Opinion: Mizzou hire makes Bill Self look even better

The recent hire of Kim Anderson by the University of Missouri has proven once again that KU fans are extremely fortunate to have Bill Self as the head of their program.

This isn’t a Mizzou-bashing piece at all, by the way. I think Kim Anderson is actually going to do a better job as Mizzou head coach than Frank Haith ever did. But is that really difficult? Haith led Missouri to a No. 2 seed and a 30-win season in 2011-2012 but those were with Mike Anderson’s players. He led Mizzou to two straight first round exits and then an NIT appearance.

Big deal.

Even Kansas fans know Missouri can do better than that.

Kim Anderson will run a clean program, actually be competent with his in-game coaching, get young guys who can recruit for him and in a weak SEC, he can consistently get Missouri to the NCAA tournament and occasionally get the Tigers to the second weekend of the tournament (something they haven’t done since the 2008-2009 season).

But let’s not forget Mike Alden has had a history of doing a bad job picking head coaches for Mizzou. Frank Haith was a walking NCAA violation. Missouri knew Mike Anderson would bolt for greener pastures once he had some success.

And Quin Snyder?

Mike Alden chose Quin Snyder over Bill Self and John Calipari.

Things would have been quite different if either of those hires happened. But… in typical Missouri fashion, they didn’t hire the right guy and Self ended up at Kansas.

Which once again proves how lucky Kansas fans should feel about having Bill Self, the winner of 10-straight Big 12 titles and 325 wins since 2003.

Be thankful you’re not a Mizzou basketball fan. Be glad you’re not on your fourth head coach since Y2K was an actual threat.

Think about that. Missouri had Norm Stewart, who is nothing short of a coaching legend, from 1967 to 1999. In that time period, Kansas hired just two coaches: Larry Brown and Roy Williams. Kansas has eight coaches in the history of the program. Missouri on the other hand has 18 and four this millennium. That’s as many conference championships Kansas has won since 1992.

Feels good to be a Jayhawk fan now, doesn’t it?