Missouri basketball coaching search: An incredibly quiet search comes to an end (maybe)

Happy Coachgiving, everybody. I cannot believe we still don't know anything.

At 1:00 p.m. today, the Curators will meet, presumably to discuss (i.e. approve) a salary offer for Missouri's next head basketball coach. We know from family members that Ben Howland has basically gone on radio silence over the last couple of days. We know from media members that Kim Anderson basically went on radio silence yesterday. We know that, because of the level of extreme silence, there's still the distinct possibility that the next coach is neither Howland nor Anderson.

And hell, for all we (don't) know, the Curators will approve offers to multiple individuals, with an actual hiring decision still to come down the line. I can't imagine that will happen, but we technically don't know that it won't.

This is nuts. Again, Missouri has done a spectacular job of keeping this thing a secret. And again, I want to punch everybody in the face for it.

My gut still says Howland is the leader in the clubhouse, but I don't feel secure enough in that to even lay down a $5 dollar bet. Last night we saw a fresh batch of SOURCES!! (like, for some reason, the Central Methodist women's basketball coach) tweeting that Anderson was the man, so ... yeah. This is nuts. I said I was leaning 50% Howland, 30% Anderson, 20% Other yesterday. That changed to about 60-20-20 yesterday evening ... and then the latest round of Twitter rumbles pushed it back to about 50-30-20. Or hell, maybe 40-20-40.

And once again, I'M GETTING ON A DAMN PLANE AT 1:05 P.M., AND I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE DAMN COACH IS BEFORE THEN. There's a solid chance at this point that we won't know anything more before the meeting begins, and we won't learn anything until after the meeting ends. So hey, maybe we find out during my layover. But my goodness, I want to know before then.

Jakeenan Gant kind of possibly sort of almost leaked something yesterday

Early yesterday evening, Mizzou signee Jakeenan Gant posted "I like my bio now" on Twitter. Here's his bio:

Starving for any sort of leak, any sort of clue, we took that post to mean any number of things...

1. Gant was told who the coach will be and that Tim Fuller was going to stay on staff. Gant has said he'll stay for sure if Fuller stays, so there you go. This doesn't offer us any hints toward Howland vs. Anderson vs. Other, but it's something.

2. Gant was told who the coach will be and likes that guy enough to stay, Fuller or no Fuller. In theory, this would increase the odds of either Howland or Other; nothing against Kim Anderson, but his name obviously doesn't carry the same national cachet at the moment.

3. Gant was told Tim Fuller's going to be the head coach. As much as anything could surprise me at this point, that would surprise me at least a little bit.

4. Gant really enjoys severe weather.

5. Gant loves Springfield, Ga.

About an hour later, Gant posted "I hope nobody get the wrong impression." And then we parsed that. Was that some ass-covering? (He got a little too close to leaking info, and nobody's allowed to leak info.) Was that a sign that people misunderstood his declaration of love for Springfield, Ga.? Was he quoting something he had seen 15 seconds earlier on television? As a former 18-year old male, I can say that 18-year old males aren't known for definitive communication or strong attention spans. It could have meant anything, but again, we're starving here. Whatever crumb we find, we're devouring it like ants near a trash can.

So yeah, the only information we got yesterday was that we almost got a piece of information.

That will almost certainly change today ... but there's still a chance for some sort of "Curators approve salary offer, then everybody goes back underground until tomorrow" scenario. As Gabe Dearmond pointed out this morning ($), and as others have mentioned as well, if Missouri is hiring the current head coach of another school, he'll pretty much have to tell his team/boss by this evening if he gets an official offer. And if it's Ben Howland, he has nobody to officially tell, so the news could stay silent for even longer. But regardless, I feel confident in saying that, at some point between now and the beginning of the next basketball season, Missouri will have a coach. So we've got that going for us.