The Missouri Tigers have spent the last few months trying to gel together their new-look roster while simultaneously learning the systems of new head coach Kim Anderson.

“(It’s) up and down,” Anderson said of the team’s progress. “What’s frustrating is you work on it, then in a scrimmage situation sometimes guys don’t react the way you want them to. But we’re getting there. I think we’re way ahead of where we were when we started.”

Since his arrival, a key part of what Anderson has been trying to teach his team is to “make the extra pass.” And with the personnel on his roster, that shouldn’t be much of an issue. Anderson has spoke at length about how he’s willing to play three point guards at once.

“I got three (point guards), and I’m happy with all three of them,” Anderson said. “I won’t hesitate to play all three of them at the same time. The only thing you give up is some size.”

With the season less than two weeks away, Anderson is content with the progress his team has made to this point.

“Some of them have made some extra passes, some of them haven’t,” Anderson said with a smile. “We’ve really simplified what we’re doing offensively … It’s trying to be that deal where you do a few things really well instead of a lot of things mediocre.”

The other key installment Anderson has made is the addition of a zone defense. Although the team still plans to predominantly run man-to-man, they’ve spent the last few weeks adding a zone to give opposing offenses a different look defensively.

“It’s different,” junior forward Ryan Rosburg said. “We hadn’t done anything besides man defense up until (a few weeks ago), so it’s definitely different. But we know we need to work on it to have another (look) in our back pocket.”