Mizzou’s victory against Vanderbilt marks Kim Anderson’s 300th win
It took 86 to reach the magic number 26, but the win was sweet nonetheless for Missouri basketball coach Kim Anderson.
Anderson, who was hired by Missouri in April of 2014, garnered his 300th win overall as a head coach when the Tigers beat Vanderbilt 72-52 on Saturday. It took 86 games at the helm of the black and gold for Anderson to get his 26th victory as coach of Missouri, but it still was a milestone win for him.
“It took a long time to get it,” Anderson said. “From the time I got here to the time I got to 300, it took a long time to get it and that’s disappointing. But it’s a special moment.”
Anderson was 274-94 in 12 seasons as head coach at Central Missouri.
After Saturday’s game, Anderson and Missouri sophomore forward Kevin Puryear shared a special moment.
Puryear, a key member to Anderson’s initial recruiting class back in 2014, flipped the script on a typical custom for the Tigers. The player handed the coach the game ball.
“We care a lot about Coach Anderson,” Puryear said. “... This whole season, we’ve been attacked from everybody on the outside, so this means a lot for everybody on the inside for us. We continue to fight every day and we’re in this together. For us to win in that fashion to get him his 300th win was big for all of us.”
Early Saturday, Anderson didn’t have much confidence in his team following the shootaround. Although Anderson did admit that oftentimes the correlation between the day’s warm-up and performance in a game is a myth.
“My concern was just the focus of it,” Anderson said. “I just didn’t like our focus, but I was wrong, which was good.”
Anderson was wrong indeed. Missouri came out — although it took more than two minutes to score its first bucket — and dominated the Commodores.
Missouri’s effort impressed Anderson. Missouri’s energy made Anderson proud, energy that led to the Tigers’ out-rebounding Vanderbilt 43 to 25.
And ultimately, that’s who Anderson wanted to give the credit to — his players, coaches and the Missouri family alike.
“I’m just the conductor of the band,” Anderson said. “These people have moved together this year. It’s been tough. This is tough. It’s been a tough three years, guys. I’m not going to try to sit here and try to tell you it’s (been) the time of my life. … But it is special to win 300 games.
“I guess not everybody gets to do it.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Mizzou’s victory against Vanderbilt marks Kim Anderson’s 300th win."