January 24, 2015

On March 4, 2011, then-Missouri men’s basketball head coach Mike Anderson, with 111 program wins and a recent Elite Eight appearance under his belt, said he wanted to retire a Mizzou Tiger.

Less than three weeks later, he left Columbia to become the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. Anderson did not hold a press conference to address his decision to leave, and he brought three members of the Mizzou staff with him to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Anderson and the Razorbacks have gone 74-43 (.632) since his arrival. Meanwhile, the Tigers have a record of 83-40 (.675) since his departure from the program.

“Mike has done a great job there,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said.

Mizzou joined Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference in 2012. The two teams have been named permanent cross-division rivals, with Arkansas and Missouri facing off in a “Battle Line Rivalry” football game for the first time in November 2014. In basketball, the two programs have faced each other since the Tigers’ inaugural season in the new conference.

Though this newfound rivalry is not nearly as intense as the notorious Missouri-Kansas “Border War” rivalry, Mizzou’s history with Mike Anderson adds fuel to the flame.

The wound he left in the hearts of Mizzou basketball fans may not be as fresh as it was nearly four years ago, but Tiger fans showed Saturday that they were still not over his decision to leave.

The 14-4 Razorbacks payed a visit to the Mizzou Arena to face a struggling Tiger squad Saturday, and the Arkansas head coach was greeted with an ovation of boos from over 11,000 Mizzou faithful.

Mike Anderson commended the arena’s crowd and the energy they brought to the game.

“The thing I love about it is the people (at Mizzou) care about basketball,” he said. “They’ve got passion about it. That means I did my job when I came here.”

But it was Arkansas who hung on for a dramatic 61-60 victory over Mizzou in front of the Tigers’ largest crowd of the season. It was Anderson’s first win at Mizzou Arena since he stood in front of the home team’s bench.

“Obviously there’s a lot of storylines – everyone want to talk about it and read about it,” Mike Anderson said. “But I’m a day-to-day guy. Was it a big game? Yes.”

Sophomore guard Wes Clark missed two free throws with 3.3 seconds left that could have won the game for the Tigers.

After the loss, Mizzou has a record of 3-2 against Anderson’s Razorbacks. Before Saturday, the Tigers’ only loss against their former coach came on Feb. 16, 2013, in the Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. Arkansas defeated then-head coach Frank Haith’s team 73-71, but three weeks later the Tigers got redemption, crushing the Razorbacks by 30 in the Mizzou Arena.

Mizzou gets a second crack at Arkansas Feb. 18, this time in Fayetteville. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. in the Bud Walton Arena.

“Certainly we’re a border state,” Anderson said. “So I guess it’s a rivalry now.”

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