A parallel, see if any of this strikes you as familiar

Posted on: February 26, 2021 at 13:22:08 CT

In late Jan 2002 MU was a top 20 nationally ranked team with a 14-4 record having won 4 of their last 5, before being unexpectedly crushed on the road against OU. Despite a strong initial start to conference play the Tigers would fall into the middle of the pack and finish 6th in the Big 12 conference race, falling entirely out of the national rankings. The season would be characterized as massively disappointing and frustrating with the general perception being very poor offensive structure, lack of valuing possessions, very shaky pg play, an inability to consistently feed the post, and a preposterous amount of 3pt attempts.

MU stumbled to the finish line, barely securing an at large big with a #12 seed, the last major conference program to get a bid. From there 3 things changed drastically:

1. MU benched pg Wesley Stokes and moved shooting guard Clarence Gilbert into the primary ball handling duties

2. Justin Gage was given a considerably bigger role despite his offensive limitations to inject some toughness and hustle

3. Arthur Johnson was more of a focal point than previously and got more post touches

That sparked an improbable run resulting in the first ever 12 seed advancing to the Elite Eight and narrowly losing to that OU team to fall short of the Final Four. I think most agree that in large part that run occurred in spite of MU's coaching, not because of it. But those three changes did originate from the coaching staff.

For MU to reverse its fortunes the remainder of this season, what changes need to be implemented that are realistic which are either minor adjustments or considerable differences?

Edited by FIJItiger at 13:23:46 on 02/26/21