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.

Opening day and the search continues

Baseball season in Kansas City begins Thursday at 3:10 as the Royals take on the Los Angeles Angels at Kauffman Stadium.  Coming off a 95 loss season in '10, Ned Yost begins the season as manager and mercifully ends the Trey Hillman era.  But after you've sat through Bob Boone and Tony Pena, you're used to seeing scratch your head decisions.  Yost has experienced some limited success while managing the Milwaukee Brewers, going 512 wins against 574 losses from 2003 to 2008.  However, he took over a terrible team and brought them to respectability going with young players.  Ironically he was fired late in the season in 2008 with his team playing good ball.  I don't think Yost, at 55 is going to suddenly make you a world series contender, but he seems to do well with young players, and that's where the Royals are going to be, starting this season.  4 rookies in the bullpen, including former Missouri Tiger, Aaron Crow.  Luke Hochevar draws the opening day start.  I had pretty high hopes when he was drafted, but really haven't seen any consistancy from him yet.  I'd like to get excited but really can't.  Starting pitching is weak, some journeymen guys were acquired.  When the season starts to slip away, which could happen in May, I expect to see some young guys start to come up. 

Some guys had some nice stats during spring training.  Those really don't mean much but this is a big year for some guys that fans and the team had high hopes for when they were signed.  One of those is Alex Gordon, drafted in 2007 from hick nation.  He was a top 5 pick that has been pretty disappointing so far.  But I really like this kid and hope that he breaks open this year.  He's playing left field now, which has to be easier than playing 3rd base.  I still think this kid has the talent to hit .280 with 15 homers and 70-80 ribbies.  Billy Butler turns 25 on April 18th.  I expect him to DH more this year.  He's another kid that I'm hoping for a big improvement in.  But this starting rotation scares me to death, and we're counting on a lot of guys matching their biggest years ever, and that wasn't last year.  Mike Aviles is a great guy to have on your team.  He's not great when he's your starting 3rd baseman.  Early prediction...I go to more games this season than in the past 5.  The Royals fade early and we see young talent start to be brought in.  Probably looking at a record of 68-94 this year though, and Yost will be on a much shorter leash next year.

And switching gears, it's been a rough week for Missouri basketball fans as their # 1 target, Matt Painter of Purdue decided to remain after the Boilermakers upped his salary close to one million dollars over what he was previously being paid.  I assume that a portion of the fan base is going to blame athletic director Mike Alden for failing to land Painter, and for the fact that the news got out that he was attempting to hire him.  We'll also have a percentage of fans that will say Painter was doing nothing more than using the Tigers to garner a raise for himself.  I don't agree with either sentiment, but we're Tiger fans, so that's how it's going to play out.  Now Mizzou has to continue it's search, and I frankly have no idea where it goes, but I do know that regardless it's going to be ugly on the Missouri message boards.   

Are there any "mid majors" anymore?

I had a great little post written that I intended to roll out about how much I was starting to think Cuonzo Martin of Missouri State would make a great hire.  Then, before I could even get the damn thing out he goes and takes the job at Tennessee, a program facing sanctions from the NCAA for the past transgressions of former coach Bruce Pearl.  That being said, I have my doubts Martin was going to get an interview as all reports seem to indicate that Mizzou's first choice is current Purdue head man Matt Painter.  While that still seems a bit strange to me, apparently Painter has expressed interest in leaving the school he played for and assisted under his mentor, Gene Keady.  It seems that there may be some friction between Painter and athletic director Morgan Burke.  So, although I don't know that I consider Painter to be the home run hire that some do, I have to remember that I don't really follow basketball closely enough to be any sort of authority on who Mike Alden should or shouldn't hire.

