Missouri Basketball Retains Assistant Coach Tim Fuller

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On Wednesday afternoon, Missouri basketball assistant Tim Fuller announced that he would be returning to the staff for 2014-15 under newly appointed head coach Kim Anderson. The 36-year-old Fuller, who played at Wake Forest, has served as an assistant since 2000 at various schools including Wake, North Carolina A&T, Elon, Fairfield, and Louisville prior to coming to Missouri. During that time, he served under two very esteemed head coaches, Skip Prosser and Rick Pitino. Fuller is considered by many to be one of the fastest-rising young assistants in the game.

Fuller came to Missouri along with recently departed head coach Frank Haith in 2011, and he was promoted to associate head coach in April of 2012. When Haith was suspended for this past season’s first five games, Fuller served as the interim head coach and guided the team to a 5-0 record. While these games were against less talented non-conference opponents, Fuller’s success contrasted with Haith’s rather unimpressive 18-12 mark.

Especially since he will be working with a head coach who has not been on a Division I staff since 1999, Fuller will be an extremely valuable asset to the Missouri staff. He’s a good recruiter who seems to do a good job of building relationships with players, and he obviously is a sharp basketball mind as well. It’s a little bit surprising that Fuller was willing to return to a program that may be a couple years away from being extremely competitive again, but hopefully he can continue to add to his reputation and earn a solid head coaching opportunity in the near future.