After a deal seemed imminent through much of Wednesday afternoon, Missouri couldn't quite pry Matt Painter away from his position as head coach of his alma mater the Purdue Boilermakers. The Post-Dispatch, whose sources for a while suggested it was a done deal, report that while Mizzou's world-class offer to Painter was alluring to a coach "annoyed by a culture of nickel-and-diming", it couldn't quite pull him away from an ostensibly identical offer back in Indiana.
With Painter off the board, step one in the Tigers' post-Mike-Anderson coaching search has left their fans more than a little disillusioned, but their willingness to pay top dollar for a head coach has only been confirmed by their second long-term $2 million offer in as many weeks.
One thing is certain, with Mike Anderson in Arkansas and Matt Painter at Purdue forevermore: Missouri needs to find a coach who really hates the college in which he made his name. It seems like the only way to avoid these tearful goodbyes.