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1. The Long Way Home for Kim Anderson
From the Trib
Kim Anderson long dreamed of coaching the Missouri basketball team after spending a combined 15 years at MU as a player and assistant coach.
But less than a month ago, while appearing on a local radio show after leading Central Missouri to the NCAA Division II national title, Anderson — who interviewed for the job but didn't get it after Norm Stewart retired in 1999 and was passed over twice more without serious consideration in 2006 and 2011 — dismissed the possibility he would ever get that chance.
Shortly after Monday’s closed executive session of the UM System Board of Curators, Mizzou announced that Anderson, fresh off winning a Division II national championship, will be the program’s 18th head coach. Anderson, 58, played for Missouri from 1974-77 and coached on Norm Stewart’s MU staff from 1982-85 and from 1991-99.
Cracking one-liners and seemingly at ease despite a row of TV cameras and an audience that spilled out the doors of the Great Room at the Reynolds Alumni Center, Kim Anderson was introduced Tuesday as Missouri’s 18th men’s basketball coach.
The Saturday before last, Kim Anderson took his bike to the Katy Trail in Windsor. It was a nice day and he wanted to ride 10 miles toward Greenridge.
After about four miles, Anderson's phone rang. The number was unfamiliar to him.
Kim Anderson answered the toughest question before it could even be asked. The 18th coach in Missouri basketball history ascended the few stairs of the assembled stage, shook his new boss's hand and posed for a picture with his college jersey. He then stepped to the podium and said, "It took a long time to get up those stairs. It took almost fifteen years."
2. Editorials from Columnists
It's hard to quantify why Kim Anderson is the right guy to coach the Missouri basketball team. The ideal hire probably wouldn't be a 58-year-old man who has spent the last 12 years coaching at the Division II level when any number of bigger names were out there.
I can only tell you why I feel Kim Anderson is the right man to coach the Missouri basketball team. And the place to start is to tell you how I felt at the end of the Frank Haith era.
I felt nothing.
Bernie from the PD wants you to give him a chance
Right up front, let me say I have immense personal respect for Kim Anderson. He's one of the finest people I've encountered in my nearly 30 years here at the newspaper. A man of integrity, kindness, confidence, underrated toughness, and abundant humility. So I support the hire and wish Coach Anderson the best. As belated as it may be, he deserves this opportunity. I'm truly happy for him.
Vahe notes the circuitous path back to CoMO
You might have been able to fool him once or twice or three times before … but not indefinitely. Charlie Brown, somehow, finally had caught on to Lucy.
Burwell likes this hire...run for the hills!!!
The hiring of the right coach is far more art than science. There are no perfect formulas that guarantee success, no definitive profile that ensures the making of an X’s and O’s genius who’s certain to deliver you five-star recruits and endless Final Four trips.
Fran "Pressure is Cumulative" Fraschilla thinks the hire makes perfect sense
I know this for a fact — very few of the national media guys who may be bashing this hire have any idea the level of play the MIAA (Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association) play. It’s essentially a low Division I league. It’s no different than if Kim was coaching at Missouri-Kansas City. In fact, I would think that they had a better team at Central Missouri than UMKC this season.
3. Winning the News Conference
Gordo notes what many have, Kim killed it yesterday
New Missouri basketball coach Kim Anderson gave a winning performance during his introductory news conference.
This came as no surprise to anybody who followed Anderson through his playing days into his coaching and administrative career. He may not be the hot coaching commodity that Gregg Marshall is these days, but he is a much bigger personality.
Kim Anderson was brought to Missouri to win tournament games, but first he had to win the news conference.
On Tuesday morning, he spoke publicly for the first time since being hired as Missouri men’s basketball coach.
The Trib provides the Full Transcript
Kim Anderson was introduced as the 18th men's basketball coach in Missouri history on Tuesday afternoon. Here is a transcript of the press conference provided by Missouri
On Tuesday morning, Anderson — speaking to media and fans for the first time as the new Missouri coach — said his future Tigers teams will use a similar defense-first approach.
"It may be 2014, but smart, disciplined, hard-nosed team basketball never goes out of style," Anderson said. "We play a team-oriented approach centered around defense."
4. Pot pourri of other Anderson Hire Links
The first coach on Ryan Rosburg's wish list when Frank Haith left for Tulsa nearly two weeks ago was the one who ended up standing behind the lectern at the Reynolds Alumni Center on Tuesday morning.
He's the one Rosburg already knew from going to camps at Central Missouri, an emblem of the Norm Stewart era of Missouri basketball that Rosburg joked he nearly got sick of hearing about over the past decade from his high school coach, Shane Matzen, who was a student manager under Stewart.
Fuller is not sure what he's doing...
Tim Fuller, who's been by Frank Haith's side the past three seasons in Columbia, two of them as the Missouri basketball team's associate head coach, was in the audience at Reynolds Alumni Center Tuesday morning to see Kim Anderson introduced as Haith's successor.
Afterward, he talked about his own uncertain future which could remaining on Anderson's staff in Columbia, pursuing his first head coaching opportunity at Florida A&M or moving on as an assistant elsewhere.
5. Multimedia
Old and New Tigers react to the hire
It's a big ole homecoming for Kim Anderson
6. Mizzou Football
There's depth at WR: Even without dismissed star Dorial Green-Beckham, Missouri has talent at receiver. Bud Sasser and Jimmie Hunt say they're ready to take over now that the Tigers have lost their top three wideouts.
The SEC vs the Big 5 (not the Sporting Goods store)
The SEC voted Sunday to include a new provision in its football scheduling structure that will require each of its teams to play at least one team from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12 in regular season play every year starting in 2016.
7. Mizzou Baseball
Mizzou needs extras but takes down SEMO in 11
Fifth-year senior Eric Anderson (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) provided the heroics for Mizzou (20-24), driving in two runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings and scoring on his own triple with an error in the 11th, giving the Tigers a 6-5 extra-inning win over SEMO (29-15) on Tuesday (April 29) at Taylor Stadium.
8. Our Stubble is too much for the McDermotts
Mizzou sweeps Creighton in a double header in pretty bad ass camo unis
Despite cold and rainy conditions, No. 13 Mizzou Softball (40-13) swept its doubleheader against Creighton (26-23) on Tuesday at University Field. The first game was all offense and the Tigers prevailed with an 11-6 victory, while the second game was a pitcher's duel with both starters finishing the game and head coach Ehren Earleywine's squad coming out on top with a 2-1 win.
9. Women's Track Team is having an AMAZING season
MU is in the Top-15 (which is good enough for 8th in the SEC...)
Kearsten Peoples also wins a SEC of-the-week Award
10. Time to Get your Nerd on!