OTC: Media Struggles To Solve Whether Mike Anderson Stays Or Goes

 

“I have never covered a story where both sides are hearing such diametrically things. Anybody who tells you they know, they’re not telling the truth.”
Gabe DeArmond, of PowerMizzou.com, on the fluidness of whether or not Mike Anderson is staying or going, in an interview with Steven St. John and Nate Bukaty, 810 AM
GH: The Mike Anderson saga is now in its third year of whether he stays or goes from the Mizzou basketball program he revived after the Quin Snyder debacle. This courtship with Arkansas is easily the most serious of his past affairs. In the past few days reports have swung wildly back and forth that Anderson was gone to Arkansas and also that he had struck a deal to stay in Columbia. It somewhat mirrors his Tigers’ chaotic performances on the court the past two months.
“Overwhelmingly the Missouri fans who follow me on Twitter want him to go.”
Steven St. John, 810 AM
GH: Has Anderson tested the Mizzou faithful fan base one too many times? According to SSJ there may not be much of a home to return to if Anderson does decide to stay.
“He’s put himself in a position where much is going to be expected of him next year. You better go at least 11-7 (in the Big 12).”
Steven St. John, 810 AM
GH: Anderson’s Tigers return almost all of their talent. Is that good enough to get into the top four of the Big 12? Not without some post presence. I see Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma State all being much improved next season. Mizzou could struggle to finish as well as they did this season.
“Mike Anderson better have one helluva year next year at Missouri. … The thing that bothers me about Mike Anderson is what he’s done is not very professional. It’s not ethical.”
Kevin Kietzman, 810 AM
GH: What about Anderson’s actions is unprofessional or unethical? I can understand fans who wince at their coach listening to other offers but where do they think Anderson came from? He was UAB’s coach. Bill Self was Illinois’ coach. It is what big-time college sports have become.
“If you can guarantee that Mike Anderson will get Missouri to the Final Four, I’d pay him $5 million a year.”
Steven St. John, 810 AM
GH: SSJ wasn’t kidding. He’s crazy, but he’s not kidding. Mizzou fans are so sick and tired of having never been to a Final Four they would sell off the boot heel to Arkansas to get there.
“Even the Missouri fans who wan to (Anderson) to stay, the leash is shorter now. The fans are not going to give him as much leeway now.”
Gabe DeArmond, 810 AM
GH: I think he’s gone. It doesn’t take five days to decide if you plan on staying. I expect Mizzou’s search for a new basketball coach to start very soon.
“I can tell you when that information (that Anderson would be announced as Arkansas’ next coach) first came out it was 100% incorrect.”
Doug Gottlieb, 810 AM
GH: That info was tweeted over the weekend by a guy in Tulsa who Gottlieb knows. It caused manic chatter amongst the media as to the validity of the news. Twitter was again tossed under the bus as an unreliable source for news. Read on.
“In the age of Twitter ‘Dewey beats Truman’ wouldn’t have become famous…just another errant tweet from an over eager reporter.”
Gabe DeArmond, Twitter
“Tweets answer to no one. Retweets the same. You can even go back and delete them if you are wrong.”
Mike DeArmond, Twitter

“Twitter can be a fun, helpful tool for journos, but industry gets a black eye when we rush to tweet a ‘scoop’ that’s still just an infant.”
Dave Matter, writer Columbia Tribune, Twitter
GH: I’m not so sure the public is as gullible as these gents believe. Sports talk radio, social media and many of the news outlets outside of the mainstream media have desensitized us to believing everything we hear or read. Listeners to Kevin Kietzman’s show have earned a doctorate in the science of not believing what the media hastily reports.
“It sounds like something that could be made up, doesn’t it?”
Kevin Kietzman, on reports that Mike Anderson is unavailable due to the death of a close friend, 810 AM
GH: No one can jump to a conclusion or misrepresent the facts with more flair than KK.
GregHall24@yahoo.com and Twitter / greghall24
http://www.mb-kc.com/
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17 Responses to OTC: Media Struggles To Solve Whether Mike Anderson Stays Or Goes

  1. kylerohde says:

    It IS unprofessional.
    Greg – what Anderson keeps doing to Mizzou is unprofessional, whether it happens more frequently now today than it used to or not. That point is debatable anyway, maybe it’s just more visible now thanks to the 24 hour news cycle, Twitter, Message Boards, etc. For the third year in a row, he’s threatening to leave to get more money out of Mizzou and, even as a KU fan, I feel bad for the Tiger fans. They’ve got a solid second tier program that’s every bit the equal of Georgia, Oregon and Arkansas. That’s what gets me – this isn’t Roy waffling over going to UNC or like Self clearly taking a step up from Illinois to KU. It’s a guy showing absolutely no loyalty or gratitude to a school that’s given him great support, even when he’s had mediocre results and getting job offers from comparable companies.

