MU bb has 2 monumental program killing blunders this century
Posted on: April 22, 2021 at 12:39:33 CT
FIJItiger
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and otherwise is easily a top 25 program. That is why trying to assess its stature simplistically and with no context leads to uninformed conclusions.
MU ended the Norm era ranked 24th, 2nd in the Big 12, and in the 8/9 game as at at large bid. It was the kind of underwhelming season result at the time that led to a coaching transition.
The first season under Quin was rough and our roster was rather inadequate. MU only won 18 games and again got bounced in the 8/9 game of the NCAA Tourney. That was not a top 25 caliber team but there was overwhelming reasons for future optimism.
MU was then a top 25 caliber team under Quin going forward.
Then towards the midseason of 2004, in an act of self preservation our AD and others completely threw the program under the bus and cratered it. It was one of the most pronounced momumental program collapses in modern college basketball history, and MU was dreadful and couldn't recover until 2008.
Starting in 2008 Mike Anderson had successfully rebuilt MU basketball and it returned to being an every year top 25 caliber program.
Then in 2014 MU gave up on seriously competing in men's basketball and made the most ludicrous hire in college basketball history. The program has not yet recovered.
But there are two huge self inflicted periods where MU basketball cratered, and beyond that only seasons where MU was a top 25 caliber program. Its the wild fluctuations between those states that I suppose can lead lower information fans to conclude the macro level view is representative of the actual long term state of the program.
Edited by FIJItiger at 12:42:22 on 04/22/21