Press Box: Offseason will provide Anderson opportunity to regroup

News Tribune Sports Commentary

One more, two at the most.

Then Kim Anderson can take a deep breath, step back and really begin to put his touch on the Missouri men's basketball program.

Missouri will play Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. If the Tigers win, which they could against a fellow bottom-feeder, the season would almost surely end in Thursday's second round.

And for Missouri basketball fans, perhaps not a moment too soon. This season has been downright hard to watch.

At least the Tigers will have a fond final memory of the home schedule after defeating Auburn last Tuesday on Senior Night. Missouri's two seniors have had two very different senior seasons.

Keith Shamburger transferred to Missouri because he wanted to play his final season with an established basketball program. Well, that didn't work out so well for him.

But Shamburger played hard, obviously has Anderson's full respect, and deserves all the credit in the world for not quitting when this team continued to struggle.

Keanau Post got into Anderson's doghouse early in the season before a bit of hard work and better play during games made him a serviceable player. Not great, but serviceable.

Those two are surely gone from the team. The question now is who else is leaving?

All of the freshmen - Tramaine Isabell, D'Angelo Allen, Namon Wright, Montaque Gill-Caesar, Jakeenan Gant - were suspended either before or during the season. So will the clashes with Anderson lead any of them to bolt for what they think will be greener pastures?

Or, to put it another way, while some of them may want to leave, will anyone want them?

None of them exactly set the college basketball world on fire this season. If they had, this season may not have turned out like it has.

I guess some of them could head to a smaller Division I school in hopes of starting over. But then they'd have to sit out a year and play on a smaller stage. So I guess it depends on how much they really want out.

Another factor in that could be a shakeup among the assistant coaches. It would be a surprise if the staff remains intact for next season and if the coach who recruited you leaves for someplace else, you might be ready to follow him.

The Tigers do have a couple of nice players coming back. Johnathan Williams III has shown steady improvement down low this season, while Wes Clark was showing he was capable of being a Division I point guard before being injured last month.

But that's not nearly enough to compete at the Division I level and it's almost a sure thing the roster and coaching staff will have a different look next season.

One of the ugliest seasons in Missouri men's basketball history is nearly over. Thank goodness.

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