    Make up your damn mind and let the program move on Anderson – you’re not a good enough coach to put MU through this and still come out ahead.

  2. Sean says:

    Greg?
    Greg love your little blog thing here, but I have noticed a common theme. You like to take a partial KK comment and make it look foolish. Have you ever thought about burying the hackett? What I heard was Nolan reported a death, but MA was seen at lunch with his wife in Columbia. So KK was questioning the truth behind the death, since at that time only Nolan R had reported it.
    Everyone can take a piece of a paragraph and get it to prove their point. Please tell us the whole story and we can figure it out.
    On the other hand MA has done nothing to earn a raise!

  3. JP says:

    Enough-Crap or get off the pot
    Am I the only one sick of this story? It goes on every year. Never fails. It’s always the week after Missouri loses in the tournament. I actually don’t begrudge Anderson from the standpoint he can get canned at any time, and is trying to get as much for himself as possible. The fact that it happens every year is getting old.

    Nobody knows the truth and for media people to speculate is purely hyperbole at this time. I think Anderson goes as Missouri fan has had enough of the waffling, and I can’t say I blame them. There doesn’t appear to be a strong push to keep him and the end of the season does raise the spectre of whether the players knew more of this situation.

  4. Guy Who Says What Others Think says:

    FLAME ON! Anderson burns his bridges at MU.
    MU fans have had enough. Even if he comes back, his time of being an effective coach at Missouri is over. He can’t recruit anymore, as evidenced by his current class of…..well NOBODY. For one, his style doesn’t appeal to the top 25 recruits who fancy themselves immediate NBA players. Two, he whores himself out and lifts his skirt every year for any program with an open job. In addition to that, he’s pulling all this nonsense after having a faceplant of a season. As a former Anderson supporter, I’m done with him. Piss off Mike, go sleep with the pigs, which is what you are good at. Missouri doesn’t need to spend 2 million bucks a year to finish 5th in the conference. F.O. pal!

  5. smartman says:

    Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun
    Like any piece of meat ordered at Plaza III, Mike Anderson is well done. If he stays at MU he knows he can get away with mediocrity and still be worshipped. MU will never be KU the same way KC will never be NY. Some things in life are static. MU will never be a perennial powerhouse in hoops. Any big name coach will ignite some fire and passion for a couple of seasons and then it’s Mike Anderson-Redux. There is little honor or integrity in college hoops. It’s become a business and that business is like a whorehouse. America has become more Larry Flynt than Norman Rockwell. Get used to it.

  6. dp says:

    Anderson in Unprofessional
    What about Anderson

  7. shecky says:

    Maybe not unethical….
    Anderson’s actions are without question unprofessional. Agree that all coaches make moves, and occassionally listen to other opportunities. To do it nearly every year is unprofessional. That Greg doesn’t see that says as much about him as anything.

    And Greg, don’t sell your self short. You are every bit Keitzman’s equal when it comes to misrepresenting the facts. It’s funny, everytime you call KK out like this it’s always something that you are every bit as guilty of. I guess it should have been obvious before, but Greg = Bizarro Keitzman.

  8. Gavin says:

    Looks as if he’s gone
    This may be well-known by now, but Andy Katz is reporting that sources are saying that they’re expecting to go to Arkansas now. I wouldn’t believe anything until a contract is signed, but Petro just reported that Katz’s updated story says that no announcements are planed by Mizzou, so it sounds like he’s gone.

  9. Markus Aurelius says:

    The way this has played out makes me wonder whether
    CMA and his agent wanted it to play out this way in order to make it easier for him to leave Mizzou and go to Arkansas. Prior to the end of our season most people thought it would be difficult for CMA to leave Mizzou given the support he’s received from the fans and administration and the fact that he just brought 2 sons of a best friend into the program. It seemed unlikely that he would have the wherewithal to leave Mizzou even if he wanted to go to Arkansas. However, by creating (or allowing) the current situation (which has been a repeat of the last 2 years) CMA may have realized that it would likely alienate Mizzou fans and might create enough disdain from the fans and prominent boosters to give him the public justification he needs to jump ship for Arkansas.

    If he goes, he goes. As an alum, I don’t want him here if he doesn’t want to be here. Clearly he hasn’t seen this as a destination job in the past and despite his comments from a couple weeks ago, one has to wonder what he thinks today.

