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Frank Haith, the head coach of the Missouri Tigers, has been handed down a five game suspension by the NCAA for his role in a scandal with his old team, the Miami Hurricanes. The light punishment came as a shock to many, because, as head coach, there was no way he was unaware of the violations. The Tigers should use this suspension as an excuse to hire someone new, because Missouri is going nowhere under Haith’s leadership.
Haith just hasn’t been able to find his footing with the Tigers. In his two seasons with Missouri, he has had two teams that should have been dominant or at least put up a fight in NCAA tournament, but instead they floundered. The first was a 30–4 team with a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament that lost to No. 15 seeded Norfolk State in the first round. The second year he had a 23–10 record and lost to the Colorado State Rams in the first round. These results are unacceptable for teams with that much talent, so part of the blame must be put on the coach.
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On top of that, there should be good coaches available next season if they were to fire Haith and give an assistant coach the interim position.
I firmly believe that, unless the Memphis Tigers go to the Final Four in 2014, they will fire head coach Josh Pastner in favor of ex-Tennessee Volunteers head coach Bruce Pearl who is coming off of a coaching suspension by the NCAA. Pastner would be the perfect fit for a Missouri team that struggles getting top recruits. His connection with Memphis, as well as his ability to turn young squads into top NCAA teams, would greatly help the Tigers start winning again.
Haith is a good coach, but he’s not going to be successful with Missouri. The Tigers should get rid of him while they can or they might find themselves on the outside looking into the 2014 NCAA tournament.
Taylor Sturm is an SEC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS or add him to your network on Google.
