Mike Anderson rejects Oregon's advances

First, St. John's ended their coaching search when they pulled Steve Lavin out of the ESPN studios and put him back on the sideline. Then DePaul, the doormat of major college basketball, snagged Oliver Purnell from Clemson.

Hell, even UNC-Wilmington, who had been without a coach for two months, was able to hire former Tennessee head coach Buzz Peterson.

And through it all, Oregon -- and Phil Knight's gobs of cash -- is still without a coach nearly six weeks after news first broke that Ernie Kent was going to be let go.

Mike Anderson will not be leaving Missouri.
(photo credit: Missouri.edu)

The latest rejection came from Missouri's Mike Anderson. He met with Pat Kilkenny -- the former Oregon AD who is heading up the search for a new coach -- at Nolan Richardson's charity golf event in El Paso, TX, on Thursday.

But on Saturday night, Anderson reassured the Tiger faithful he would not be leaving Columbia.

"It's certainly flattering any time another university notices what your program is accomplishing," Anderson said in a statement Saturday night. "And when I was approached by Oregon, I decided to listen, but it was simply with my family in mind. All that quick conversation did was reaffirm that Missouri is home to us."

Reports had Oregon offering as much as $3 million a year to Anderson, who just finished the first year of a seven-year contract with $1.55 million a season. It was the second time in two seasons that the former UAB coach and longtime Richardson assistant at Arkansas spurned the advances of a program offering more money. He turned down $2 million from Georgia before resigning with the Tigers after his Elite 8 trip in 2009.

That means that Anderson joins the long list of big-names that have rejected Oregon. Mark Few, Billy Donovan, Tubby Smith, Tom Izzo, Brad Stevens, and Jamie Dixon have all said thanks but no thanks to the Ducks.

It begs the question: what is wrong with the Oregon job?

Short answer: not much.

There's the Nike money that will be lining your bank account. The Ducks move into a new arena next season. There is a talented class of rising-juniors. Oregon does play in a Pac-10 that doesn't look to be all that promising next season.

But the problem is that Oregon doesn't realize that they aren't quite UCLA.

Think about it like this: Oregon is the guy in your fantasy league that overvalues every single player on his roster. He's the guy that offers you LaDainian Tomlinson for Adrian Peterson, that thinks that just because Kevin Garnett is Kevin Garnett, he's worth Kevin Durant straight up.

The Ducks need realize they aren't going to make a splash hire. They aren't going to land an established coach like Izzo or Smith that is good standing and they aren't in a position to pry a hotshot young guy like Stevens away from a good job.

The ironic part?

It doesn't matter whether or not the Ducks come to that realization, because they have already exhausted all of their options when it comes to big names. They can't make a splash hire because there are no names left on the market big enough to create more than a ripple.

Expect the next guy they go after to be Randy Bennett from St. Mary's.

And if that falls through?

Maybe Ernie Kent?

That would certainly make a splash.