I know I said I was going to talk about men's basketball but really, you can't write about the end of a season if you aren't sure you still have a coach after it's ended. I think that Mike Anderson is staying at Missouri, but I certainly wouldn't bet the mortgage on it. And frankly, you don't, under any circumstances pay him more than you're paying Gary Pinkel, who's won 48 games in the last 5 seasons. You just don't. It's a tight rope that Mike Alden is walking here and seeing that it's the third year in a row he's had to walk it, I imagine he's getting pretty damn tired of it. Mike Anderson has done a lot of things right, but I'm not going to pay him like you would a Bill Self, Roy Williams or Coach K yet. I imagine if you were privy to Alden he'd tell you there are a million things he'd rather be doing than going through rumors every year that his basketball coach is being pursued by others with open check books.
One thing I know he'd like to talk about right now is the women's softball team and their coach Ehren Earleywine. The Lady Tigers currently sit at 21-3 and on a 18 game winning streak. After the 3-3 start which was made up of mostly warm weather teams while the Tigers were forced into training inside, they've been on fire. The conference season will be starting soon and we'll get a better look at how the ladies stack up against some pretty good competition. But the pre-season hopes of a conference title and a long run in the college softball world series look possible once again.
Chelsea Thomas and Kristin Nottelmann are both appearing to be unhittable right now and the Tigers are averaging over 6 runs a game with Ashley Fleming, Rhea Taylor, Jenna Marston and Nicole Hudson leading the way. It's going to be really interesting to watch from this point, as the team at this point appears to be serious contenders to go all the way with their balance and youth. And while I'm not that big a softball fan, it's a hell of a lot more fun to talk about than basketball.
