A sleeping giant rests in the Show-Me State
They may not be the best team in college basketball. But the Missouri Tigers are perhaps the most entertaining. They scrap, they claw, they run and they jack up threes. It hasn't taken long for Mike Anderson to leave his imprint on a program that was in disarray last spring when former coach Quin Snyder was fired after seven rather unremarkable seasons in the Show-Me State.
The Tigers are 9-0 and they are playing the fast-paced, in-your-face, frenetic brand of basketball that is hard to find these days in the structured world of college basketball. Matchup zone? Those are foreign words to Missouri coach Mike Anderson. Diamond press? Now that's more like it.
For 17 years. Anderson was former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson's understudy. He sat on the bench while the Razorbacks advanced to three Final Fours and won the 1994 national championship. He watched opponents wither under the "40 Minutes of Hell" pressure defense that the Razorbacks played in the 1990s. He saw that even average players could thrive in the system.
And after four successful years as a head coach at Alabama-Birmingham, Anderson is about to unleash his furious brand of baskeball on some unsuspecting Big 12 teams. It's going to be fun to watch.
If you haven't done so already, mark it down that Missouri is a sleeping giant in college basketball. The Tigers have a strong fan base, a brand-new facility and a fertile recruiting area. Most importantly, however, they have a coach who knows how to win. It's been a long time since Missouri has been relevant on the national scene. You really have to go back to the Norm Stewart era to to understand where Missouri once stood as a program.
Stewart's name is now scrawled on the court at Mizzou Arena and the Tigers are trying to revive the glory days of the past. Bet that it will happen sooner rather than later. The program will get a lot of victories in the near future, but the fans are already getting their money's worth. Here's some advice for the Big 12 this season: look out because the Tigers are on the prowl.
Photo Source: Columbia Missourian
The Tigers are 9-0 and they are playing the fast-paced, in-your-face, frenetic brand of basketball that is hard to find these days in the structured world of college basketball. Matchup zone? Those are foreign words to Missouri coach Mike Anderson. Diamond press? Now that's more like it.
For 17 years. Anderson was former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson's understudy. He sat on the bench while the Razorbacks advanced to three Final Fours and won the 1994 national championship. He watched opponents wither under the "40 Minutes of Hell" pressure defense that the Razorbacks played in the 1990s. He saw that even average players could thrive in the system.
And after four successful years as a head coach at Alabama-Birmingham, Anderson is about to unleash his furious brand of baskeball on some unsuspecting Big 12 teams. It's going to be fun to watch.
If you haven't done so already, mark it down that Missouri is a sleeping giant in college basketball. The Tigers have a strong fan base, a brand-new facility and a fertile recruiting area. Most importantly, however, they have a coach who knows how to win. It's been a long time since Missouri has been relevant on the national scene. You really have to go back to the Norm Stewart era to to understand where Missouri once stood as a program.
Stewart's name is now scrawled on the court at Mizzou Arena and the Tigers are trying to revive the glory days of the past. Bet that it will happen sooner rather than later. The program will get a lot of victories in the near future, but the fans are already getting their money's worth. Here's some advice for the Big 12 this season: look out because the Tigers are on the prowl.
Photo Source: Columbia Missourian
posted by Rainer Sabin @ 12:22 AM
2 Comments:
At 2:09 AM EST,
Anonymous said…
How many more seasons do you think Stan Heath has at Arkansas? any chance Anderson comes back here? I heard Nolan was at the ark-miss game and i bet he was rooting for miss... haha...
At 5:29 PM EST,
Anonymous said…
Mizzou looked sluggish in the first few games but everything seems to be clicking after that big win against Arkansas. Good article, it's nice that someone has finally noticed...
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