Why Mizzou basketball will be terrible for the foreseeable future

The Frank Haith and Pinkel retirement repercussions will be felt at Mizzou for a long time within our basketball program.

Not only did Frank Haith's questionable character result in NCAA infractions against Mizzou, but his departure came at the worst time - near the end of Pinkel's coaching career.

Why am I talking about Pinkel in a basketball thread?

When Haith left Mizzou and Anderson was hired, Mizzou thought Pinkel had at least another 6 - 8 left in him. There was no need to worry about Pinkel bolting to another program or simply quitting. He was at the top of his game and it was clear that he wouldn't leave Mizzou. He made Mizzou relevant again.

Which made it easier for Mizzou to make a terrible basketball coaching hire in Kim Anderson. At the time Mizzou hired Kim Anderson, Pinkel was considered one of the best coaches in not only the SEC but the entire country. The Pinkel train seemed to be at full speed.

If the basketball hire didn't work out, so what? At least Mizou had great football. Mizzou could always fire the basketball coach and hire another one within 3 years. At least football was great.

But now Pinkel is gone. Mizzou hired Odom (which I truly believe will go down as one of the greatest football hires ever at Mizzou). But Odom was not a "homerun hire" and therefore we hired him at a very reasonable (low) salary ($2.3 million) compared to Pinkel's nearly $4 million per year.

Which brings me to my point. If Anderson has another terrible year this season, he's certainly going to be fired. He's already produced two of the worst basketball seasons in Mizzou history. His seat is incredibly hot.

When Anderson is fired, Mizzou can't afford to make a "homerun hire" to replace him because quite simply there's no way in hell Mizzou will pay more money for a basketball coach than what we pay our football coach.

For the past 15 years Mizzou has went all in on football. Mizzou finally realizes what other teams realized in the late 70s and 80s - football pays the bills. Missouri just completed a multi-million dollar renovation/addition to the football stadium. The donors are focused on football, not basketball.

There's no way Mizzou is going to jeopardize losing a football coach by paying a basketball coach more. And considering our football coach makes only $2.3 million at this time, there's no way Mizzou will dish out $4 million for a Greg Marshall caliber coach.

Which means we stick with Anderson for the long haul or we gamble the dice again and make another unremarkable hire to replace Anderson.

Regardless, it appears Mizzou basketball will be in the cellar for the forseeable future.