The year was 1967. Thousands of Vietnam War protesters marched in the nation’s capital, the Green Bay Packers had just defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in the first ever Super Bowl, and gas prices in the U.S. hovered around 30 cents per gallon. And in the heart of the Midwest, Bob Vanatta’s Missouri Tigers finished the year 3-22, the most losses in program history to date.
Flash forward 48 years. Kim Anderson’s 2015 squad broke that record.
This past season, the Tigers lost 23 games — the most in a season in the program’s 109-year history.
As young, inexperienced and raw as this team was coming into the season, it still fell far below expectations. The Tigers returned four players from Frank Haith’s 24-12 2014 team and added five freshmen and one senior transfer in guard Keith Shamburger.
The group of freshmen, stock full of potential, were more streaky than Blackhawks fans in a playoff run. One game, top recruit Montaque Gill-Caesar would go for 15 points, flashing his athleticism with every touch of the ball. The next game, he couldn’t find the basket, let alone a handle on the ball. Gill-Caesar averaged nearly two turnovers per game over the course of his first season.
The youngsters’ struggles bled off the court, too. By the time the season was over, seven different Tigers had missed time for non-basketball related issues. Whether it was junior guard Deuce Bello for academic issues or the dual suspension of Gill-Caesar and fellow freshman guard Namon Wright, it always seemed like there was someone missing.
Even Mizzou’s seemingly most levelheaded player in Shamburger was stripped of his starting role in his last collegiate game due to disciplinary reasons.
Discipline wasn’t the only thing restricting the Tigers. Injuries plagued the team, too. Gill-Caesar played half the season with a bad back, junior forward Ryan Rosburg played the last eight or so games with a broken finger and senior forward Keanau Post dealt with an injured wrist.
The most detrimental of them all came Feb. 10, when second-leading scorer and sophomore guard Wes Clark was lost for the remainder of the season with a dislocated right elbow suffered while diving for a loose ball against South Carolina.
But while Clark is healing, the program is still hurting.
The offseason hasn’t started off much better. On April 7, one day after Duke won the national championship, sophomore forward Johnathan Williams III’s transfer was confirmed in a news release. He was the Tiger’s leading scorer and rebounder.
Junior transfer Bello followed. After a season like this, it’s not far-fetched to expect at least one more transfers from the young Mizzou squad.
No matter who is on the roster next season, there is one thing for certain: the expectations have never been lower.
But hey, at least as of today, the Tigers haven’t lost in 48 days.
