As Missouri students cram into Ellis Library to prepare for midterm exams (or for tornado drills), first-year athletics director Jim Sterk is now faced with his first real test just nine months after arriving at Mizzou. After asking men’s basketball coach Kim Anderson to step down at season’s end, the athletics department is now left to search for its fourth head basketball coach in seven years and finds itself at a crucial juncture.
The next men’s basketball coach will likely come to define the next half decade, or possibly more, of Missouri men’s basketball. Should this coach be a success, the team could find itself once again competing on the national landscape within the next three to five years.