Mizzou Basketball and What Went Wrong

This past season for the Mizzou basketball team was disappointing to say the least.  The team went 10-0 before a devastating loss to Illinois started turmoil that could not be stopped.  After a 9-9 conference record in the SEC, the Tigers were left out of the NCAA tournament for the first time in 6 years and lost to Southern Miss in the second round of the NIT.  The big question that everybody is asking is how could a team with so much talent fail to play to their potential?  The answer seems to be the head coach Frank Haith.

Coach Haith has done a fair job in his three years at Mizzou.  His first year was spectacular but the disastrous loss to Norfolk St put a dark cloud over the season.  In his second year, Mizzou played pretty well but had a hard time putting it completely together which led to another early exit from the tournament.  This time from Colorado State.  This season can only be described as a failure.  What it comes down to is Coach Haith has a hard time making in game adjustments and all the transfers are not jelling together as well as he would have thought.

Whenever Mizzou struggles in a game, Coach Haith never seems to be able to make the in game adjustments needed to help them win.  Mizzou always has great talent but they panic when the going gets tough.  Haith never seems to help the team regroup in these games and talent can only go so far.  Coaching and talent need to blend together to make the perfect team and Mizzou seems to struggle with this at times.  It also seems that the transfer do not have enough time to jell together to become a truly cohesive unit.  The first team at Mizzou that Haith coached was full of players that had played together for four years and it showed.  Haith's recruiting strategy has mostly been to bring in players that wanted to transfer from their old schools.  These players have talent but do not mesh with their teammates as well as guys that played together for 3 and 4 years.

I do not believe Haith should be fired at this point but this next season is crucial for deciding what is going to happen to him in the future.  I wish him all the luck in the world and hope I am eating my words come next March.