Bill Self, who coached at the University of Tulsa, is well-acquainted with Mike Anderson, the former Golden Hurricane player who Sunday was named head basketball coach at Missouri.
“I think Mike is an excellent hire for Missouri. He will bring an exciting brand of basketball, great energy and great credentials to Columbia,” Self, Kansas University’s coach, said of the 46-year-old Anderson, who played for Nolan Richardson at Tulsa. He then moved to Arkansas with Richardson, where he helped Richardson fine-tune the famous “40 Minutes of Hell” brand of pressing basketball.
“I feel I know Mike quite well. I’m sure he’d say the same thing about me,” Self added. “He was a very good player at Tulsa and then, of course, was with coach Richardson many years and helped recruit and mold that (Arkansas) national championship team of 1994. He’s done a great job at UAB the past four years.”
Self said Missouri would play pressure defense under Anderson, who went 89-41 at UAB with three NCAA Tournament appearances.
“They will play pressure. That’s one thing that bothered us in the NCAA Tournament, going against somebody that pressured us,” Self said. “Teams didn’t do it in our league, with the exception of Oklahoma State. With the hires on each side of us (Bob Huggins at K-State and Anderson at Missouri), we’ll see pressure defense, whether trapping or in-your-face defense.”