The latest news is all a buzz about Pat Kilkenny meeting with Mike Anderson today, in an attempt to entice him to Oregon. This is absolutely great news, to me, and would be a fantastic hire. Mike Anderson would be the perfect coach for Oregon right now and I hope we can make it happen.
First of all, if you've read my posts on the message boards in the past, or read this blog a bit, you probably know that Anderson is my #1 "fantasy" choice for a coach. To be honest, I never thought he was on our radar, or more importantly, that we were on his radar. He's a southern guy who has played, coached and lived exclusively in the south. And while he's a hot name in coaching, he doesn't tend to get the big hype in part for that reason. He's been mostly a regional guy, and not in our region.
However, I started following his coaching career when he was at UAB. I first really took note of him in 2004, when UAB beat Washington in the first round of the tournament. It was the most fun game to watch in the tourney that year, UAB won 102-100 and that was not an Overtime score. Both teams were really getting up and down the court.
Anderson is an outstanding coach, who coached under Nolan Richardson for 17 years. He took over at UAB in 2002 and won 22+ games there every year for 4 seasons. He took UAB to the NCAA tournament 3 times in those 4 years (and the NIT semi finals the other year), going as far as the Sweet Sixteen. He then rebuilt Mizzouri and went as far as the Elite 8, just last season, which was also a 31 win season.
Anderson is a good recruiter and graduates players. Ernie's tradition in the classroom would likely continue under Mike Anderson.
Most of all, Anderson is a perfect fit for our current roster. He has adopted Nolan Richardson's "40 minutes of Hell" strategy, where they play pressure defense all the time, and pick up full court. Its incredibley fun style of play to watch that emphasizes a fast pace game, and forces that on the defensive end of the floor. The make up of his team consists of a stable full of great athletes, and liberal substitutions. Our roster was recruited to do the same thing, we just didn't have a coach that knew how to do so. We even heard lip service to playing "40 feet of hell" at the beginnig of this year, if you remember.
Malcom Armstead is a prototypical Mike Anderson point guard. Teondre Williams and Jamil Wilson would be electric in his system. Garrett Sim excels in the open court, but really struggles in the half court. EJ Singler is great playing a point-forward role on the break. Humphrey, Longmire and Dunigan are all well suited for an open court style of play.
Terrence Jones and Terrence Ross, should they decide to come to Oregon, would be outstanding under Mike Anderson.
You really couldn't find a better match for our current roster than Mike Anderson.
Those who know college basketball, and Mike Anderson, will be instantly excited by this hire. For those that don't know him, they will come flocking to Mac Court when we start blasting teams and putting up 90-100 points per game in the non-conference.
If Mike Anderson opens the new arena, we are going to have a success on our hands. Our style of play in basketball will resemble the exciting style of play we have in football. Does having the most entertaining brand of football and basketball sound like something the powers that be might be interested in having?
I think so too.
Mike Anderson would be the perfect fit for Oregon basketball. The only question now is, does he see it as the right fit for him?
