A few (or many) thoughts on the current state of the program

Posted on: November 29, 2016 at 09:18:18 CT

Our transformation is nearly complete. This was never about a rebuild and the notion that we have been rebuilding is preposterous. We are transitioning into a DII program, and that has occurred at a faster rate than I think most believed would be possible. What we have now in terms of talent, coaching, fan support, and commitment to the program would make a very good team at the CMSU level and possibly even a championship level team. Unfortunately instead we play in the SEC and have an abundance of resources at our disposal and face considerably stiffer competition.

To that end, the only development that has been the least bit surprising about this journey is how poorly coached we have been and how little preparation/effort the staff puts forth. Everything else was entirely predictable and it would have been a rather surprising development had it turned out any other way. Its not that there are no comparable examples of a hire of this type working out, there are no comparable examples of a hire of this type even being made in the modern history of college basketball. And its not like we plucked an unproven but tapped with potential hidden gem from the DII ranks, taking a huge gamble that he could succeed at this level and grow into the job. We hired someone who last was associated with a D1 program last century in the maturity stages of their career who knows nothing else other than how to build a solid DII caliber program. I did not, and I think most would concur, expect in addition to all the obvious limitations that the actual coaching would be so inept and that such a low amount of effort would be put toward this opportunity. MU can now serve as an example to all programs what a mistake that kind of thinking can result in.

This is what the next staff will be inheriting: a roster devoid of any SEC level difference makers and questionable if there are any SEC level quality starters, a program on probation that is also being investigated if they further violated their probation, APR issues that hamstring their ability to rebuild, fan apathy to the tune of about 4,000 average attendance, historical levels of losing and lowered expectations, massive roster turnover and attrition, and serious questions about a commitment to fielding a competitive program. This will not be a quick rebuild, and MU will have to pay considerably beyond the Kim era for a mistake of this magnitude.

Each offseason we freak out about how inadequate our roster building is and how difficult it would be for even a very good staff to be competitive given the talent level. But that just distracts from the real issue, which moves to the forefront once we start playing games again…..we are simply atrociously coached and prepared. Our offensive design is entirely inadequate and does not generate quality shots, our spacing and movement is very poor, and about the only consistency year in and year out is always coming out unprepared. There simply is no identity, nothing we do well, and it has been that way for 3 years now. Players regress, roles are never established, buy in starts to wane, and the product amazingly gets worse as the season progresses.

This is a very competitive industry filled with very talented and driven individuals. You can’t just want to succeed and it happens. It requires the proper skill set, ability, and determination of which our staff simply does not have it. Of course they aren’t going to succeed at this level. We have the least qualified and competent head coach, paired with the least qualified and competent supporting staff, paired with the least talented and experienced roster. Its not a recipe for success, its not even a recipe for achieving mediocrity.

I still think when we step back years from now, the UMKC loss will be viewed as the worst home loss in program history although there will certainly be aspects to argue for on behalf of this game. Its simply preposterous that in both cases we didn’t lose to hot shooting teams who surprisingly beat us via a buzzer beater or fluke play, but that came on our home court and dominated us from start to finish simply by playing an average game because they were not overwhelmed with our talent and because they were much better coached and prepared than us.

Lets say you took 13 successful CEO’s a various major Fortune 500 companies and entered them in a competition where they were given hypothetical organizations with various characteristics of strengths and weaknesses to run. And you additionally entered a successful regional manager of a division of McDonalds into that competition as the 14th entry, gave him a hypothetical organization with a huge amount of weaknesses and a limited amount of strengths. Its theoretically possible that the McDonald’s regional manager could vastly exceed expectations and finish in the middle of the pack of such a competition and show a comparable degree of competence to his opponents, but such a result would be both surprising and illogical to expect. More than likely he would finish dead last and be completely overwhelmed and overmatched. That isn’t an unexpected result at all. I think we all have to admit it would have been a pretty shockingly positive development for Kim to have not failed as MU’s head coach given the job criteria and the ultra competitive nature of the position. He was simply promoted considerably beyond his competence level into a role he had neither the skill set or the connections or the vision or the drive to succeed at. It was a huge and unprecedented gamble without much of an opportunity for a payoff, but it would have made a great story if it worked. It just didn’t, at any level.

That said, it isn’t Kim’s fault that someone stupidly offered him this opportunity and I don’t think its fair to begrudge him for seizing that opportunity to try and realize his dream job. Its completely fair that he has gotten to pretend to be a D1 coach for a few years and travel around the state being congratulated for his good fortune. I think most of us rightly felt a good deal of sympathy towards him watching this all play out because he is a good guy, his press conferences have always reminded me a lot of Romeo Crennel’s during his time with the Chiefs where he consistently expresses frustrations that he doesn’t even understand why things aren’t working or what to do differently given how completely in over his head he is. But he does have to go to sleep every night knowing he is simply killing MU basketball, and destroying the life’s work of his mentor Norm Stewart. At the end of last season, there is nobody in the world who knew he was less able to succeed at this job than Kim Anderson himself. And yet for the opportunity to essentially steal another million dollars from the program he professes to love and the University from which he holds 2 degrees he came back for another round of pretending to be a D1 coach. I don’t have sympathy for that, and I think he will rightfully and justifiably be remembered for a long time as doing the seemingly impossible task of surpassing Vanatta as the worst coach in program history and turning a program that had a considerable amount of competitive advantages in the SEC into a complete afterthought and source of embarrassment. The decision we need a new coach should be on nobody’s shoulders other than Kim Anderson, he knows better than anyone he can’t get it done and professes to care a great deal for this program.