If I were a Missouri fan, I'd be freaking out right now.

Sorry, but it's true. Mike Anderson has overseen a basketball renaissance at Missouri since taking over for the scandal-ridden Quin Snyder in 2006. Anderson has installed a system, based on Nolan Richardson's famed "40 Minutes of Hell," that is unlike any other basketball strategy in the country. What's more, he's able to get his players to buy in, to play like pressing, shot-flinging, ball-deflecting banshees for 40 minutes. And it works. Anderson took over a program in disarray and in four short years is perennially competing for Big 12 titles and has already gone to an Elite Eight with what some would classify as inferior talent. Now, Anderson has talent rolling in, a guard-heavy No. 11-ranked recruiting class primed to keep Missouri in the tournament for years to come.

That is, if Mike Anderson doesn't go to Oregon. That "if" is getting bigger by the day.

Late Thursday night, The Oregonian reported that Anderson and Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny met in El Paso, Texas, where they talked face-to-face about Oregon's conspicuous college basketball coaching availability. The Ducks have been floundering in trying to land a coach, something of a surprise given their Nike resources and the brand-new arena just built in Eugene, Ore. Original reports by WHB 810 in Kansas City indicated that Anderson initially turned down a $3 million offer from Oregon, but the Oregonian's report insists that "talks are ongoing." Andy Katz just reported that Oregon asked Missouri for permission to speak with Anderson.

Oregon has taken a deserved amount of flack from the college basketball world for its bumbling, outsized coaching search. Tom Izzo? John Calipari? Heck, a source told Dana O'Neil that Oregon started its coaching search by looking only at candidates that had won a national title. Seriously. Oregon limited its prospective pool of candidates entirely to those it had absolutely no shot of hiring. There's something to be said for shooting for the stars, but yeesh.

The Ducks have a chance to remedy all that by hiring Anderson. The outsized self-impression? The institutional ego? The assumption that money can buy you prestige? Whatever. Anderson would be a huge coup, the best Oregon could have done under the circumstances. For Anderson, the chance to build on Oregon's alluring foundation -- all that Nike money, that glimmering new arena, all of it -- would be just as tempting and driven by ego. Anderson has proven that he can win at UAB and Missouri. Why not try it a place where the risks, rewards, spotlight and, oh yeah, the money, would be exponentially greater?

Which is where Missouri comes in. If they want to keep Anderson, it's time to pony up. (It's worth considering the possibility that Anderson is merely flirting with Oregon to boost his own salary at Mizzou. Let's not forget that.) More cash, new facilities, whatever; Mike Anderson is the best thing to happen to Tiger basketball in a long time, and if he leaves, it's back to square one. Does Missouri want to be a steppingstone or not? It's time to decide.

The result of that decision will have a lot to do with whether Mike Anderson becomes Oregon's latest shiny toy. Missouri's pocketbooks versus Oregon's. Mano a moneyo. Like I said, if I were a Missouri fan, I'd be freaking out right now.