Stewart laments decline of Missouri basketball

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER\Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - After 32 years and 634 wins as Missouri basketball coach, Norm Stewart has earned the right to speak his mind. Right now, he doesn't like what he sees.

“People in Missouri took a great deal of pride” in the program, he told The Associated Press Tuesday. “It became part of the way of life. Now, I see that deteriorating.”

The 100th season of Missouri basketball turned out be a memorable one - for all the wrong reasons. Unsteady on the court, Missouri (12-15, 5-11) avoided a last-place finish in the Big 12 Conference with a one-point win over Nebraska in its regular season finale Sunday.

Missouri, a No. 11 seed, will meet Nebraska again Thursday in Dallas in the conference tournament's first round.

And talk about bad timing. A Feb. 12 celebration planned for Stewart and other members of the all-time Tiger team was overshadowed by questions about the circumstances surrounding the midseason resignation two days earlier by Quin Snyder, Stewart's successor.

Those questions continue to swirl around the program as university officials await results from an external investigation into the roles athletics director Mike Alden and his assistant, Tiger broadcaster Gary Link, had in Snyder's departure. Snyder has said Alden sent Link to deliver an ultimatum, with six regular season games remaining, that the coach would be fired after the season.

Stewart declined to directly criticize Alden, whom many Tiger faithful believe encouraged Stewart to step down in 1999.

“I wouldn't get into one individual,” said Stewart. “It's obvious right now we're not where we want to be.”

Melvin Watkins, Snyder's top assistant and a former head coach at Charlotte and Texas A&M, has led the team since the resignation. While Watkins wants to keep the job next season, most observers suggest Missouri will set its sight on a higher-profile replacement.

John Calipari of Memphis, former Utah coach Rick Majerus and West Virginia's John Beilein are among the top prospects.

Stewart, though, said his alma mater should look for a native son - he named former players Kim Anderson and Larry Drew - and eschew flashy outsiders.

Anderson, a former Stewart assistant passed over for the top job at Missouri seven years ago, coaches Div. II Central Missouri State. Drew is an assistant for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. Both have expressed interest in the Missouri job.

But don't look for Stewart to become involved in the coaching search, even informally.

“Obviously I think the process should be changed,” he said. “I'm not going to be in a position where I'm going to have anything to say in that regard.”

Whoever is selected as the Tigers' next coach should make it a priority to keep Missouri high school stars, said Stewart, a Shelbyville native. He noted that Poplar Bluff's Tyler Hansbrough is a freshman at North Carolina, where he is the team's leading scorer.

“If you can't control your own, you're going to have a tough time going outside and getting players that are as dedicated,” he said. “When a player from Missouri hears the fight song, the wrinkle in their neck comes a little quicker.”

Stewart, who splits his time between Columbia and Palm Springs, Calif., remains close to the university, which he led to a national baseball title while earning All-American honors in basketball.

Stewart, 71, can still be found courtside - at Norm Stewart Court - as a fill-in Tiger television analyst. He also helps raise money for the school's $1 billion capital campaign. But his true passion these days is spreading the word about colon cancer prevention.

The two-time national coach of the year was diagnosed with early stages of the disease in 1989, after collapsing on a team flight. A scar that stretches from his sternum to his navel serves as a reminder of the subsequent surgery and chemotherapy treatments.

Three years later, Stewart helped found the successful Coaches vs. Cancer program, an outgrowth of the American Cancer Society.

On Tuesday, Stewart was making the network TV rounds in New York to bring attention to his cause. March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Stewart is urging those particularly at risk for colon cancer - people over 50 and anyone with a family history of the disease - to get screened through the program, which is known as My Blue Star.

Later this month he'll head to Indianapolis to hand out blue stars and wristbands to fans, boosters and his fellow coaches at the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis.

“We're just trying to reach as many people as we can,” he said.

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On the Net:

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