Kim Anderson has a rebuilding job ahead of him at Missouri

Over the hush that had engulfed the ruined setting for Kim Anderson’s debut as Missouri basketball coach, a lone voice bellowed, “Go back to Warrensburg.”

The rash, silly words were unleashed late in the second half of MU’s jarring 69-61 loss to UMKC on Friday night at Mizzou Arena.

It was just one extremist, met with heads swiveled his way in disbelief, and the sentiment really doesn’t deserve to be dignified … except as a convenient peg to a broader point as impulsive others may be scoffing.

To understand what happened Friday, and the ambitious, long-term job that Anderson has before him, first go back to April.

That’s when predecessor Frank Haith chose to leave Mizzou for Tulsa.

Now, Tulsa has a fine basketball history, framed by coaches such as Nolan Richardson, Tubby Smith and Bill Self. But a coach doesn’t leave Missouri for Tulsa without an exceptional reason or reasons.

Haith publicly offered a variety of explanations, and there was a subtext that he didn’t feel supported by athletic director Mike Alden. But in the end, you can be sure a crucial part of his rationale was this:

His transfer-obsessed recruiting approach, an initial necessity ultimately gone loco, had sizzled out as MU’s three leading scorers, Jabari Brown, Jordan Clarkson and Earnest Ross, were on the verge of leaving.

Suddenly, Haith had a barren cupboard. And he knew he wasn’t going to be able to survive another season of decline.

So, presto, he shrewdly moved on.

It was a wise move for him, really, but it left a shambles for his successor.

Enter Anderson, who has four returnees from a season ago.

Let’s assume the core four as a group will get better, perhaps particularly the enigmatic Johnathan Williams III. You may recall he had 15 rebounds and 10 points against UCLA last season.

Then he scored in double figures just four times in the last 28 games.

But on Friday, the returnees (also including Wes Clark, Ryan Rosburg, and Keanau Post) combined for 22 points (13 from Clark) and 18 rebounds.

That’s not to scapegoat them. Newcomers were free to contribute, too.

It’s just to say that Anderson and his staff in some ways simply are starting over.

Now, it’s by no means the desolate scene Anderson’s mentor, Norm Stewart, took over in 1967 after the Tigers had gone 6-43 the previous two seasons.

But since then, only Mike Anderson took over as formidable an immediate task at MU … which had been left in chaos after the frenzied Quin Snyder era.

The fact that Mike Anderson whisked the program to the Elite Eight in his third season probably remains underappreciated.

It also came after he went just 34-28 in his first two seasons.

Snyder, remember, had inherited from Stewart a team that was coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance and featured a future first-round NBA Draft pick in Keyon Dooling and MU’s career-leading three-point shooter, Clarence Gilbert.

From Mike Anderson, Haith was bestowed a mixed blessing: a terrific senior class that Haith managed masterfully until the first-round NCAA Tournament bust against Norfolk State.

With that top-heavy roster, though, Haith felt compelled to bring in so many transfers that it effectively mortgaged the future.

So, that future is now, and this will be a laborious process for Kim Anderson.

As it should be. The idea here is long-term stability and rebuilding a program, not a quick fix to appease the masses.

Four former players and seven new ones will need time to form an identity and cohesion.

“The chemistry wasn’t all the way there,” Clark said after the game, succinctly but aptly.

Surely, no one was more disappointed Friday than Anderson.

But his controlled demeanor during the game and in his postgame news conference suggested he understands this all is bigger than just one exasperating moment.

As he sat in his office a few hours before the game, Anderson spoke about the importance of staying cool and sending a message of calm control.

He meant in terms of his sideline demeanor, but it had a broader application.

“I think as I’ve gotten older, or more experienced, maybe, I think I’m a little bit more patient. I hope. I hope you see that,” he said, later adding, “We’re coaching, but we’re also managing personalities. Which I guess is psychology, maybe. …

“There’s a button you push that (reaches) every kid. And I think that’s part of coaching, trying to figure out what that button is.”

As of late Friday, and entering MU’s 5 p.m. game today against Valparaiso, those buttons remained elusive.

Before the UMKC game, Anderson and his staff had stressed the importance of stopping guard Martez Harrison (at one point, Anderson apologized to the team for “beating a dead horse” about him).

They had noted the likelihood of facing zone defense and the approach to it, and they emphasized rebounding and taking care of the ball.

Before they went to the court, Anderson urged them to not “play timid.”

But Harrison scored 26 points. MU seemed befuddled by the zone. UMKC out-rebounded the Tigers 43-38.

Mizzou committed 17 turnovers, including 11 in the second half, and Anderson thought they were hurt by playing tentatively.

“Guys always say they want to run: ‘I want to run; I want to run.’ Well, run, run. Don’t bring it down and pull it back and look around,” he said after the game. “I know I’m supposed to be Mr. Defense. Obviously, I wasn’t tonight. But … I like offense.

“Push the ball, push the ball. If you’re going to make a mistake, make a mistake going toward the basket.”

So it looked more like a work in regress than one in progress on Friday.

But the truth also is that there was a thin line between it becoming the fiasco it did (MU led for just 34 seconds) and merely a healthy scare.

“It seemed like every time we got close in the second half, we couldn’t make the right play,” Anderson said, accurately. “We either turned it over, or we missed an open shot.”

Plenty of this stuff is correctable, even in the short run, even with a hodgepodge of players learning each other and a new coach.

And solving that in the near term, and bigger-picture issues for a brighter future, is the job description.

For all intents and purposes, Friday is where it started — in a game that was less testament to Anderson’s acumen than an illumination of the reality he inherited.

It’s on him, of course, to make it clear that he can begin to amend this as the season goes on.

“I’m looking forward to trying to teach what we did wrong,” he said. “That’s what we do.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 7:12 PM with the headline "Kim Anderson has a rebuilding job ahead of him at Missouri."