- Missouri’s long overly complicated coaching search came to an end yesterday as they announced that Kim Anderson, who played there and served as an assistant there, would be their next coach. Anderson has been the head coach at Central Missouri where he was 274-94 and won the Division II title this season. He may turn out to be an excellent hire, but the way the school handled the entire process hiring a search firm, spending more than $40,000, and being rebuffed by many more prominent names only to select a former player who was coaching only 1.5 hours away makes them seem less than competent. Anderson will have his work cut out for him as he will be inheriting a depleted team and will need to work hard to keep the recruits that Missouri had commitments from before Frank Haith “left” for Tulsa.
- The strange saga for Chane Behanan has come to an end. Well at least the college portion of it. Behanan, who left Louisville after multiple suspensions for marijuana use, had transferred to Colorado State and was expected to play for them next season. However, Behanan recently had a change of heart (perhaps related to Mitch McGary’s decision) and declared for the NBA Draft yesterday. When the rumors first surfaced that Behanan might leave, we mentioned that he was at best a late second round pick and nothing that we have heard since then would change our mind on that. If Behanan wants to go, that is his choice. We just hope that he is aware that he will likely be headed overseas if he wants a pro basketball career.
- Tennessee fans might want to temper their expectations for the first few seasons of the Donnie Tyndall era. Yesterday, the school announced that they had granted a release to CJ Turman meaning that all four of the players who committed to the school back in November have backed out after Cuonzo Martin left the program to take over at California. We wouldn’t feel too bad for Tennessee fans because their lack of support (combined with that of the administration) was probably the driving force behind Martin’s decision to move. Unfortunately for Tyndall he has to deal with the fallout.
- With the early entries declared and almost all of the major recruits committed people can start putting together legitimate preseason predictions. One such entity is the Las Vegas sports book, who put out their odds to win the 2015 NCAA title, which we stress are only for educational purposes. There are not any particularly glaring odds there although somebody might find one of the teams with greater than 25/1 odds interesting particularly ones with Hall of Fame level coaches.
- With all of the departures from the Mountain West yesterday’s news that junior college star Jordan Goodman had committed to play at New Mexico could be big. The Lobos will be without Kendall Williams, Alex Kirk, and Cameron Bairstow next season so the addition of Goodman, who averaged 18.1 points and 6.6 rebounds last season in junior college, could provide some much needed production. If Goodman’s name seems familiar it is because had been committed to Georgetown, Rutgers, and Texas Tech (yes, three different schools) in high school before going the junior college route. If Goodman sticks with his choice this time, he could pay dividends for the Lobos.