[duncan_idaho]

Weighing in from ...

On the game - So weird to watch Missouri physically beat up a Big Ten team and laugh about complaints that the refs let them play too rough and let Missouri go over everyone's back.

Pressey is not a great shooter - and some of those 3 attempts were bad shots (the only two I remember him taking in the second half came out of the flow of the offense, so I don't mind that). But that they won with him shooting 3/15 INSIDE the arc is pretty incredible. Nails at the FT stripe, too.

Missouri's inside trio - Bowers, Oriakhi and Criswell - is the best I can remember at Mizzou (I was a bit young to REALLY remember Doug Smith, Lee Cowerd and Gary Leoanard - just remember them being awesome). And they, along with Ross, were definitely the difference for Mizzou yesterday. I think Criswell is going to be a very nice starter for this team as a senior next year.

I think Jabari Brown makes a big difference for this team. His shooting ability forces teams to bring double-team help on Pressey from inside, rather than outside, leaving him room to drop off to big guys for easy finishes (like last year). This puts the pick-and-roll firmly back in the playbook for Mizzou, and puts Pressey at his best.

On Haith ...

I was very-anti Haith on the hiring. I was calling for him to be gone when the Miami allegations started surfacing. But I was wrong, and I'm damn glad of it.

It's apparent that his ability to hire and pay top assistants at Missouri is making a big difference. Despite the turnover, Haith has been able to put together STRONG staffs that can recruit and coach.

Look at the differences in Haith's recruiting classes so far. Jonathan Williams III, Wes Clark and Anton Beard are all going to end up being higher-ranked players than his best guy at Miami, Daquan Cook. The 2013 class is going to end up being a very good, and 2014 is off to a nice start with big names a strong possibility (notably, Devin Booker)

The ability to turn over the roster construction - and do it with quality transfer players - can't be overstated. Two games into his Missouri career, it looks like Jabari Brown is going to be a very good scoring guard who might live up to his HS hype. Ross and Bell are solid role players. And Jordan Clarkson, who can't play this season (After abandoning the former Beaker Danny Manning like a true son should), is a stud along the lines of Brown according to what I hear.

And as for what his teams are going to look like... even if Pressey jumps to the NBA (not a certainty unless he really turns it on in SEC play), I don't think Haith's teams will look much like Miami.

For next year... Criswell is a skilled face-4 who is a physical rebounder and finisher. I think he's better than Reggie Johnson, who was Haith's best big at UM. JWIII is a skilled face 4, too, and a top 50 recruit. Haith never had a big guy with that type of potential come in. Brown is going to be end up being a better 2-guard than anyone he had at Miami, too. Stef Jankovic also doesn't look like anyone he recruited at Miami.

I'm firmly in the camp, now, that Frank Haith's tenure at Miami doesn't really tell us anything about him - but it does tell us that AD doesn't support basketball well at all. Haith is likely going to finish this season with another sterling record (hard to imagine this team losing more than 4-5 games in SEC play) and have a winning percentage over .800.

And he's going to have done that in two different ways. Once with a thin, small, skill-based team, and once with a deep, big, physical team.