things started looking up. We were getting three impact transfers, in addition to Oriakhi, and going to the SEC, where the basketball waters aren't as tough and aside from Florida and Kentucky, the conference was even weaker than normal. Missouri did end up having a great season, with really only a couple of bad losses, at Florida and to Louisville(the likely national champion as I write this before the Final Four) in the Bahamas. Realistically Missouri should have could have won every other game they lost in the regular season. This team was good but...
They could have been so much more. The first couple of months the team looked like a contender, playing the way the prognosticators across the country thought they could be. And that was without Michael Dixon, who was was suspended for undisclosed reasons, as well as Jabari Brown, a former five star wing player who transferred from Oregon, who was eligible in the second semester. It looked like they had the mentality of a winner and knew they could be so much more when they got Dixon, but...
We all know what happened, when Dixon was booted off the team and the university for multiple sexual assaults, which he seemed to have had to remorse about. And after that the team started to lose its mojo as the season went on. They still won some big games, didn't lose at home, but at the same time couldn't pull out wins on the road they should have. And they were never fully able to show the confidence needed to make a decent run in the NCAA tourney. Where the ghost of Michael Dixon hurt the team on the court was a lack of a backup point guard to spell Pressey. Negus Webster-Chan a 6'7 swingman was used early in the season in the role and Keion Bell a 6'3 shooting guard, settled in the role, but never looked comfortable. And Pressey wound up playing 35 plus minutes a night. Dixon would have been able to spell Pressey for breaks, having the size to run the offense and help defensively on smaller guards. In the most ironicof ironies, the 2013 team was too big, where the 2012 team was Mini-Mizzou with not enough tall and big bodies.
And most importantly, Dixon would have been the choice for late game shots instead of Pressey. Pressey's mistakes late in the game, cost the team four or five chances at wins. Was it too much pressure of trying to do to much to carry the team?

And how much of it was Coach Haith, not trying to do something different? After three or four times, you figure they would try to do something different or put it in someone elses hands. Personally, I think a lot falls on Haith, who's a better recruiter than a coach. He lost his offensive scheme guru Ernie Nestor and the team this year seemed to show Nestor's role was huge last season. I don't this years teams was able to run things from half court sets, hence problems at the end of games and the Haith's Stall Ball Offensive that let teams creep back. I always said Pressey is most effective going to coast-to-coast being able to change speeds. Run your regular offense at the end of games, even if it only takes ten seconds off the clock and take your chances on defense.
It goes back to my questions from last year, where does Haith go from here? Can he continue to build on these successes? Does Phil Pressey come back?
Looking into my crystal ball, I think Pressey comes back for his senior season, but if he doesn't I think the team is in decent shape guard wise. Pressey, Brown and Earnest Ross should fill out the perimeter spots with experience.
And if Pressey doesn't come back, it could be a good thing. It would force other players into action and larger roles, and might get a better team cohesion of not having a go-to-guy or a star.
The biggest problem area will be the front court and points scored in the paint. Tony Criswell is the only player returning from the rotation, with Sophomores to be, Ryan Rosburg and Stefan Jankovic, whose potential is very intriguing, likely fighting for spot in the rotation if not starting.
And newcomers likely will play some big roles. Tulsa transfer Jordan Clarkson, is a big guard who can handle the ball, will likely find a spot as well. Top 100 freshmen, Wes Clark, a 6'0 point guard and Johnathan Williams, an athletic 6'8 forward give Haith, more options and talent to develop, in addition to Junior College transfer Keanau Post, a 6'11 center with potential as well.
I like a rotation of Pressey-Brown-Ross-Criswell-Rosburg starting, with Clark-Clarkson-Williams off the bench. The front court will be up in the air, depending on who can do what, primarily be an offensive threat. That's why I think Williams has a shot to start if he can do that. Heck he could play small forward and Ross, with his bulk act as power forward, providing mismatches for other teams. But I'm not sure how much Haith trusts Freshmen though. Short handed last year, especially in the height department Kadeem Green couldn't even get minutes in big games and this season save for Rosburg, minutes for Freshman were again hard to come by, barring injuries, after conference play started up...
Ultimately it comes down to the coaching ability of Haith or his assistants. I've got a lot of questions and doubts on that ability from what I've seen. There's no doubt the man can recruit. Look at what the kids who recruited to Miami did this year. Heck, he's landed some good talent for 2014, not to mention the transfers he's brought in. 
It will come down to winning and losing after a point. The more talent you have the more is expected. Getting into the tournament is a no-brainer, but early exit and after early exit won't be tolerated year after year. Ask Tubby Smith and Ben Howland. I just wonder how much the ghost of Mike Dixon will haunt Haith and Missouri basketball...

