Bad news for Mizzou

[BigTime]

According to PowerMizzou.com, PF Keith DeWitt, did not receive the green light from the NCAA Clearinghouse. Tough luck for the Tigers. This furthers my opinion that they won't be dancing next season, as he would have been a nice piece down low for MU.

"It's disappointing for Keith that he didn't receive better news," Missouri coach Mike Anderson said in a statement. "But at the same time, we're excited about the players we already have in our program. We like the fit of our team and we are looking forward to another great season of Tiger basketball."

 

[DFWHoopster]

I really enjoy watching Missouri play. To me they are the most curious team around to see how they finish next year. Guys like English and Dixon were good recruits but certainly not elite recruits. Anderson went 18-12 (7-9) and 16-16 (6-10) before last season's great results.

Anderson's style of play is getting maximum results from his talent I guess. But I wonder what happens next year when the offense starts to stall. They have no guy (in my opinion) who has the skill to get them buckets when they need them. And in tight games that happens. Last year, Missouri had Lyons and Carroll that they could go to in those tough moments. Every other projected NIT/NCAA team has that in the big 12:

KU (Collins)
UT (Bradley)
OU (Warren)
Baylor (Dunn)
OSU (Anderson)
KSt (Clemente)
Iowa St (Brackins)
A&M (Davis)

Missouri fans would say Tiller is that guy or maybe English. But those guys weren't rated top 50 national guys for a reason. I don't know, maybe I put too much emphasis on recruiting rankings...

 

[sys]

Anderson's style of play is getting maximum results from his talent I guess.

that was true last year. it certainly wasn't true the previous two years.



great news about dewitt. thanks for sharing big.

 

[thebigabd]

Missouri fans would say Tiller is that guy or maybe English. But those guys weren't rated top 50 national guys for a reason. I don't know, maybe I put too much emphasis on recruiting rankings...

You put way too much stock in recruiting rankings.

 

[DFWHoopster]

You put way too much stock in recruiting rankings.

I only put stock in them because you can see a very strong correlation between the top 25 recruiting classes and the top 25 teams in the nation.

Are there exceptions? Of course. But if I was going to place bets on who would have the best teams without knowing anything but the recruiting rankings, you usually do pretty well. My theory is that talent trumps good coaching most of the time. I have been following hoops for 20+ years and had that theory validated more often than not...

 

[thebigabd]

I only put stock in them because you can see a very strong correlation between the top 25 recruiting classes and the top 25 teams in the nation.

Are there exceptions? Of course. But if I was going to place bets on who would have the best teams without knowing anything but the recruiting rankings, you usually do pretty well. My theory is that talent trumps good coaching most of the time. I have been following hoops for 20+ years and had that theory validated more often than not...

But it wont hold true with a Mike Anderson team... He takes guys that fit his "system" and they will never be the top 50 prospects, but they will win and win a lot.

 

[DFWHoopster]

But it wont hold true with a Mike Anderson team... He takes guys that fit his "system" and they will never be the top 50 prospects, but they will win and win a lot.

Maybe- I remember watching some Nolan Richardson NIT teams until he signed some elite players like Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman and Day (forget first name). You can't rely on kids overachieving all the time. The coaches in the big 12 are too good. They will find the weaknesses in the 40 min of hell approach just as football teams adjusted to run and shoot, west coast offense, wishbone, etc...

 

[thebigabd]

Maybe- I remember watching some Nolan Richardson NIT teams until he signed some elite players like Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman and Day (forget first name). You can't rely on kids overachieving all the time. The coaches in the big 12 are too good. They will find the weaknesses in the 40 min of hell approach just as football teams adjusted to run and shoot, west coast offense, wishbone, etc...

Mizzou won a school record 31 games, won the Big 12, and advanced to the Elite 8 without one player above 3-star recruit status.

 

[Sawyer]

Mike Anderson as a head coach:

2002-03: 77.6 points per game
2003-04: 75.4 points per game
2004-05: 77.5 points per game
2005-06: 74.4 points per game
2006-07: 77.6 points per game
2007-08: 77.1 points per game
2008-09: 81.5 points per game

Average for his career: 77.3 points per game, which would have ranked fifth last year in the Big 12 (behind OSU, MU, OU and Texas Tech).

In his first year at UAB, their scoring average increased about 7 points per game.

In his first year at MU, the team scoring average increased by 11.3 points per game (and he had just 23.1 points per game returning from the previous season).

Anderson has a proven track record as a head coach. His teams will score and score a lot, and he will get a lot out of a little. Sys pointed out his first two years at MU... keep in mind the state MU was in when he got here. We were coming off a 12 win season, our top two scorers were gone (and three of the top four) and had very little coming in. Anderson put together an 18 win season out of almost nothing (leftovers from an awful team, last minute juco additions and a UAB recruit, Tiller, who followed him to Columbia). That season is pretty much the definition of getting a lot out of a little.

His second season wasn't great, but the makeup of that team was not ideal, to say the least. Half the roster had little to no interest in being here.

Sure, there will be times when teams handle the press. But they're still going to have to score against aggressive half-court defense, and they're still going to have to shut down a well-run motion offense. Does MU have a dominant scorer? No. But we didn't last year, either. Carroll and Lyons have been mentioned, but neither was a dominant or consistent individual scorer. Lyons had talent, but wasn't anywhere near consistent. Carroll was damn good, but most of his points came from his defense, hustle or were within the offense. The backcourt returns intact, and those guys were just as responsible for the offensive success as Carroll and Lyons were, if not more so.

And for what it's worth... the Dewitt news is not really new. It's just finally official. The NCAA had already ruled that they weren't going to accept transcripts from his prep school (but would look at kids on an individual basis: read, if they went to UK or Duke, they'd be ok) and he never did get his ACT score up enough, anyway.