    I’d like him to stay but I think he’s better off if he stays without an increase in his salary. If he gets a bump to $2mil/year the expectations from alums, fans and boosters are going to rise with the increase in salary and anything less than a final four in the next 4 years will be considered a failure.

    Until the last half of this season, I’ve been pleased with the way he has run our program both on and off the court. I think the on court issues during B12 play were the result of a lack of leadership and chemistry on the team – neither of which he can do much about in-season. His impact on those factors comes primarily through recruiting like-minded players.

  10. Guy Who Says What Others Think says:

    Good riddance to a lying bum.
    NEXT!

  11. MoCrash says:

    Partially agree with KK
    Mike Anderson considering a big-money deal from Arkansas — which was driven more by agent Jimmy Sexton than Anderson — is not unprofessional, as KK and others have asserted, but it does demonstrate poor judgment. For the third year in a row, Missouri is being put in a position of either having to extend his contract or let him go. After the first extension, Anderson should have considered himself untouchable until 1.) his contract expired or 2.) he lost the support of the MU administration and fan base, neither of which have occurred.

    Where KK is right is that much of the blame here lies with AD Mike Alden for refusing the draw a line in the sand and telling Anderson that he agreed to a deal and he’s expected to honor it, instead of putting MU in this untenable situation. (In the interests of full disclosure, when the rumors first surfaced I didn’t consider them credible any more than did DeArmond or Gottlieb, but I reckon I misjudged Anderson’s regard for loyalty; money has a way of doing that, but I thought he was made of firmer stuff.)

    Ah, how I miss Norm Stewart. Not only could he coach, but he was a Mizzou guy to the core. Once Laurie and his gang got rid of Norm, who wouldn’t dance to their tune, Missouri has had two cash-and-carry coaches. Alden needs to decide whether the MU program is going to be a stepping stone for coaching careerists or a destination job. For the latter, he needs a coach committed to MU by more than a contract. Twice Alden has passed over Kim Anderson, who would have been that. Atlanta coach Larry Drew is someone who also would be more likely to embrace the position for the long haul. There are even a couple of high school coaches who, if they had a strong recruiting staff, would do an excellent job (Jim Scanlon of Rock Bridge comes to mind). Whether Missouri can ever reach the Final Four, no matter who is coaching, is questionable. But what is beyond doubt in my mind is that MU is not the kind of school which will not achieve sustained success without coaching continuity.

  12. harley says:

    thank god this guy is gone
    was good for mu at the time he was hired….but his style of play turns off high school ballers. I mentioned this
    over a year agothat his 40 minutes of hell or mayhen or indecision was outdated and was a turn off to players
    who wanted to go to the next level. He can’t recruit of course mu put a leash on him in his recruiting so
    he’s not gotten any great recruits outside of close family ties.
    Now mu can go get a great coach with a great record. Remember…anderson wass down on the list
    of coaching prospecs when he was hired…a last dtich name that mu grabbed for.
    I won’t miss him. I think he’ll do well down in arkansas but remember the racial incident that
    sent nolan packing.
    Good luck mike….you’re getting paid well above your talents….the pigs in arkansas will be glad to see
    you….and mu can now go out and get a top name coach with the 2 million contract.
    But really….mu basketball has a ways to go. They have all those seniors for next year and
    should be a pretty good team. You could have 2 nba draft picks there so a new coach has some
    good players to start with.
    But…this will be good for mu. Get rid of that style of play…compete for the missouri high
    school players again….and we can possibly get some real players.
    But Mike is out for himself….he got his huge contract.
    NOw who was his agent…was it glazer?

  13. harley says:

    first call alden makes should be to…….
    LARRY BROWN…..noone better….wold bring in nba prospects….let assistants do recruiting…
    perfect for mu……………and mu vaults into top tier with his experience and ability to bring in
    top bball players especially from missouri…..
    question is would he do it….and break ties with ku…..probablyu would because he has
    a proven team to startwith…….livingin colummbia is cheap….and he get top contract money
    of over 2 million dolllars…
    the best choice but will alden be smart enough to do it….probably not.

  14. bschloz says:

    Larry Brown…?
    maybe Hubie Brown …or Dr. Jack Ramsey?…….Larry would be cool but don’t see that happening.
    How bout Danny Manning business is business?— Heres a sleeper…Josh Pastner of Memphis…that dude was born to coach.

  15. Guy Who Says What Others Think says:

    Good Lord, a HIGH SCHOOL COACH?
    Yeah, great idea.

  16. Cliffy says:

    Danny Manning?
    No. I found myself pulling for the Russians when he was on the Olympic team.

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