The Kim Anderson tenure has come to an end at Mizzou. Or was it Ken Anderson? ​Who knows, that was so long ago at this point.
A lot of debating the Kim Anderson firing. But I think everyone can agree with @JacobRude. Ken Anderson never got a fair shot. pic.twitter.com/39ldMjq8fX
— Mizzodcast Podcast (@mizzodcast) March 6, 2017
The Anderson era was interesting, in that it actually wasn't interesting. Nothing happened. And we're not saying that in a bad way. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Kim Anderson era.
The Good
If you had to summarize Kim's tenure, we'd do it by saying it was forgettable. Nothing really bad happened off the court. (Then again nothing really good happened on the court, but we'll get to that)
Prior to Kim, Mizzou's basketball program was riddled with problem after problem. Most Mizzou fans didn't care because winning seasons made us callous to off-the-court issues. However, every Mizzou fan at some point thought to themselves "Why can't we find a coach who isn't a drug addict or NCAA violator?" Insert Kim Anderson. If he did do drugs, it wasn't anything notable - just like his tenure.
Kim Anderson answered a question many fans long wondered. Can a good person who runs a clean program survive in this era of college sports. Answer: no. For all of the lack of success on the court, Anderson is probably most notable in his quality of players and program. For the most part, they stayed out of trouble. The program probably isn't going to be slapped with major NCAA sanctions as a result of Kim. Job well done. Fans can respect that. We can admire that. But you still have to win. Also, our offense improved from year to year. In 2014-15, we failed to score 50 points in five games. In 2015-16, there was only one sub-50 point showing. This year, we scored above 50 points in every game. Yay us!
The Bad
The Good
If you had to summarize Kim's tenure, we'd do it by saying it was forgettable. Nothing really bad happened off the court. (Then again nothing really good happened on the court, but we'll get to that)
Prior to Kim, Mizzou's basketball program was riddled with problem after problem. Most Mizzou fans didn't care because winning seasons made us callous to off-the-court issues. However, every Mizzou fan at some point thought to themselves "Why can't we find a coach who isn't a drug addict or NCAA violator?" Insert Kim Anderson. If he did do drugs, it wasn't anything notable - just like his tenure.
Kim Anderson answered a question many fans long wondered. Can a good person who runs a clean program survive in this era of college sports. Answer: no. For all of the lack of success on the court, Anderson is probably most notable in his quality of players and program. For the most part, they stayed out of trouble. The program probably isn't going to be slapped with major NCAA sanctions as a result of Kim. Job well done. Fans can respect that. We can admire that. But you still have to win. Also, our offense improved from year to year. In 2014-15, we failed to score 50 points in five games. In 2015-16, there was only one sub-50 point showing. This year, we scored above 50 points in every game. Yay us!
The Bad
Kim Anderson probably wasn't ready for this job. He was a solid coach at a small school before we plucked him out of nowhere and hired him. If you don't think Central Missouri is the nowhere, then please move to Kansas. He was a safe hire, in that he was an alum who played basketball here.
Outside of that, he was an unproven coach with no track record. His only head coaching experience came from Central Missouri. Anderson took over a 23-12 team which was experiencing all kinds of internal problems. To be fair, Mizzou lost a lot of talent in Haith's final year. He dismissed a player and then lost four other major pieces to the draft or graduation. In total, seven players left. As a result, Mizzou fielded the youngest team in this country in Anderson's first year. So where was the bad in all this? In his first real game as Mizzou's head coach, he lost to UMKC 61-69. He went on to turn in a 9-23 record in his first year and 26–67 (.280) in three years - finishing last in the SEC in every year.
The Ugly
After a thoroughly disappointing 2014-15 season, the Tigers went on to a 10-21 season in 2015-16. Improvement!!! ... is what someone would say if they were working really hard to be an optimist. Flash forward to this season and we regressed to 7-23. But that isn't the ugly part. Nope. Forget for a second that Anderson had a 26–67 (.280) record. Forget about losses to UMKC, Northwestern, Davidson, North Carolina Central, Lipscomb, Eastern Illinois, or every SEC school at some point over the last three years (that isn't hyperbole). Also forget about a four point win to SEMO (that's Southeast Missouri St. btw), a five point win against Elon, a seven point win against Northern Illinois, a three point win against Western Kentucky, and a seven point win against Central Missouri. Put aside the fact that Anderson didn't win a single road game in his three years. Instead focus on this: in SEC play, Mizzou was out score by 583 points in three years. FIVE HUNDRED and EIGHTY-THREE points. Our eight SEC wins in three years were by a combined 77 points. Our 46 losses were by 660. We lost 13 different games by 20+ points. Half of those were by 33 or more. The point of all of this wasn't just that our Tigers were playing tough games and losing by a heartbreaking couple of points. In fact (over three years) only five SEC losses were only a one possession game in the end. Instead, our Tigers were having their asses handed to them night in and night out. In other words, it was ugly.
The End
Kim Anderson should be remembered as a True Son of Mizzou and a good person, but not a successful coach. We should be both happy and sad as he leaves. Sad for the fact that this didn't work out and happy for the fact that we're moving on. Now the question just becomes, who's next?
Outside of that, he was an unproven coach with no track record. His only head coaching experience came from Central Missouri. Anderson took over a 23-12 team which was experiencing all kinds of internal problems. To be fair, Mizzou lost a lot of talent in Haith's final year. He dismissed a player and then lost four other major pieces to the draft or graduation. In total, seven players left. As a result, Mizzou fielded the youngest team in this country in Anderson's first year. So where was the bad in all this? In his first real game as Mizzou's head coach, he lost to UMKC 61-69. He went on to turn in a 9-23 record in his first year and 26–67 (.280) in three years - finishing last in the SEC in every year.
The Ugly
After a thoroughly disappointing 2014-15 season, the Tigers went on to a 10-21 season in 2015-16. Improvement!!! ... is what someone would say if they were working really hard to be an optimist. Flash forward to this season and we regressed to 7-23. But that isn't the ugly part. Nope. Forget for a second that Anderson had a 26–67 (.280) record. Forget about losses to UMKC, Northwestern, Davidson, North Carolina Central, Lipscomb, Eastern Illinois, or every SEC school at some point over the last three years (that isn't hyperbole). Also forget about a four point win to SEMO (that's Southeast Missouri St. btw), a five point win against Elon, a seven point win against Northern Illinois, a three point win against Western Kentucky, and a seven point win against Central Missouri. Put aside the fact that Anderson didn't win a single road game in his three years. Instead focus on this: in SEC play, Mizzou was out score by 583 points in three years. FIVE HUNDRED and EIGHTY-THREE points. Our eight SEC wins in three years were by a combined 77 points. Our 46 losses were by 660. We lost 13 different games by 20+ points. Half of those were by 33 or more. The point of all of this wasn't just that our Tigers were playing tough games and losing by a heartbreaking couple of points. In fact (over three years) only five SEC losses were only a one possession game in the end. Instead, our Tigers were having their asses handed to them night in and night out. In other words, it was ugly.
The End
Kim Anderson should be remembered as a True Son of Mizzou and a good person, but not a successful coach. We should be both happy and sad as he leaves. Sad for the fact that this didn't work out and happy for the fact that we're moving on. Now the question just becomes, who's next?
