Mizzou @alabama

[ozark trout fisher]

We'll see. I do want the NIT to give the younger guys more games and more practices to improve. Kind of like making the Independence Bowl in football....who cares about the game itself but it's a chance for the team to get better for next year. Luckily, I don't think they can play their way of of that tournament at this point, short of losing every single game the rest of the way.

[stlfisher]

In a normal year, I would be really upset with MU basketball. This year, I still have a hangover from football season...so I am not as disappointed.

Haith was left without a recruiting class his first year and we are seeing the effects the last several years. Next year there must be improvement.

[ozark trout fisher]

In a normal year, I would be really upset with MU basketball. This year, I still have a hangover from football season...so I am not as disappointed.

Haith was left without a recruiting class his first year and we are seeing the effects the last several years. Next year there must be improvement.

I get what you're saying. I don't dislike this team at all. I do disagree with the premise that they don't play hard. By and large they do, with a few exceptions. But we just need better frontcourt talent to compete, and some semblance of perimeter defense. Some of that is on the missing recruiting class. Some of it is on the transfers of guys like NWC and Jankovic (who I think Haith did a terrible job with) and the inexplicable downturn of Tony Criswell's play.

I don't care if we have 14 walk-ons on the roster next year. Haith must make the tournament in '14-15 or he better get fired. Never having won a tournament game makes it really simple, and his chances of breaking that trend this year is slipping away rapidly.

[ozark trout fisher]

Funny thing: I had seem one place that we were listed as still in, but just disregarded it as not having been updated. But sure enough, CBS sports and ESPN still have Missouri in, and not even as one of the "last 4 in". How is this even possible? We are 19-8, .500 in a terrible conference, with a bad loss @ Alabama and only one RPI top 50 win. Is this really what expanding the field to 68 gives us? I honestly don't know why teams like Arkansas or Oregon aren't ahead of us, but Joey Brackets loves Ol' Mizzou I guess.

[BATCAB27]

I can only assume the bracketologists think that the SEC will get 4 teams in and by default are putting Mizzou in. This team seems to be getting worse as the season goes on. Even the games they won lately I didn't think they played very well. Same thing happened last year. Everybody keeps saying they can't fire Haith with his record. Well, the team 2 years ago I could have rolled the ball out and coached them to 30 wins, that team's seniors basically coached themselves. Last years team underachieved with the talent they had, got worse as the season went on and got embarrassed in the tournament. This year they have 1 quality win and have lost 2 home games. I don't care if they're 19-8. They suck. With that cake schedule they should easily be 22-5. The Mizzou brass should not stand for the mediocrity that is the NIT. It's like me telling my kids its ok to get C's in their classes. Nope, we don't do C's. Alden needs to lay down the law and let it be known that NIT's are unacceptable. The great programs have a winning culture and don't accept failure. Maybe my expectations are just too high for my Tigers.

[Quillback]

I can understand the frustration with Haith, but if you fire him, who do you replace him with? Would Mizzou be willing to pay out the coin to get a top up and comer? And if they do get a coach that becomes successful, can they get him to stay?

[ozark trout fisher]

I can understand the frustration with Haith, but if you fire him, who do you replace him with? Would Mizzou be willing to pay out the coin to get a top up and comer? And if they do get a coach that becomes successful, can they get him to stay?

Missouri ain't UNC or Duke, but I'm not concerned about our ability to get a better coach than Haith. The search that resulted in him was botched pretty badly. Sure, Matt Painter and Shaka Smart were pipe dreams, but there were a bunch of better, gettable candidates. Missouri doesn't steal coaches from Purdue, but could we have gotten a really good mid-major guy? Sure. But we had to go with a sub.500 ACC coach. I thought it was dumb when it happened. We had a one year honeymoon where we thought it was going to be okay. And then reality (in the form of terrible mediocrity) has set in the past two seasons.

Can't fire Haith after this year, but I think like many it's basically a matter of time. Unfortunately you've probably got to let have at least one truly disastrous year (something like 17-14) before you can let him go. Might come sooner than later. But one NIT in a bubble season won't do it. That would make it hard to replace him with an acceptable candidate. Nothing scares away coaching candidates like "the AD is quick to give up on his guy". Basically, Haith is driving the bus right now, and we have to let him run it into the ditch before we look for a new driver. Fun stuff.

That said, each year is worse than the last. Not a good way for a tenure to go. Doesn't matter if they sneak into the tourney as a 12 seed and get destroyed in the first four or make it to the round of 64. It wouldn't be terrible, but it still wouldn't be good enough for a 3rd year.