I'll take coaches you've never heard of for $500.00 Alex...

This wasn't the hire I expected.  It wasn't what anyone expected.  A week ago we were talking about stealing Matt Painter from Purdue and now we wind up with a guy that many of us never heard of.  Now to be fair, I really don't recall hearing much about Painter either, but a lot of people that I respect think this is nothing short of a bad hire.  Since being hired as the head man in Miami Haith has compiled a record of 129-101 (43-69 in conference) in the tough ACC.  He's taken the Hurricanes to 1 NCAA tournament and frankly, appears to be mediocre at best.  The talking heads have been pounding AD Mike Alden over this hire, led by former Tiger great Jon Sunvold who's disliked Alden since Norm Stewart was relieved of his duties in 1999.

Not since the day that Mike Anderson was announced as coach have I felt like Alden's job was in more jeopardy than it is today.  I've always defended Alden.  I think he's improved the overall athletic department incredibly, but you know, sometimes it's just best to move on.  That time may be coming for Mike, and frankly, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.  He's be accused of micro-managing the sports programs and there are indications that has been true, at least as far a men's basketball is concerned.  I remember when the youngest Rush brother was deciding on which school to attend and Alden over rode then coach Quin Snyder and forbid him to come to Mizzou.  Rush went to ku and played on their last national title team in 2008.  The firing of Snyder was handled as badly as it could have been, and even an Alden supporter like myself can't defend that.  You never hear any complaints from Alden's cadillac hire, Gary Pinkel, but the fact is that in the AD heirarchy Pinkel is the 600 lb gorilla in the room.

As for the Haith hire, there's a BOC teleconference this evening, presumably to discuss the final language on his contract.  I expect it to be resolved and we'll hear Haith announced as the 17th head coach of Missouri basketball tomorrow.  But, it wouldn't surprise me if we hear later tonight that Alden has been terminated and now we're looking for a new AD as well as restarting the coaching search.  I don't really think it is a good idea, but you know, I don't know that it's all bad either.

Fire Mike Alden?

I knew it would happen.  After the Lyin' Mike Anderson packed his bags and scurried off to Arkansas and MU swang and missed on Matt Painter, the Mike Alden haters came out in full force.  If you read message boards, and I read a lot of them, you'll hear people bitching about how embarrassed they are that Alden is the head of the athletic department at the school they claim to love.  Now if you've read this blog often, or much at all for that matter, then you know I'm an Alden fan.  I've met him several times and have always been treated very well, and no, I'm not a huge $$$ booster by any means.  I just happen to believe that he's done a very good job at a place where it isn't easy to have success considering the financial restraints the university operates under.

Alden took over as athletic director on July 16th, 1998 after Joe Castiglione left for greener pastures in Norman, Oklahoma citing a lack of support from an administration that had deemed that athletics simply weren't important enough compared with the academics the university wanted to be known for.  It had been a problem since the 70's when then chancellor Barbara (Babs) Uehling basically ran Dan Devine out of CoMO, giving him zero support.  That started a 30 year slide of Missouri football.  When he arrived there was sort of a mini revival under then head coach Larry Smith, but that was dying just as he arrived, and some of the worst losses in memory happened during his last 2 years.  All Alden did was go out and hire an unknown guy from Toledo named Gary Pinkel to take over and he's going to be the winningest coach in Missouri history by the time he retires.      

Several things have happened, at least in my opinion that have turned a portion of the fan base against Alden.  The first was the firing of Norm Stewart after he spent 32 years coaching the Tigers.  Now I loved Norm.  He was about all we had during those dark days of the football program, but he'd lost his zest for coaching and it was really time for him to go.  It also brought a 25 million dollar donation from Bill Laurie toward the construction of Mizzou Arena, one of the finest basketball venue's in the country.  Sadly, it also brough Quin Snyder from Duke, who spent 7 years dragging down the program until, he was fired in a clumsy manner, that, again in my opinion was the lowlight of Alden's career.  A segment of the fans also blame him for the Big Ten expansion last summer, but anyone that really follows how these things work should know that was something being decided by people way over Alden's pay grade.

Right now, the basketball program is absolutely in a perilous position.  No coach and no recruits courtesy of Mike Anderson.  But the majority of sports are doing quite well, and Alden has made some good if not great hires in addition to Coach Pinkel.  I know it isn't a popular notion right now, but I have faith in Alden to make a good hire.  The fact of the matter is, that with the fan support, Missouri just isn't perceived to be as good a job as many of us feel that it is.  I hope things are going well, and want to thank you guys for reading.  I've been averaging over 2,500 hits a month on this blog and am starting to do better at my website, merlinsedge.com.  In addition to the stores, I've added a news and sports page titled current events.  It's full of articles and columns about Mizzou athletics by real writers like Mike DeArmond and his son Gabe who runs an excellent Missouri site, PowerMizzou, as well as guys like Bryan Burwell and Bernie Miklasz from St Louis today.  Please stop by and let me know what you think.  It's still a work in progress, but I'm actually pretty happy with how it's turning out.

Missouri basketball. Where do we go now?

I was wrong.  I didn't expect to be writing this.  I thought Mike Anderson, in the end would have decided to stay in Columbia but now he's headed to Fayetteville to be the new head coach at Arkansas.  As would be expected, Tiger nation is in something of an uproar, while hog fan swarms to Missouri message boards to whoop "PIG SOOEY" to anyone that will listen.  I'm going to resist giving my opinion of  Anderson.  If you care about Missouri sports then I probably share yours.  We bought into his words about family, ethics and trust and were rewarded with lies.  But it's not the time to delve into cursing, moaning and tears.  The question is, where do we go from here?  You have a team that will feature 7 seniors next year and not 1 recruit coming in yet.  There's an excellent chance that the one guy you were in on, Otto Porter will now take his talent to kansas to play for Bill Self and the beaks.  It's sad times if your a Tiger fan.

So where does Mike Alden begin?  The program still has a shiny arena and some talent for next year.  It's important that a coach be brought in quickly that has some recruiting acumen.  There are 3 openings and precious little talent to be had at this point.  But next year, recruiting will be critical if the program is to continue the success that the last staff began.  There is Melvin Watkins, the associate head coach who's been considered to be the lead recruiter.  I know some believe he should just be promoted, since he brought some talent to A&M during his tenure.  But he also coached that talent to an 0-16 record his final season before he was fired.  In my opinion, Watkins would be the only guy I'd even consider keeping, but I think a new guy needs to be brought in, and he should be given somewhat free reign in bringing in his own assistants.  I think it would be better to just cut bait with the rest of the staff and move on.

I've got no idea where Alden begins to look.  It's Missouri, and as we've seen, we just aren't considered a destination job.  There doesn't seem to be the passion we have for football, and frankly there never was.  Even during Norm's heyday there were lots of open seats in Section D at Hearnes arena.  We were just blessed to have a good coach that bled black and gold, and was able to overlook the tepid support when the opponent wasn't kansas.  Will the Tigers be able to find such a guy?  I have no idea if any of Stewart's former players is coaching now, other than Kim Anderson at UCM, or Larry Drew who's currently an NBA assistant.  I might talk about some guys that are potential candidates, but I might not.  Frankly, the past week has kind of soured me on the program in much the same way I felt when Quin Snyder left.