Vandy At Mizzou

[BATCAB27]

Ugly. Looked like alot of empty seats too. Would you rather them make the tournament and go 1 and done (which would probably happen against anybody thats decent) or not make the tournament and Haith get fired? Unfortunately I think I'd rather the latter happen.

[ozark trout fisher]

Ugly. Looked like alot of empty seats too. Would you rather them make the tournament and go 1 and done (which would probably happen against anybody thats decent) or not make the tournament and Haith get fired? Unfortunately I think I'd rather the latter happen.

Ugly game, but a win is a win. It's three straight now.

I don't think Haith is at any risk of being fired this year, even if we were to lose out. I'm not sure he is a great coach, but his overrall record is far too strong for him to be anywhere in the hot seat. If we miss the tournament, then he better do well next year. But that is a big "if" at this point.

Despite the bad performance, it's another top 100 win. Missouri moves to 19-7 and 7-6 in SEC play, with an RPI that should be in the mid-30s in the morning. They are not a tournament lock at this point, but they are getting closer. A 3-2 finish down the stretch to get to 22-9 should put them in good shape with a win or two in the SEC tournament, while a 4-1 finish would probably lock up a spot regardless of what happens on the rest of the bubble. Considering the schedule, 4-1 looks manageable. But we'll need to play better than tonight.

A "nothing to gain, everything to lose" road trip is next, starting @Alabama on Saturday then @Georgia. We need to beat Alabama, because that would be a terrible loss. A loss to Georgia (with their improved RPI since we last met) wouldn't kill our chances, but it wouldn't help.

If we even had one more top 50 RPI win, the computer numbers and the overall record would have us totally off the bubble and in contention for something like a 5-7 seed in the big dance. But wins over UCLA, WVU, Tennessee, NC State, and Arkansas could be plenty if we can avoid any more bad losses.

[BATCAB27]

were you at the game tonite? Just wondering what the attendance was and if it was as sparse as it looked on tv. I just don't care for the style of play I've seen from the tigers the last couple of years. Seems like Haith just recruits athletes and tries to win with their athleticism. Awful offense against the zone tonite, everybody just standing around looking at each other. And I still blame Haith for the debacle that was Phil Pressey last year

[ozark trout fisher]

were you at the game tonite? Just wondering what the attendance was and if it was as sparse as it looked on tv. I just don't care for the style of play I've seen from the tigers the last couple of years. Seems like Haith just recruits athletes and tries to win with their athleticism. Awful offense against the zone tonite, everybody just standing around looking at each other. And I still blame Haith for the debacle that was Phil Pressey last year

Yeah, I was there. The student section was pretty sparse, but the rest was okay given the opponent and a weeknight game. I really agree with you about Haith. Not anything special about him as a coach. But it's just gonna be impossible for an AD to fire him with the record he has. Have to wait until he has a bad year or two. Otherwise, other coaching candidates are going to stay away, thinking that the AD is quick to run coaches off. It makes it tough to get a good replacement.

I'll defend, for example, Gary Pinkel if he has a 5-7 year because he takes 2 and 3 star recruits and makes great teams out of them. Frank Haith takes 4 star players and big time transfers and makes decent teams out of them. It's not a bad situation, but it leaves you wanting more. That's how I feel about Haith; I'm fine with letting him run things another year, maybe two, because things are going basically fine most of the time. But do I see him here in 5 years? Probably best not to ask me that question.

Missouri beat Vandy, but Kevin Stallings showed us what a really good coach can do. He brought a Vandy team with only 7 real players (and that's stretching it) into a tough place and almost beat a far more talented and deep team. He kinda reminds me of Norm Stewart. I wish we could have someone like him. I just don't know if Haith can win without great talent. He's a good recruiter (especially of transfers) so we may not know for awhile. Which is his one really solid redeeming quality.

[BATCAB27]

Love Stallings, great coach. Couple of problems I have with transfers...first of all they, for whatever reasons, didn't stick with it at their original program. If they were a problem there it will probably follow them here. Secondly I like to watch players grow over the course of their career at Mizzou. You learn their names as freshman and by the time they are seniors you kind of get a "thats my guy" mentality toward them. Even though you've never met them, you're on a first name basis with them when you watch them play. Kim English comes to mind. In my opinion that is how you build a team that can make a tournament run, with chemistry and court familiarity that can only come with multiple years of practicing and playing together. It's not like Haith is recruiting the "one and done" high school kids. Hopefully Alden feels the same way and will end the merry go round of 1-2 year players and hire a coach instead of a recruiter.

[Quillback]

That's one of the glaring problems with college hoops these days, the one and done or two and done mentality of top players. It's so tough to build a team out of players that are going to stay 4 years and be a winning program. The top recruits see college hoops as a stepping stone to the NBA. It would be interesting to follow one of the top recruits through the recruiting process and record the spiels the coaches give them. I'd love to hear Calipari's spiel.

[snap]

19 7 and in every game down to the wire!!! aren't we spoiled....norm forever, then quinn and anderson......those shoes of norm's have been hard to fill. We are sitting in our armchairs doing a wonderful job but things could be much worse...it is frustrating but I still think the are getting better.....last nite, they tried to get the tempo going early but missed shots that would have put vandy out of it early......just did not happen!!! trying to keep the faith here!!!!

[Quillback]

It looks to me they are on a path to the NCAA"s, who knows, they get in and get the right match ups where their guards can shine, hit those threes, they could win a game or three.

[ozark trout fisher]

19 7 and in every game down to the wire!!! aren't we spoiled....norm forever, then quinn and anderson......those shoes of norm's have been hard to fill. We are sitting in our armchairs doing a wonderful job but things could be much worse...it is frustrating but I still think the are getting better.....last nite, they tried to get the tempo going early but missed shots that would have put vandy out of it early......just did not happen!!! trying to keep the faith here!!!!

Yeah, last night was something of anomaly. If a few shots fall early we probably aren't in a fight in the last two minutes. But they literally always find a way to let these kind of "easy" games end up really, really close. Heck, even South Carolina gave us a minor scare on our home floor in the last couple minutes.

I agree with you that things are fine right now, and I'm not exactly in the FIRE HAITH camp. His record is rock solid and he may get his first three teams to the big dance if we can finish reasonably well. That's pretty good. But his inability to develop big men or get any kind of continuity going in the program has many of us pretty concerned.

With that said, if the freshman like Wes Clark, Johnathan Williams III, and Torren Jones can continue to improve like they have, then the future is pretty bright. Wes Clark and J3 are already legit players, and Jones has Alex Oriakhi potential if he can improve his offensive game. Haith's first recruiting class was a bust (except for Rosburg) but this second class is looking like a potential foundation for some good teams in the future. So Haith will have his chance to become the long term answer here, and he's earned that. But he has more to prove.

I'm keeping faith, but not blind faith either.

[snap]

agree about allowing these teams in the game til the end!!! speaking of blind faith, wasn't that a pretty good band back in the day???