Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden Spurned Again: Problems in Columbia?

Mike Anderson went home to Arkansas.

Matt Painter stayed home at Purdue and parlayed the Missouri basketball head coach offer into concessions, an eight-year contract and a huge raise.

Missouri athletic director Mike Alden surely has a Plan B, but...

Has he learned yet?

He hired the flashy Quin Snyder at the urging of huge MU donor Bill Laurie who, with his Wal-Mart heiress wife, Nancy Walton Laurie, promised $25 million seed money to build a new spectacular basketball facility.  That came with the proviso that Alden fire longtime entrenched MU coach Norm Stewart.

As a high-schooler, Laurie was not offered a scholarship to Mizzou by Stewart.  That stuck in the craw of Laurie, but eventually he fared better at choosing a wife then any abilities he had on the basketball court. 

So Laurie, who lost millions as the owner of the St. Louis Blues professional hockey team, flashed Wal-Mart bucks at Alden, and Stewart was put out to pasture and Snyder arrived.

Following the wishes of Laurie, Alden also succeeded in alienating the Tigers faithful and cut the tree of the popular and relatively successful Stewart.

Does Alden get it yet?  Does he not realize the "home factor" that tugs at coaches?  Anderson went home.  Painter stayed home.  The money was the same.

Now where does Alden go to find his own "homeboy" coach?  He has cut the Stewart tree of solid oak and the branches from that tree (Jon Sundvold and Kim Anderson are examples) that could be prospective homeboy choices have been destroyed.

Alden barely kept his job in the Snyder fiasco.  Only his prowess in raising funds persuaded the Missouri hierarchy to keep from firing him. 

Alden is at the crossroads again. 

Could it be time for Alden to go and a homeboy installed, bringing with him or her a home-boy coach?

Time will tell.