Coming off Missouri’s latest loss to a sub-.500 Arkansas team, there may not be a lot of hope for the Tigers to get another win this season. Despite all the problems associated with the Mizzou basketball program (and there have been many), it is time for Missouri Athletic Director Mack Rhoades to publicly voice his support for head coach Kim Anderson.
The longer that Rhoades remains silent about his basketball coach’s future, the more questions and negativity will continue to swirl around a program that has rarely had a ray of sunshine in the past three years. Kim Anderson took his dream job after Frank Haith failed to build a consistent winner and bolted to Tulsa with NCAA violations left in his path. It is now clear that Anderson was not hired to win, but instead to try to build program morale and to position the team for future success after cleaning it up his way.
The lack of confidence from the athletic department could hamstring Anderson’s recruiting prowess going forward. He has already done a good job keeping players like Jakeenan Gant and Namon Wright to stick around despite committing to a different coach. Given time to implement his system with his players, Anderson could become the coach that Missouri has been looking for since Norm Steward retired in 1999.
