Mizzou basketball '13

[cardsfansince82]

I'm not a huge Haith fan, but I don't think he's horrible either. I think he's good at adapting to his roster rather than having a set style and forcing the players to fit it. His teams have been good offensively even when they don't really have a lot of set plays. Defensively they haven't been good the last few years, but that's more about the personnel than lack of effort. I'm not a big fan of his sideline demeanor/body language/ref interactions, but I don't know how much that matters. The players seem to like playing for him, which is an improvement over Quinn and CMA.

Recruiting-wise he could be better, but it was also a tough situation to come into. He had a bunch of upperclassmen to replace and had to rely on transfers more than I would like. But that NBA rule has made things tough for teams like Mizzou. All of the best recruits that are ready to play right away are being divvied up by maybe 10 programs and it's tough for anyone else to get a great class. All of the one and done's at the top schools have kind of warped the perception of what freshmen are supposed to play like. I like the freshmen we have, but they are going to take some time to develop. We're also adding two very good recruits next year. As long as he can get more like 3-4 good guys a year and occasionally sign a blue chipper we'll be fine.

A lot of Mizzou fans were hoping to really take a big step forward to be right there with Kentucky and Florida. I don't know if that's realistic. Haith is certainly not that kind of coach, but very few are. If we can settle in right behind those two teams most years in the SEC pecking order then I'm happy. I think that's doable with Haith and with the players we have coming up. I can't imagine Haith is going anywhere for at least two more years, even though a lot of fans I talk to don't really like him.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

This is the most complete look at Haith's tenure out there: http://www.rockmnation.com/2014/2/14/54 ... lliams-iii

The short version:
- Haith is great at coaching offense, and mediocre at defense(and trending the wrong way)
- Haith had an extremely large task in replacing basically an entire rotation after year 1 when he had no incoming freshmen. He's done admirably to keep the quality of the team as high as he can, but his inability to keep/develop recruits has hurt the prognosis for Year 4 and beyond.

I'm pretty sure Haith isn't going to make Mizzou a Top 10 power, and that's okay. But looking at descending results as a criticism of his tenure misses the point. There are zero players on this team that were there for Year 1, and most of that is out of Haith's control. He could really use some good luck with the whole "returning players" bit after the Dixon ordeal(which showed "ethics" that Anderson apparently did not have) and Pressey leaving. Having just one of Clarkson or Brown come back would go a long way. Price/Williams/Rosburg/Gant/Jones as bigs with say, Clarkson/Clark/Bello/Biedscheid/Wright/Rector as guards/wings would give them a chance to actually build depth relative to last year, which Haith has never had the chance to do. It would also test the assumption that one of the understated problems this year has been a lack of perimeter players who are game ready, which has impacted the defensive end(and probably tempo too) quite a bit.

Long story short, Haith is a good, not great coach that's done a decent job with some unique and trying circumstances. Going forward though, most all the circumstances are those he directly impacts/controls, so there's fewer explanations/excuses if Mizzou doesn't leap from the last two years as a bubble team.

[ThatGuy]

I was still debating going to the game Saturday, but I've got a wedding to attend in Nashville. Not excited.

The Vols have played quite well their past few games, so we'll see what Mizzou can muster up. Losing twice to Georgia was a big time letdown, and I'm feeling more and more like the SEC Tournament is Missouri's last shot at the Big Dance.

[StL Dan]

Losing to UGA isn't a a "bad" loss. We are spoiled though, and, any loss at home comes as a surprise anymore. Losing two at home this year really sucked. I was hoping KY would become our new KU....the highly ranked giant that gets humbled once every other year or so in CoMo.

[ThatGuy]

It's not team you want to lose against twice if you've got plans to dance in March. If UT misses out, they'll be saying the same thing about Texas A&M.

[MrCrowesGarden]

RIP At-large bid.

[lukethedrifter]

Haith trying to get fired?

[StL Dan]

I knew they'd get smoked at Tennessee. This team is decent, but lacks something. I think it's defensive consistency. If they could defend, they would in turn be much more offensively consistent.

[Jocephus]

looks like they are going to OT with a&m

[cardsfansince82]

That was an exceptionally frustrating game. Ugly win.