GD: You guys can phrase this question as many ways as you want as many times as you want. I have said over and over I don't feel it's my job to call for people's jobs. When it happens, we'll cover it. Hopefully if it happens, we'll break the news. We'll cover the heck out of the search if it gets to that point. But you won't see me saying he should be fired.

GD: I got a few forms of this question. So if you asked a different form of it and it's not answered below, that's why. First of all, I think college basketball is probably 85-90% recruiting. That's not to say coaching doesn't matter at all. I think Tom Izzo and Bill Self are guys who get more out of their roster than talent alone says. Brad Stevens was one of those guys. I think John Calipari is underrated as a coach, but he's so good at recruiting, I don't even know if it matters how good he is at coaching. But for the most part, you've got to get players, in college basketball much more than in college football. You can win at a very high level consistently--and even an elite level now and again--in college football without a roster full of four- and five-star guys. I don't think you can in college basketball, at least not with any consistency at all.

I don't think Kim Anderson is an elite in-game coach. But I don't think he's awful either. He's probably somewhere in the 80% of the bell curve that is a little better or worse than average. But his roster simply doesn't have as much talent as many of those he faces. And, yes, that ultimately comes back on him. In college hoops, give me a guy who can get the talent to sign with him and I'll take my chances that he'll call a timeout at the wrong time or mess up an inbounds play. Missouri's biggest issue is the roster.

GD: Any number of ways. They often fill out questionnaires at a camp. If we cover a game and talk to them, we get it in person or sometimes from their coach. We have a database that we put numbers into so that if I get a kid's number, other guys in our network have it. We do a lot of Twitter stalking too. Get a kid to follow you back, DM him and ask for his number for an interview.

GD: Odom--Some defensive tackles

Reid--Playoff games at home (meaning an upset of the Patriots by someone)

Earleywine--A contract for a radio show

Sterk--A blank check (not from me, though)

Smith--A J'Den Cox clone

Dodds--A note that says "This couldn't have all happened to a nicer guy"

GD: My first phone call is to Chris Mack. When he's done laughing and hanging up the phone, I'll move on to guys who might take the job. You can go ahead and put Archie Miller and Gregg Marshall in the same "if you have unlimited minutes, go ahead and call their agents to get shot down" category.

Yesterday, I put three names I view as potentially realistic. They were Frank Martin, Kevin Keatts and Jeff Capel. I'm sold on the first two, not the third (and I don't know if any of them would want the job). I'd probably replace Capel with Chris Holtmann, but I don't think Mizzou can get him.

GD: I have no real idea on Reyondous Estes. If I were to guess today, I'll say no. But, yes, I think Mizzou gets a QB in this class, whether it's him or someone else.

On the three players, I'll keep Kevin Puryear, Frankie Hughes and Willie Jackson. I think those are Missouri's three players with the brightest futures.

GD: Sterk doesn't have to make a case. If he thinks Anderson can get this thing going in the next year or two, he can keep him. We can all bloviate all we want, but the only opinion that really matters is Sterk's.

As far as the budget, I don't know what Missouri would be willing to spend. I think they have to be willing to spend $3 million a year. That doesn't mean they have to actually spend it. You don't pay a guy that much just to do it. You wouldn't have paid Barry Odom $4 million last year because he hadn't proven he was worth that. So you pay him what he's worth. Same here. If you can find a coach that the market says should make three million and you think he's the guy, do it. But if you can find a guy you think is the guy and pay him $1.5 million with the hopes that three years down the road he's proven himself to be worth three, do that. As far as someone wanting to finance it, anybody that wants to could call Sterk and say, "Here's a check for X dollars. Use it for your coach." I don't know if it's reasonable or not.

As far as beer, I don't know. I wouldn't do it. I've seen enough drunken idiots in the stands start problems. But some schools do and maybe Missouri will too.

GD: Probably not. If they're in a better position (and I'm not sure they would be), it's not by a significant margin. However, at least the hire would be made by someone that's not bolting three months later. And they do have a President, so that might help.

GD: There are a handful. Off the top of my head, I'd say five with a couple others that could turn into that in time. The problem is that those guys should be your 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th best players, not one through five. I think this team has some players who can be contributors to an NCAA Tournament team. I don't think it has any that can be a star on one.

GD: None now. They have an AD, they have a President and I assume they'll have a permanent Chancellor some time pretty soon. That wasn't the case a year ago.

GD: I would argue John L. Smith didn't do a whole lot to further Arkansas football a few years ago. I get people that want him out now. If Missouri fired him this afternoon, I wouldn't argue it was unjustified or ridiculous. But I also don't really think there's an advantage. These guys came here to play for Kim Anderson. My guess is they believe in him a lot more than the people on this website do. And even if you fire him today, you aren't hiring anyone until March or April. So it's not going to do anything for recruiting. AD's always have their lists. Sterk has a pretty good idea of who he wants to talk to if Anderson isn't here next year. That list isn't different now than it will be in two-and-a-half months.

