When it comes to Missouri men’s basketball, it’s OK to admit being wrong.
This past offseason was hardly confidence-inspiring for Tigers fans. Missouri subbed out Mike Anderson, architect of “The Fastest 40 Minutes,” for Frank Haith, a Miami coach who boasted a 129-101 record. A thin Tigers frontcourt lost all-Big 12 Conference power forward Laurence Bowers to an ACL tear, later replacing him with a struggling _shooting guard_ in Kim English.
Haith took four guards trained in Anderson’s track-meet style to start in a slow-paced, half-court system.
Haith will likely forgive Tiger fans for being less than enthused. What he wants is to win and to win now, and miraculously, that philosophy could not be working any better. The Tigers are 7-0, winning by an average of 28 points per game. They rank in the top seven nationally in points, field goal percentage, steals and assist/turnover ratio.
They’ve played a soft schedule, but when the Tigers have needed to step up and put on a show, they’ve done so in style. In two games in the College Basketball Experience tournament in Kansas City during Thanksgiving break, Missouri throttled a Notre Dame team with Tim Abromaitis and a No. 18 California team by a combined score of 179-111.
“This was a rude awakening of high-level college basketball for our young guys,” Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey said following his team’s 87-58 loss to the Tigers. “I don’t want to have to deal with them again.”
This out-of-system, four-guard lineup is winning games in ways even the “Fastest 40 Minutes” could not.
This is the first time the Tigers have started 7-0 since 2006. It’s the only season this decade that Missouri has held each of its first seven opponents under 70 points or won its first seven games by such a wide margin.
The Tigers have answered every single question through seven games with the tradeoffs fans looked at as pure desperation.
When Haith opted for a four-guard lineup, he sacrificed rebounding and post defense. He gained three-point shooting, turnovers and, believe it or not, post offense.
English is still shooting it from outside, but now often has nobody to guard him. English has nailed three-pointers at a 57 percent clip, the second best mark for all players in the country with at least 40 attempts.
And when big men do attempt to guard him, they often pay for it inside. Missouri’s increased ball movement — the Tigers rank No. 7 nationally in assist/turnover ratio — has given the lone Tiger forward Ricardo Ratliffe the opportunity to average 13.9 points per game on 74 percent shooting. Only two players in America are shooting better.
Nothing illustrates the tradeoff advantage for Missouri better than what the Tigers did to Cal in the CBE final. The Tigers were outrebounded by the Golden Bears 32-26, but dismantled them in every other facet of the game en route to a 39-point victory.
Haith understands the flip side of the tradeoff, no question. Missouri will have all it can handle with bigger teams like Kansas and Texas A&M and will have to deliver in the other facets consistently to avoid the lack of post presence to deflate it.
What the Tigers are doing right now goes far beyond statistics or early-season wins. They look like five best friends on a basketball court. The unselfishness and energy arrives on a nightly basis, standing in contrast to what appeared in the past to be a cluster of athletes each out to outdo one another.
This senior-laden team wants to be a senior-laden team to remember. Success with a four-guard lineup would be difficult to forget.
