MIZZOU: I had to write an email last night, did you?

by Larry Thornton

KSDK-On Tuesday night a photo journalist and I set up shop at the wonderful Edward Jones building right off of Manchester. We were doing so because we were going to go live with Gary Pinkel on the six o'clock news. The Mizzou head football coach was in town for his annual St.Louis recruiting dinner.

After our live shot was finished and we had packed up our equipment, I decided to sneak a peak as Gary Pinkel addressed the crowd. 

I was expecting a bunch of coaches talking about each new recruit as if their name was already being put on the ring of honor at Faurot Field. What I didn't expect is the head football coach to address the head basketball coach at Mizzou.

Pinkel, in his ever so calm but stern way, told the crowd that anyone who openly doubted Mike Alden, when he hired Haith, to send him an apology via email and then added, "I'm not kidding."

Email sent.

It turned out writing the email was an excellent exercise. It made me reflect on why it was I was so quick to dismiss the hire and question Mike Alden's ability to identify a talented coach.

Alden had history on his side. He had brought in a rather unknown football coach in 2000 when he delivered Gary Pinkel to Columbia. His decision to hire Mike Anderson in 2006 revived a fading basketball program. Even Quin Snyder took the team to an Elite 8, and I am not even sure if that counts as an Alden hire.   I still believe Alden wanted Bill Self but was pressured in to the splash of hiring Snyder.

What I did was, and this not a fun thing to admit, I took the short sighted approach of glancing at his record at Miami and made an immediate assumption on how he would pan out at Missouri.

I know I am not alone in doing so. Many of us Mizzou fans glanced at the 43-69 record in ACC play and became irate and were calling for Alden's head.

I never took in to account he was in a basketball death bed in Coral Gables, and that on Rick Barnes staff he was regarded as a great recruiter. Those bullet points  didn't fit my agenda.

Then, even maybe more embarrassing, the Nevin Shapiro story breaks and Haith is accused of paying a player and there I am trying to find Haith's replacement even before he ever was able to defend himself or coach a game at Mizzou.

I took a convicted felons word over the head basketball coach at my Alma Mater. Why? Because it fit my agenda. I didn't think he belonged at Mizzou and was ready to kick him out.

Then something strange happened. I met Coach Haith. We had set up to do an interview with him at the Harpo's in Chesterfield. Wow, what a nice and humble man. He was soft spoken but very confident. He was very personable. He worked the crowd too. A Mizzou fan, who couldn't have been older than six or seven, asked Haith how many times Mizzou would beat Kansas. Haith replied with a grin, "How many time do we play them?"

I left there thinking I was really wrong about Haith.

Now, I know I was wrong. Haith has the Mizzou Tigers 22-2 on the season and in first place in the Big XII at 9-2 in league play.

Now, saying I was wrong because of his 22-2 start would be just as short sighted as saying I hated him for his record at Miami. 

It is not that they are 22-2 that has me grinning, it is how they have got to 22-2. 

His team plays together. They share the basketball. They have a little thing called, "chemistry." Star players are sacrificing their star roles to help the team. They look unbeatable in blowouts, they look unbreakable in the close games. And as we learned last Saturday against Kansas, they never quit.

While the team is winning on the court, Haith appears to be their biggest fan from the sideline. He shows pure emotion on the sideline. He jumps for joy when Kim English takes one of his patented charges. Or he gives a fist pump when Phil Pressey leads a fast break for an easy Ricardo Ratliffe basket. 

He loves the game, he loves this team. More importantly, he wants to be here. That last statement hasn't been true for our basketball coach in quite some time.

Dear Mike Alden, I'm sorry.