Kim Anderson fends off hot seat questions on weekly SEC teleconference

Despite the holiday, the SEC’s Monday basketball teleconference went on as planned yesterday. You’ll never believe what Kim Anderson was asked about!

Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Post-Dispatch:

“We haven’t had any specific conversations about any particular goals I have to meet or the team has to meet,” Anderson said on the SEC teleconference. “The one thing that has impressed me about Jim Sterk is that he lets coaches do their jobs. I’m sure there’s an ongoing evaluation process, as there is with every coach in the country. For me he’s been great. And I’ve enjoyed working with him and Brian. We’re just looking forward to playing LSU on Wednesday night.”

The Trib:

“Maybe not all coaches are like this, but I think a lot of them are — I think coaches are always concerned about their jobs,” Anderson said. “I’ve been concerned about my job every day since I walked onto the campus of the University of Central Missouri” in 2002. “The only day I wasn’t worried about my job was the day after we won the national championship. I felt pretty solid that day.”

KC Star:

The on-court struggles have been compounded by a flood of player exits, the latest being freshman forward Willie Jackson’s decision to transfer after only one semester, which seemingly cranks up the temperature a few degrees more on Anderson’s hot seat.

“I don’t really let that consume me,” Anderson said. “I’ve got a great group of young men here. We’re going to coach them and they’ve been working hard. We’ll just see where that takes us.”

There’s absolutely nothing a coach can say here that will be profound. Job security is indeed a constant in-the-back-of-your-head issue for most coaches, I’m sure Jim Sterk is indeed nice to work with, and, though you could definitely say that the hot seat consumed Quin Snyder way back when, I’m sure Anderson is indeed working hard to coach his guys and move forward.

I left this quote out above, by the way: “It wasn’t like we got blown out by 35 points every single game. I think we competed.” That one, I could have probably done without.

SEC play begins tomorrow night with a home game against LSU. Frankie Hughes will suit up, for whatever that’s worth to you.

Other Links

• Mizzou Wrestling finished second in the Southern Scuffle, far behind top-ranked Oklahoma State but ahead of No. 9 Lehigh, No. 13 Minnesota, and the rest of the field. Everything played out according to plan, in other words, though the Tigers needed J’den Cox’s 197-pound title to assure second place.
• PowerMizzou talked to 2018 St. Louis blue-chipper Trevor Trout, who is in no hurry to shut down his recruitment (nor should he be).
• This was repeatedly popping up on my Twitter timeline last night, and it made me laugh every single damn time.