Mizzou Takes Steps To Keep Anderson

Whether Mike Anderson agrees and stays on at Mizzou remains to be seen.

But MU was on the verge Monday of finalizing a contract extension and raise for Anderson that it believed will keep him at the school, according to sources familiar with the dynamics.

Pending approval by the university Board of Curators at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday and today in Rolla, Mo., the new contract would add two years to the five remaining on Anderson’s contract and call for a jump to close to $2 million a year from his current guaranteed salary of about $1.5 million.

That’s if Anderson indeed accepts it at a time Arkansas is believed to consider him a prime target to replace John Pelphrey, who was fired March 13.

Despite a swirl of rumors in the wake of Pelphrey’s firing and the likelihood that Anderson and his representative, Jimmy Sexton, have been approached about the job, it is unclear whether Arkansas has made an offer to Anderson, who was an assistant coach there for 17 years.

That innuendo has intensified largely by way of Twitter since MU’s NCAA Tournament loss last Thursday.

But Anderson was seen by multiple news outlets recruiting for Mizzou on Saturday in Columbia, and MU players have given no indication of any change afoot through their Twitter posts the last few days. Attempts to interview players and their families have been unsuccessful.

A Mizzou source said Anderson was believed to be in Columbia and probably playing pickup basketball as he usually does on Mondays at the student recreation center – as indicated by a tweet from MU student Ben Picardi, who also is a stringer for The Associated Press.

As of Monday night, it remained uncertain if the impending MU offer, which has been in the works for weeks, would be accepted and thus end speculation about the immediate future of Anderson.

And it’s believed that Missouri would not go beyond the financial terms outlined and enter a bidding war should it come to that. Anderson, 51, is 111-57 in five seasons since taking over Quin Snyder’s scandal-plagued program, which went 44-47 in his last three seasons.

If Mizzou is able to keep Anderson, the money to do so will be generated through the athletic department and athletics fundraising.

Continuing attempts to reach athletics director Mike Alden for comment have been unsuccessful, and a request to speak with Anderson on Monday received no immediate response.

The curators went into executive session late Monday afternoon to discuss personnel matters but announced beforehand they had no plans to make any announcements after that meeting.

After taking MU to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight two seasons ago, Anderson signed a contract extension through 2016 that – including a deferred payment incentive for staying four years – effectively doubled his initial salary of about $850,000.

At that time, Georgia was wooing Anderson, and according to ESPN.com, offered him a long-term contract worth more than $2 million a season.

After last season, Anderson spent several days weighing an apparently lucrative offer from Oregon – widely reported at wildly different sums – before deciding to stay and suggesting concerns about his departure were exaggerated.

“I think a lot of people fail to understand who Mike Anderson is and what he’s all about,” he said then. “I’m … a substance guy. … I’m not a guy who goes out and tries to find jobs. … People that know me, know I’m not a money guy.”

Judging by some comments from alumni and fans through social media and in conversations, people at MU don’t know him that well yet. Some have expressed anger at talk that he has flirted with other schools.

Whether or not he’s had a dalliance with Arkansas, Anderson in three separate news conferences has not renounced the possibility when asked if he’s unequivocally staying.

He offered stronger assurance when he called the Columbia Daily Tribune to clarify a point March 4, saying then, “I plan on being at Missouri a long time, retire here.”

While more emphatic, it still left wiggle room, room seized on the last few days particularly over the Internet, where several news outlets suggested he would be announced as Arkansas’ coach on Monday.

As of Monday night, that hadn’t happened yet. But nor had a new deal with MU been announced.