Changes coming on several fronts as Mizzou enters pivotal third season under Kim Anderson
Big changes could be coming for Missouri men’s basketball, which might feature a smaller lineup more frequently in 2016-17.
That was among the wide-ranging topics Tigers coach Kim Anderson covered Tuesday as he met with reporters to discuss the start of summer workouts.
“We’re a little small,” Anderson said of his current roster, which includes two unfilled scholarship slots. “That would be my biggest concern, but we’ve also talked internally about playing a little bit differently at times — spreading the floor a little bit more, maybe not as much true post presence as we’ve been used to.”
Missouri struggled at both ends of the floor last season and Anderson knows the pressure’s on to improve.
He got a mulligan for a 9-23 campaign in 2014-15, his first with the Tigers, but fan displeasure ramped up considerably during last season’s 10-21 follow-up season.
Mizzou has gone 3-15 in a less-than-daunting Southeastern Conference the last two seasons and a similar performance next year could leave Anderson looking for work.
“We have to better,” Anderson said. “I wish it was real complicated, but we have to make more baskets and stop the other team from scoring more points. Obviously, that starts in the practice gym. I do think we have the ingredients to be better, but we are still young. I know you’re tired of hearing that, but we have nine freshmen and sophomores.”
Tigers athletic director Mack Rhoades is on the record saying he expects marked improvement in Anderson’s third season.
For his part, Anderson understands such pressure comes with the job.
“Any coach has urgency and maybe we have a little more urgency, but Mack and I have had additional conversations since we talked last and I think we’re on the same page,” Anderson said. “I agree with him that, at the end of this year, we can’t be looking and saying, ‘We’re three or four years away before we’re relevant again.’”
Noting that it’s only been a week, Anderson lauded the chemistry he’s already seeing since the Tigers’ returning corps of players returned and started working with the five new additions.
“We’re only six or seven days in, but I really like the chemistry of this team,” Anderson said. “I like the locker room presence.”
Of course, the roster for next season may not be set yet.
“We have two scholarships remaining and we are still actively recruiting,” Anderson said. “Our biggest need is maybe to find a big guy if we can. Normally, this time of year, there aren’t many big guys left, but there still are a couple out there that we’ve been recruiting. We’ll continue to recruit them.”
He didn’t rule out using the second scholarship “if the right situation presents itself” and that could include a graduate-student transfer.
Missouri was barred from accepting a graduate-student transfer in men’s basketball last season, because Hawaii transfer Keith Shamburger hadn’t completed enough hours during his year on campus.
Mizzou’s athletics compliance office has been in communication with the Southeastern Conference about the issue and “late last week we were told that we could take a graduate transfer now,” Anderson said.
It might be too late to land a difference-maker as a graduate transfer now, but, at the very least, it provides recruiting options to help balance the classes in future seasons.
If the Tigers opt to use both scholarships this season, the program would be left without a scholarship to offer next season.
Forward Russell Woods is the only senior on Mizzou’s 2016-17 roster, but the program must forfeit a scholarship this season or next season under the terms of self-imposed sanctions announced in January.
Anderson isn’t sure when the final NCAA report regarding the program’s rules violations will be released, but he hopes it’s sooner rather than later.
“The only thing I wish is that I just want to get it over with,” he said.
Anderson revealed that senior forward Russell Woods is receiving treatment for a chronic knee condition.
Incoming freshman forward Reed Nikko — who arrived in Columbia on Sunday, a day after graduating from Maple Grove High in Minnesota — underwent surgery to repair hip impingement on both hips in March and April.
Nikko is limited to shooting jumping shots and certain weight-room exercises at the moment, but he said his recovery is ahead of schedule.
Anderson also announced one staff adjustment.
Assistant coach Brad Loos, who has been Anderson’s right-hand man through all 14 seasons as a head coach, will swap duties with special assistant Steve Shields.
Loos’ daughter, Rhyan, is battling cancer and Mizzou received an NCAA waiver to add Shields to the bench as a game-day coach given the circumstances, a change that is now permanent.
“We anticipate Brad will slide over to special assistant to the head coach; Steve will be an assistant coach,” Anderson said. “I don’t know that we’ve formally done that yet, but — with the situation with Brad’s daughter, Rhyan — he still is obviously tending to that.”
Loos put together the 2016-17 schedule and is handling preparations for the international tour of Italy, which is scheduled for Aug. 5-15.
Moving forward, Loos “can be on the bench,” Anderson said. “He just can’t actively coach. He can cheer words of encouragement.”
Women’s basketball adds Kulas to staff
Former Missouri women’s basketball star Bri Kulas has rejoined the program as a graduate student manager, the Tigers’ athletic department announced Tuesday.
Kulas — a Shawnee Mission North graduate, who started her college career at Kansas State and also played at Johnson County Community College — was Missouri’s leading scorer as a junior and senior, finishing second in the SEC in scoring in 2013-14 at 18.3 points per game.
She was a third-round pick in the 2014 WNBA Draft, played two seasons overseas and served as an assistant coach at Johnson County last season.
Tod Palmer: 816-234-4389, @todpalmer
This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Changes coming on several fronts as Mizzou enters pivotal third season under Kim Anderson."