Was thinking about the downfall of MU bb this weekend

Posted on: March 22, 2021 at 14:08:43 CT

And I have previously always pinpointed it to the weekend we hired Kim Anderson. But I don't think that is necessarily correct. I think it is actually August 2011.

At that point in time Mike Anderson had already left for Arkansas and a near player revolt has been calmed with the whole 'we will reconcile by winning' press conference. To prepare for upcoming roster imbalance Auburns leading scorer and rebounder Earnest Ross and someone who had scored 18ppg each of the prior two seasons at Pepperdine in Keion Bell had been added as transfers to become eligible the next season. With those commitments the new staff turned their attention to the future and incoming freshman. In August, the Nevin Shapiro scandal rocked Miami and Haith was implicated from his recruitment of DeQuan Jones. MU failed to give any kind of vote of confidence or support, and the new staff was left in limbo for almost two years while the NCAA worked towards a resolution.

Here is a post from Killer (former moderator on this site) on September 7, 2011 (archives no longer go back that far so I'll just post the content):

"Certainly, almost all these top 100 kids we were in on are Fuller's recruits, but the reason everyone has dropped Mizzou from consideration is the situation of uncertainty without a public vote of confidence for Haith and the coaching staff. Labor day weekend was really the time frame this needed to be resolved and when it wasn't, these kids and their families had to start scheduling in home visits for next week without Mizzou on the list. Here is who we apparently lost out on. And yes, I'm 100% sure this info is accurate.

#6 Rodney Purvis, #7 Anthony Bennett, #11 Jarnell Stokes, #15 Danuel House, #47 Chicken Knowles, #59 Montay Brandon, #77 DeMarquise Johnson

We wouldn't have gotten all these kids, but there are two of them that were really in the bag for the most part, and two others that we had a great shot at. There was little doubt this was going to be a huge pull with all the scholarships we had to offer. At this point, it appears that it's up in flames and I'm told there is no getting back in."

Instead we got Ryan Rosburg, Stefan Jankovic, Negus Webster-Chan, Dominique Bull, and Tony Criswell (JUCO). That is a pretty big difference. That meant 2013-14 was right back to a rebuilding year (although one with 23 wins, seems like a long time ago such a season could be considered rebuilding at MU). Tiger basketball never recovered. Just like Alden's lack of spine caused MU bb to crater in 2004, in an understated way he did it again to an even more problematic degree in 2011.

Edited by FIJItiger at 14:11:38 on 03/22/21