World Actress

So it appears that today will be another crazy day in Internet land, as Missouri fans try to figure out if their basketball future is as secure as their coach said it was a few days ago, or if they're going to be looking for their fourth coach in 40+ years soon.

What do we know at this point?  Not a lot.

1. Thursday night, Mike Anderson reiterated to local reporters the Arkansas rumors were ridiculous.  (Again, Roy Williams said the same thing about North Carolina in 2003.)

2. Mike Anderson was out recruiting for Mizzou (one has to think) yesterday, first at Mizzou Arena to watch Otto Porter, then in Kansas to watch the national JUCO tournament.

3. ?

That "sources close to the Arkansas program" have been telling reporters (mostly from Oklahoma, strangely enough) that Anderson is a done deal for days seems to stand in contrast with the one semi-fact we have in our hands from the time period after Thursday night.  But we don't have records of incoming and outgoing calls to Anderson's cell phone, and nobody's logged on to FlightAware.com (somehow) to try to find out if some plane from Fayetteville flew to Hutchinson, KC, for a late-night meeting last night.  So anything anybody thinks they know at this point stems from the reliability of "sources close to the Arkansas program.*"

*I officially know one Arkansas alum, and she is one of my favorite people in the world, so it almost makes me feel guilty that, when seeing/hearing the phrase "a source close to the Arkansas program," I immediately think of the Buddy Garrity-style, no-nothing-but-convince-people-you're-important individual who is happy to tell reporters that whatever he wants to happen is about to happen.  For all I know, these "sources" are rock solid, but my eyes glaze over every time I read that phrase, and I go out of my way not to believe a single word they are passing to reporters.  (That they are passing along news that I don't like aids me in this attempt.)

Whether "reports" from "sources" are correct or not, we will probably know soon.  I'm less optimistic now than I was two days ago, but we'll see what happens.  So ... ALL-DAY LIVE THREAD!!

(This ordeal, by the way, has made me dislike sports journalism even more. Now, if Anderson does indeed go to Arkansas, somebody who passed along a 1% solid rumor three days ago -- reporting what he had and crossing his fingers that he ends up correct -- can claim that he knew what was going on all long.