re: Shouldn't be surprised, but the level of suck

Alden was so personally burned by the Painter saga (where Bernie Miklasz got played by Painter's agent for a couple million) and Mizzou ended up with Mike Alden in a beer goggles panic throwing the job at anyone who'd stop to talk to him at the Final Four. Presto: Frank Haith.

Turns out Alden hated his own hire even more than the fans did. And when he got rid of Frank, Mike turned into a paranoid little bitch. Sending empty planes to places he wasn't going and flying from weird airports to out of the way spots to meet candidates. I think the process took up so much space in his head that he didn't get a full slate of candidates.

Finally, I think he radically overestimated his ability to sell the job and that he'd closed the deal when Marshall left their meeting the week before Kim was announced. So when Marshall called back and declined, we no longer had any good options. It was like a game of Musical coaching chairs and Kim was the only one left with a chair when the music stopped.

I'm not sure why Alden set an artificial end date to the hiring process. Or perhaps someone else set it for him. But we certainly bore the brunt of that as a fan base.