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I never caught the basketball bug. The only pro game I ever attended (St. Louis Hawks vs Detroit Pistons) impressed me mostly by the way the players loafed around on the court till they got near the basket. There was a women's version of the Globetrotters at the place (the old Kiel Auditorium) before the game started and the women showed a hell of lot more energy in their phony game than the guys did in the real one.
When I started at Missouri I was eager to get football tickets, but barely gave season basketball tickets a thought. I looked in one of those all-time score books recently and my first two years at Mizzou were about the worst in the school's basketball history. They won exactly three games each of those two years. My buddies talked me into going to a game one night when I was a freshman. The coach's son was on the team and he was, if not the worst, certainly the most selfish player I've ever seen in a game, high school, college or pro. As soon as somebody passed him the ball past mid-court, he'd shoot no matter where he was and this was ages before there was such a thing as a 3-point shot. Needless to say he didn't shoot the lights out, and it's not as if the other team guarded him closely. If he got an official assist that night, it probably was a clerical mistake.
Not all my memories of Mizzou basketball were that hilarious. One day when I was a senior, I was in a friend's dorm room watching Kentucky (with Dan Issel) giving LSU (led by another shot happy kid, Pistol Pete Maravich) a thrashing on the tube. The door was open and who should wander in to watch the game with us, but Norm Stewart, the coach who was bringing MU basketball out of its laughing stock status and who would keep it out for about the next 30 years. When I was at Ohio State I was thrilled that the Bucks were beaten by the Tigers in football the one year they played and in basketball practically every year, though I wasn't at any of those games.
Today Missouri's coach Mike Anderson announced he was leaving to go to Arkansas. A lot of Missouri fans have distinctly mixed feelings about it. Anderson pledged he was staying on last week. The Curators, the governing body of the university, were set to approve a 33% salary hike for him. But the Razorbacks apparently offered him nearly a 50% hike. I think Anderson is a fine coach, but I don't think he's worth $2,000,000 a year, let alone the $2,200,000 he'll be getting in Fayetteville.
Why did Arkansas want him so badly? He's a chip off the old block, Nolan Richardson, who was the last Arkansas coach to get the Hogs into the NCAA tournament, over a decade ago. The style of basketball Anderson teaches is the same as he learned as Richardson's assistant. It's fast, it's usually exciting and it wins a lot of games.
But I question Anderson's ability to recruit. The team was full of sophomores and freshmen this year with one lone senior who scarcely played and the best junior a Junior College guy. Over the last two years Anderson failed to recruit a team leader, or even a gutsy point guard who'd pretend to be one. He had one in 2009 who went pro, and had a leader last year who was a senior. But no new guy this year or one coming up. Over the last three years he failed to recruit anyone really good at rebounding. The team this year was a whiz at stealing the ball, but didn't compete well against better teams because they couldn't get offensive rebounds.
When the issue of raising Anderson's salary again after this season came up a lot of Missouri fans were questioning whether he deserved it. I question the amount of the raise Missouri was willing to give, and am somewhat floored by Arkansas' seemly over-the-top bid to get the guy they wanted. As long as they're not playing Mizzou or Ohio State, I guess, I wish them luck together.
Talk is already turning to the coaches from the mid majors in the tournament who Missouri might lure. By law Missouri gets no athletic funds from the state, so whatever they spend they can afford. I just hope they get what they pay for. I'm not sure Arkansas has.
When I started at Missouri I was eager to get football tickets, but barely gave season basketball tickets a thought. I looked in one of those all-time score books recently and my first two years at Mizzou were about the worst in the school's basketball history. They won exactly three games each of those two years. My buddies talked me into going to a game one night when I was a freshman. The coach's son was on the team and he was, if not the worst, certainly the most selfish player I've ever seen in a game, high school, college or pro. As soon as somebody passed him the ball past mid-court, he'd shoot no matter where he was and this was ages before there was such a thing as a 3-point shot. Needless to say he didn't shoot the lights out, and it's not as if the other team guarded him closely. If he got an official assist that night, it probably was a clerical mistake.
Not all my memories of Mizzou basketball were that hilarious. One day when I was a senior, I was in a friend's dorm room watching Kentucky (with Dan Issel) giving LSU (led by another shot happy kid, Pistol Pete Maravich) a thrashing on the tube. The door was open and who should wander in to watch the game with us, but Norm Stewart, the coach who was bringing MU basketball out of its laughing stock status and who would keep it out for about the next 30 years. When I was at Ohio State I was thrilled that the Bucks were beaten by the Tigers in football the one year they played and in basketball practically every year, though I wasn't at any of those games.
Today Missouri's coach Mike Anderson announced he was leaving to go to Arkansas. A lot of Missouri fans have distinctly mixed feelings about it. Anderson pledged he was staying on last week. The Curators, the governing body of the university, were set to approve a 33% salary hike for him. But the Razorbacks apparently offered him nearly a 50% hike. I think Anderson is a fine coach, but I don't think he's worth $2,000,000 a year, let alone the $2,200,000 he'll be getting in Fayetteville.
Why did Arkansas want him so badly? He's a chip off the old block, Nolan Richardson, who was the last Arkansas coach to get the Hogs into the NCAA tournament, over a decade ago. The style of basketball Anderson teaches is the same as he learned as Richardson's assistant. It's fast, it's usually exciting and it wins a lot of games.
But I question Anderson's ability to recruit. The team was full of sophomores and freshmen this year with one lone senior who scarcely played and the best junior a Junior College guy. Over the last two years Anderson failed to recruit a team leader, or even a gutsy point guard who'd pretend to be one. He had one in 2009 who went pro, and had a leader last year who was a senior. But no new guy this year or one coming up. Over the last three years he failed to recruit anyone really good at rebounding. The team this year was a whiz at stealing the ball, but didn't compete well against better teams because they couldn't get offensive rebounds.
When the issue of raising Anderson's salary again after this season came up a lot of Missouri fans were questioning whether he deserved it. I question the amount of the raise Missouri was willing to give, and am somewhat floored by Arkansas' seemly over-the-top bid to get the guy they wanted. As long as they're not playing Mizzou or Ohio State, I guess, I wish them luck together.
Talk is already turning to the coaches from the mid majors in the tournament who Missouri might lure. By law Missouri gets no athletic funds from the state, so whatever they spend they can afford. I just hope they get what they pay for. I'm not sure Arkansas has.