Mizzou and CM in many ways are basically the same

Posted on: August 5, 2019 at 16:29:45 CT

Just reflecting on some of the comments below and in the past on the Mizzou program and also CM’s coaching ability. My feeling is they are a match that could benefit each. This is not to say it’s a perfect match or other coaches wouldn’t do better. I do think the main thing at this point that has hurt both is stability. In Mizzou’s case the 30 plus years stability Norm provided as well as his ability, help to catapult it into national respectability and relevancy. In the 20 years since Norm left there have been 5 coaches. The longest tenure was 7 years, then 5, then 2 coaches with 3 years. That time has been a roller coaster ride of relevancy with the end result of being a middle of the road program. The view from the outside and in some way the inside is it’s been even less than that because of occurrences over the last maybe 6 years. That fully encompasses recruits you are after now back to when they were about 12 years old in some cases.


There have been questions as to whether CM is a good coach or not. The answer from my position is it’s incomplete. Sure there are little nuances and strategies we might judge. However, his now 11 year coaching career has been mostly marked by the same instability as Mizzou’s 20 year history since Norm. He has never coached any program more than 3 years. The result of that is he’s never coached a team full of his players. As our classes are laid out, that won’t happen at Mizzou until 2021 unless Mitch Smith leaves after this season, along with Nikko's graduation, as a grad transfer. So in this program, how fair is it really to judge his complete coaching ability before maybe this season where 13 of the 15 scholarship players he has brought in. He is 1 of 3 coaches, including Norm, to take over this program in a moribund state. The other is Mike Anderson. Generally speaking if you look across the college basketball landscape it takes at least 3 years to come out of that. Norm and Mike didn’t do badly. For all of the hand wringing, CM hasn’t either thus far. Sure there are a few fans who want to qualify and asterisk that 1st year using the Porters but when history looks back it will only see how the program went from 9, 10 and 8 wins the previous 3 seasons to 20 and an NCAA berth. If the team has a good year it will only bolster that and will help to validate his recruiting (however he got them short of violations) and his ability. As I’ve said before it’s about more than the coach as an individual it’s also the school and culture. So my hope is for longer than 7 years of stability with a successful climb back up that mountain of relevancy and respectability for Mizzou and CM.