Press Box: Missouri basketball still making news

News Tribune Sports Commentary

Ah, springtime, when a man's thoughts turn to ... basketball?

At a time when a lot of people are focusing on the beginning of the baseball season and the Masters, the year's first golf major, it's been hard to ignore college basketball.

And I'm not talking about Duke most recent national championship, although last Monday's title game was definitely one to savor.

No, I'm referring to the steady stream of news concerning the Missouri Tigers, which has touched on them both directly and indirectly.

First, some of the direct items.

Head coach Kim Anderson, fresh off a trying 9-23 season that included a mark of 3-15 in the Southeastern Conference, made his first public comments about the campaign last Wednesday. One of the most interesting things to come out during the media session was the large number of Tigers who dealt with significant injuries, many of them kept hidden until the year was over.

There will be some who think that was just a way for Anderson to explain away the Tigers' failings. I'm not one of them. If he had been looking for an excuse, he would have done it during the season. Instead, he kept it quiet until the year was over and merely mentioned it as one factor in a difficult year.

Anderson also touched on two other news items that directly affected the program.

The first was the departure of associate head coach Tim Fuller. As mentioned by my esteemed colleague Tom Rackers in this space two weeks ago, Fuller was a holdover from Frank Haith's tenure as head coach, and Fuller and Anderson never really saw eye-to-eye on certain things.

Anderson didn't say anything bad about Fuller, as he's been gracious since the news came out. Much has been made about the fact Fuller was retained in large part due to the fact it helped make sure recruits Jakeenan Gant and D'Angelo Allen ended up as Tigers. Judging by the limited returns they got from both those players this season, I'm perfectly fine if losing Fuller means the Tigers lose those two. Yes, they're freshmen, and yes, they're full of potential. But neither showed me enough to be over the moon about their futures.

The other item was the fact Johnathan Williams III and Deuce Bello confirmed what was no longer a surprise - both were transferring out. The loss of Williams hurts, since in my opinion he was the lone legitimate Division I talent on Missouri's roster. Bello, to me, is like Gant and Allen - someone they tell you has the makings of a good player, but it appears there's a long way to go before that will be true.

A few days after the press conference, there were two bits of news that indirectly affect the Tigers, and it goes back to an area Anderson touched on Wednesday - recruiting.

The first was when Jayson Tatum, the nation's top-ranked junior who plays for Chaminade Prep in St. Louis, tweeted he had narrowed his list of potential colleges to four. In order, he mentioned Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and ... wait for it ... Saint Louis.

Saint Louis?!?!?!?

I suppose it's understandable the Billikens would be on the list, what with them playing in Tatum's hometown. Now, there's no chance Tatum ever puts on a Billikens jersey, unless he picks one up in the student bookstore for leisure wear. But it was a tough pill to swallow for the Mizzou faithful hoping to see Tatum in black and gold, rather than the blue and white of any of those four teams.

And the news didn't get better when another tidbit came out Friday night. In one of those "KU hires Ed Manning and Danny Manning becomes a Jayhawk" bits of news, the University of Washington has offered Michael Porter Sr. a job as assistant coach.

Porter is currently a Missouri women's assistant coach, but much more importantly, he's the father of Michael Porter Jr., the Father Tolton star who just happens to be one of the nation's top five sophomores. A cynical person, I'm definitely one of those, would say it's not the coaching skills of Porter Sr. that are what's making the offer possible.

Still, it's too bad Missouri hadn't already come up with the offer to switch his Porter's belongings from the women's offices at Mizzou Arena to the men's.