One guy I do know that suddenly hit the lottery yesterday is VCU coach Shaka Smart, as his rams pulled off yet another upset, beating top seeded kansas 71-61 in a game that really wasn't as close as the score indicated.  His team now will meet last years Cinderella, Butler in one semifinal game next weekend with the winner playing against the winner of Kentucky/UConn for the national championship.  We've had these so called "mid majors" getting close and frankly, I kind of hope one of them wins it all this year.  With so many good players around now, and so many good young coaches, there's no reason one of these upstarts shouldn't bring home the hardware.  Smart or Butler head coach Brad Stevens would both look good cutting down the nets as far as I'm concerned.

On the other side of the bracket, we've got the Huskies of UConn, coached by Jim Calhoun facing Kentucky and their head man John Calipari going at each other.  The best part of this match up is one of the cocksuckers is going down.  As far as I'm concerned, they're 2 of the biggest reasons to cheer for the underdogs, along with ku coach Bill Self and Carolina's Roy Williams.
So the coaching search continues and if we don't hear anything by Wednesday or Thursday, it's likely we won't hear anything until the final 4 ends.  There's an unwritten rule about teams doing anything to take the spotlight away from the 4 teams in the championship round.  I probably should care more about the upcoming hire, but I can't say that I do right now.  I do know that I hope we see a coach standing on a stepladder a week from tonight that makes America say, "Who the hell is that guy?" 
If you'd like to get some stories on Missouri from some pretty darned good journalists, I'm attempting to consolidate some daily to keep you informed.  I'll be adding a Big XII section as well as serious news as well as the bizarre.  Drop by my website and head to "Current Events" to catch the thoughts of Mike and Gabe DeArmond, Bryan Burwell, Dave Matter and others.

The coaching search. Let the hysteria begin.

The Tigers are about 72 hours into the search for a new basketball coach.  I try to stay on top of things happening in the AD, but I'm really having some problems getting into this one.  Maybe it's the really foul taste from the recent departure of lma, (lyin' mike anderson) or simply the fact that I'm really more interested in what guys are making moves in spring football.  However, the school goes on spring break this week so I assume I'll start to get more interested in things occurring on the basketball front.  If I did have a personal favorite, it would be Brad Stevens of Butler.  He has the Bulldogs in the elite 8 again this year after taking them to the championship game last season, before falling to Duke in the final as a last second shot rattled out at the buzzer.  However, it appears that Stevens is happy at Butler for now.  I suspect he's holding out for the Indiana job when/if it opens.  Hell, he only looks to be about 19 or so, (actually, he's 34) so it's not like he has time to wait for a destination job to open up.  

The early favorites also appear to be a couple of guys that cut their coaching teeth in the state of Indiana.  One makes sense, and the other really makes no sense to me.  Matt Painter, the 40 year old head man at Purdue appears to be the early front runner, and as I say, it makes no sense to me.  He's coaching at the same school he played at, has been the Big Ten coach of the year 3 of the past 4 seasons, and, like Stevens may have designs on the Indiana job should Tom Crean fail.  However, there have been lots of rumblings that he'd be interested in talking with Mike Alden.  He currently makes 1.3 million at Purdue, which isn't chicken feed, but also isn't in the same neighborhood as the 2 million Alden had on the table for the guy that just left.  Also, rumors that he doesn't get along with athletic director Morgan Burke might be true, which would explain a lot.  Then he has a fan base that seems somewhat disinterested in paying more to keep him, thinking that if he leaves then they could just hire Cuonzo Martin, interestingly enough the 3rd guy on my list, and wouldn't miss a beat.  If Painter is indeed the guy targeted, we may know by Wednesday of this week.  Hey, if he were to sign he'd already have a nice collection of black and gold ties.

As I say, Martin is certainly a candidate, and he might be my first choice.  Currently the 39 year old head coach at Missouri State, was born and grew up in East St. Louis, played at Purdue and coached with Painter.  He has the ties to Missouri and should be able to recruit the guys anderson couldn't as he tried to recruit talent for his "40 minutes of mild inconvenience" system he ran at Mizzou.  I'm damn sure getting tired of watching highly rated St Louis kids like Beal, McLemore, BJ Young and others going out of state to play ball.  It would also serve as a nice reminder to the Missouri State fans as to how the food chain in Missouri sports works.