The Kim Anderson era at Missouri will end after three disappointing seasons after first-year athletic director Jim Sterk announced Sunday that he'd asked Anderson to step down as men's basketball coach after the Tigers' final game this year.
"This decision has been very difficult for me personally because of the tremendous respect I have for Kim," Sterk said in a release from the school. "I know how hard he and his staff have worked to turn the program around over the last three years, however, the lack of on-court success has resulted in a significant drop in interest surrounding our program, and we could not afford for that to continue another year."
Multiple sources told The Star that Parker Executive Search will assist Mizzou in the search for its next coach.
It felt like there was a certain providence April 29, 2014, as Kim Anderson's introductory news conference was interrupted three times by standing ovations in the Great Room at Missouri's Reynold Alumni Center.
Fans longing for a return to the Tigers' glory days under Hall of Fame coach Norm Stewart were rapturous Anderson was hired as the school's 18th full-time men's basketball coach.
Anderson _ a "True Son" from Sedalia, Mo., who won Big Eight player of the year honors under Stewart in 1977 _ returned for his dream job, fresh off coaching Central Missouri to an NCAA Division II championship.
But at Mizzou, Anderson's teams put up a 26-67 record _ including 8-46 in the Southeastern Conference, a .148 win percentage _ and he will not return for 2017-18 after arguably the worst three-year stretch for the MU basketball program.
No Missouri coach has posted a worse overall mark than Anderson's .280 winning percentage. The Tigers, who only finished last in their conference 10 times before his arrival, are the 14th and final seed for the upcoming SEC tournament.
Missouri only had two 20-loss seasons in 108 years before Anderson's arrival, but slogged through successive campaigns of 9-23, 10-21 and 7-23. The 23 losses in 2014-15 set a program record and matched the SEC record for futility.
Any loss in the SEC tournament, which begins for the Tigers on Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., with a rematch of Saturday's 89-78 loss against Auburn, would break that record.
The Tigers also twice set a dubious record for the longest losing streak in program history at 13 games, first in 2014-15 and again in 2016-17.
Mizzou never won a road game under Anderson. The Tigers only won twice away from Mizzou Arena _ against Division II Chaminade in the seventh-place game of the 2014 Maui Invitational and against Tulane in the seventh-place game of the 2016 Tire Pros Invitational.
Anderson hands off a 35-game road losing streak and 32-game road slide in SEC play, which started with the final five road games in 2013-14 under Frank Haith, to the Tigers' next coach.
But Missouri's home record _ 24-27 _ wasn't exactly stellar and attendance plummeted more than 40 percent during the last few seasons.
