READER BE WARNED

READER WARNING: This is my personal opinion on the whole Anderson Scandal.  There may be some foul language contained within, so I'm giving you all a heads up in advance.


ANDERSON - THE PIGGY BANK
by MizzMatt - 3/26/11
Harrisburg, MO- Everything I liked about that man, every aspect he took on the game and what he did for Missouri...gone.  Blown away like a fart in the wind.  I was one of the poor saps that defended him and thought that he'd make the right decision and stay at Mizzou.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  I defended him after the 2009 season, when he shopped around and looked at Georgia.  I defended him when he was eyeballing Oregon last year.  I thought he'd stay a Tiger for life.  He crushed my hopes and dreams with a single whip of the pen.

©Mizzou Nation

Anderson took a contract for a mere $200k more than what Mizzou was offering him.  That's right.  Two hundred thousand dollars more.  That's how much Mizzou meant to Anderson.  Mike Alden at the press conference said that it "has to be someone who WANTS to be at Mizzou."  He went on to say that Mizzou is a "destination program", implying we are not a stepping stone.  Anderson came to us in 2006, and that's all we ever were to him.  After coaching under Nolan Richardson (who was FIRED by UA, by the way), he always said that going back to Fayetteville would be his dream job.  Cue the bullshit lines of "I'm a Missouri Tiger."  "I'm the coach of the Tigers."  "I plan on being in Missouri for a long time."  "I plan on retiring here."  "I plan on bringing a national championship to the state of Missouri."  What a crock of crap.  He knew he was going as soon as he found out that Pelphrey was fired by Jeff Long, Razorback athletic director.  So why did he feed us the lines?

To tell us what we wanted to hear.  To try and keep our respect when he made his final decision of "it's my dream job."  To try and not receive death threats when he says things like "it's great to be a Razorback."  I can't speak for everybody, but the last ounce of possible respect that I may have had for him just blew away in the 30mph winds that are whipping by my house.  Anything he says or does from here on out will be met with the ultimate skeptical eye by myself, and by many others in Mizzou Nation.  Personally, I hope the NCAA finds that he broke the stipulations of his contract and forces the Razorbacks to forfeit all their games that he coaches.  He doesn't deserve to win after what he did.

But also like many Mizzou fans, I view this as an opportunistic time.  His departure opens the door for a REAL coach, with REAL talent.  It opens it up for someone who can recruit post players, rather than relying on the three point accuracy that we so desperately needed in conference play (which was nonexistent, I might add).  We shot an unbearable 32% in the kansas game at the end of the season, and an embarrassingly low 27% against Texas Tech in the second round of the Big 12 tourney.  Main reason for that is he [Anderson] relied on the long-range shots.  We had no post players to speak of.  Bowers and Ratliffe check in at under 6'8".  A good post player is 6'10 or taller.  We didn't have the size matchups down low to sustain a good game in the end.  Anderson set it up that way on purpose.  The next coach will recruit big players...because I think the next coach will be Matt Painter of Purdue.

His "Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball" turned into the "40 Minutes from Hell" at conference play.  We couldn't win on the road, we blew big leads, and most of all- we couldn't close out a game.  Our guys were deep on the bench, and could rotate at any given moment, sure, but for what?  A little extra playing time?  Not like we really hit anything.  Instead of pounding it down low, we stuck behind the arc and clanged ball after ball off the iron.

So, why do I hate Anderson?  That guy flat out lied through his eyed teeth to an entire fan base.  He fed us bullshit on a silver spoon, and we ate it up thinking it was the truth.  He doesn't deserve to win, he doesn't deserve the respect of Tiger fans.  If you're one of those people that roots for two teams, and one is the University of Arkansas, you need to evaluate where your undying allegiance lies.