As Good As It Gets For Frank Haith?

Naturally, I'm still reeling from the loss to a 15th seed yesterday. This shit isn't supposed to happen. Especially to a senior laden team with a lot of talent(though with a lack of height). I'm just glad I had to work, otherwise I probably would have a broken tv or a hole in the wall...
But my mind is already looking to future, combined with this catastrophic disappointment. Is this as good as its going to get at Missouri for Frank Haith?

Haith came into the job inheriting a wealth of talent and seniors, Marcus Denmon, Phil Pressey, Michael Dixon, Kim English and Laurence Bowers. And when the latter had a season ending knee injury, leaving the team with little front court depth and little depth overall,with the fact of Rickey Kreklow transferring and that between Haith and Mike Anderson there were no recruits, all seemed lost for 2011-12.
But Haith did a masterful job of putting these guys in an actual system of offense and playing controlled defense, not the 40 minutes of Hell that Anderson played that likely wore out the team by March.
The 30-5 record in itself was astounding. Aside from Norfolk State, the loss at Oklahoma State was the only other "bad" loss on the season. And we should have beat Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse...

But now Marcus Denmon, Kim English, Ricardo Ratliffe, Matt Pressey and Steve Moore are gone. Coach Haith only has Michael Dixon and Phil Pressey coming back next season. This is where the question marks start...

In addition to having two great point guards coming back, is the return of Laurence Bowers. Granted there are questions if he can come back to his old self, but his return provides senior leadership as well and hopefully an athletic power forward with a good 12 foot shot...

But this is where I'm wondering if 2011-12 will be as good as it gets for Frank Haith. He put together a great regular season, won the conference tourney, but lost a chance to put an exclamation point on the season with a deep or at least decent tourney run.
Just thinking about from a national standpoint and a recruiting one, it hurts. The transfer of Kadeem Green earlier this season, gave Mizzou another scholarship opening. A good national showing might have piped some interest from a Mizzou-leaning recruit. Or even one not considering, realizing Mizzou won't have but a few returning players and at the right position and skill level could walk into a starting role...
Mizzou does have several high profile transfers, in addition to a big recruiting class, in Earnest Ross and Jabrari Brown that could help fill in some gaps. But they're all unknowns and young especially at the power forward/center spots.
With that I'm scared Coach Haith will try the four guard lineup again next year, which I think only worked this year, because of the personnel and experience we had. Next year we have height, we need to capitalize it...
And then there's the fandom/alumni happiness. The tendency of Mizzou fans is to easily think, 'here we go down this road again,' when things start rolling in the negative direction. How will Haith handle this aspect to a school that does have a decent basketball tradition certainly compared to Miami? And then there's still a few black clouds floating about from his purported ties to Nevin Shapiro, which hopefully will blow over...

When Mike Alden announced Frank Haith's hiring last Spring, I was somewhat dumbfounded, but after it set in, there was something about the hire that I liked or it just made sense. A middle of the road coach with no expectations comes to a school used to heartbreaks. His big draw was his ability to recruit, which hopefully comes to fruition. Heck if he could just start picking off one major talent out of St. Louis each year from going elsewhere(Bradley Beal, B.J. Young, etc.), he'd be ahead of every other coach Mizzou's had the past 30 years...
The only thing I've disliked about Coach Haith or his decisions, was that somehow with only eight scholarship players and a lack of depth down low, Kadeem Green, a Redshirt Freshman decided to transfer. Green is a 6'8 210 lb. athletic(purported) forward. Granted there was probably a lot of things behind the scenes and honestly probably some kind of attitude problem that we didn't know about. And if he was that good, Mike Anderson would have played him last year after getting healthy.
But Coach Haith used the excuse of only playing a seven man rotation, which seems bogus, as looking at box scores, it looked like he used eight or nine at Miami. And he said he liked/wanted to have big guys down low. As I said, just the lack of players and he can't find a role(defensive stopper against small forwards?) or way to get him experience for a few mins a game?

I'm rooting for Coach Haith. I"m just pessimistic to be optimistic. I don't want to see a continuous downward slide over the next three to four years. I don't want a return to the late/Post Quin Snyder era from 2004 to 2008. I want to see them return to the tourney next season, get the younger players experience and keep stocking up the bench with good and maybe even a few great recruits each season. MIZZOU-RAH!