After seeing Mike Anderson coaching at the University of Missouri these past few years, I have been quite torn. As a Kansas student and fan, I naturally want to see Missouri fail in everything that they do. But as a sports fan, it is tough not to appreciate Mike Anderson. This hire was a slam dunk for Mizzou. After Quinn Snyder, they needed someone who was going to not only lead the Tigers back to prominence, but do it the right way. Anderson is nothing but a class act and deserves everything good that comes to him.
On top of being a great and likeable person, Anderson’s teams are also fun to watch. He reminds me of Kansas coach Bill Self in his ability to check his players’ egos and get them to buy into a defensive team first philosophy. Anderson’s 40 minutes of hell scare every team on the Tigers schedule, no matter how much they’ll deny it coming in. Anderson quite simply is not only great for the Big 12, but great for college basketball.
With all of the things Mike Anderson has going for him, he can expect to be involved in rumors for several big name jobs that come up in the near future, and he absolutely deserves to be. While the Missouri-hater in me wants to see Anderson take one of those jobs as far away from Kansas as possible, the college basketball fan in me wants to see him stay at Missouri and leave his mark on that university. It’s rare in college basketball today that you can get talented players to buy into a defensive style like Coach Anderson and Self have, so when it happens, you need to appreciate it. And how much fun would it be to have those two great coaches match up for years to come in one of the best rivalries in the country?
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