GD: I don't think it's a big deal. Howland was a little unique in that he had been so tied to the Pump brothers over the years. But overall, you go hire a coach and he'll be on board with whoever provides the gear. If it is a major factor, I hate college basketball even more now.

GD: As always, you can be excited about whoever you would like to be excited about. I think Jamal Brooks and Aubrey Miller look pretty good and Terry Petry is at a big position of need. Most of the rest of the spots in this class will be used on defense, so it kind of remains to be seen what that side of the ball will look like in February. Cooper Mast is also a big fan of Nate Anderson.

GD: Boulevard

GD: I know this isn't the answer anybody wants, but I can only give my opinion. And my opinion is, I don't care. Give me a nice press box with better food and more room between chairs and I'm happy. Facilities and bells and whistles are factors in recruiting (at least that's what everybody says) so I'd let the players have a say in what they want, but I'm not an architect and it really just doesn't matter to me. Give me a stadium that holds enough people and looks like it compares with the others of teams you recruit against and go win games. That's going to impress a lot more people than if your stadium is pretty.

GD: Worse. Need the Donkeys to beat the Raiders (and lose to the Chiefs). Certainly possible, but they blew their chance to control things.

GD: We have our sources. If I told you who they were I'd have to cancel your subscription and scrub you from the Internet.

GD: The one with the most subscribers. I don't know who that currently is. I'd be okay with running the Alabama or Ohio State or Florida State or Texas sites. Those fanbases seem pretty rabid.

GD: They're still recruiting. They can talk to kids and contact them via text and social media. They just can't recruit off campus or host visitors. But they're still recruiting. Barry Odom said a couple weeks ago that the staff would also be meeting and going over everything offensively and defensively for some self-analysis. And, believe it or not, I bet they get a couple days off to spend with their families over the holiday.

GD: The best games would be the two against Kansas in 2011-12, the last year in the Big 12. If you're just a fan of basketball and don't care who wins, I can't imagine a better set of games between arch-rivals than those two. Possibly the most entertaining Mizzou game I've ever seen was the one against Memphis in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. That was stunningly beautiful basketball. And I'll throw in the triple overtime win over Illinois in 1993 (watched that on TV) and the four-OT game where Clarence Gilbert went nuts against Iowa State. Just missing the list would be Thomas Gardner scoring 40 against Kansas, the first 39:55 of the UCLA game and AP dropping 43 in Lawrence.

As far as players, you said my favorite, not necessarily the best. My frame of reference starts about 1985, so I missed Stipo/Sundvold and everything before that. In order, I go Derrick Chievous (he made me a Mizzou fan), Anthony Peeler, Melvin Booker, Marcus Denmon and DeMarre Carroll. That would be one hell of a starting five, by the way.

GD: Boyd no and Adams I don't think so.

And if it happens, it always is. The only promise I can make is that a lot of people will denounce the hire whenever it is made.

GD: I'm going to reserve two spots for wild cards. Those are guys Missouri is recruiting that we don't know about or will pop up over the next month. After that you go Walter Palmore, Malik Young, Zion Debose, Adam Sparks, Caleb Sampson, Jeff Thomas, Jaylen Twyman (not in any particular order).

GD: Yeah, I think Missouri can get some interest and get a pretty good coach if that's what ends up needing to happen in three months. It's a good program with quite a bit of history and there will be coaches who think they can get this thing going in a couple of years. Nobody likes to insult their own program quite like Mizzou fans. But I think they can make a solid hire if they choose to change direction. Maybe not a WOW hire, but a good one.

GD: The hell? Is that a thing people do? That's awful.

GD: The short answer is I have no idea on any of that. The names I threw out there were nothing more than me thinking out loud about guys I'd look at if I were the Mizzou AD (which I am not currently and do not anticipate being asked to be at any point in my life). I've had people tell me in the past Martin would definitely listen and be interested in Mizzou. I don't know if that's changed or not.

GD: Not very. I've met him twice. To be fair, he had a press conference last week and ice and terrible drivers prevented me from being there so it should be three times. Mack didn't talk publicly a whole lot, but he knew us all and would chat at games or whenever we saw him and talk to you. Same with Alden. I don't know if that will be the case with Sterk or not. I don't know him well enough yet to have any idea. I would assume it eventually will be, but he probably doesn't really know any of us either. I'd like to get a one on one with him sometime, but that's not really something Missouri does very often at all anymore.

GD: No. And the Browns would beat Alabama too.