Embattled Mizzou coach intends to finish season

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Embattled Missouri coach Quin Snyder said Thursday he has not been asked to resign, and has no intention of doing so.

''It hasn't been suggested to me,'' Snyder said. ''There's been plenty of times that option could have come up. I'm coaching my team, so I'm going to keep doing that until someone tells me not to, keep working as hard as I can.''

Missouri is 10-11 and has lost six straight, all by double digits, heading into Sunday's home game against Kansas State. During Snyder's seven seasons, the program has been marred by a scandal related to troubled point guard Ricky Clemons, resulting in probation last season, and a steady decline in victories.

Snyder, a protege of Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, was hired to take Missouri to national prominence and had 20-win teams three of his first four seasons after Norm Stewart retired. In the three seasons the, once-proud program is 42-42. Missouri is in 11th place in the Big 12 with a 3-7 record, and attendance has plummeted at the year-old Mizzou Sports Arena.

''There certainly is frustration,'' Snyder said. ''As a coach I want my team to play better and I know I'm responsible for that. But until that question poses itself, I'm going to say my party line: It's not about me, it's about our team and trying to win games.''

Athletic director Mike Alden did not return a telephone message from The Associated Press.

Missouri has six games left in the regular season to turn it around and little reason for optimism beyond Snyder's pie-in-the-sky musings before shaking off flu-like symptoms and running practice Thursday: ''Yeah, sure, why not? Improbable things have happened.''

Snyder hasn't given up. He benched leading scorer Thomas Gardner in the second half at Texas Tech -- ensuring a loss -- to remind players they have to play defense, too, and he was looking forward to spreading his lineup in practice Thursday to encourage more drives to the basket. He'll encourage players to play loose, and not worry about missing a shot.

''Obviously we'd like to be winning, but we're not right now,'' Snyder said. ''We've got to keep working; there's some things we can do.''

There are also some things they can't avoid. Players have been bombarded by rumors that their coach won't be back -- many of them before this season even began.

''It's always around you,'' Gardner said. ''It's on campus every day, it's in the papers and stuff, so it's easy to look at it.''

Senior center Kevin Young said he's been dealing with such sideline issues since he hit campus, one of them regarding Snyder's supposed vanity. One rumor claimed that the traveling party always included a hair stylist for Snyder.

''I think that must be the dumbest one I've ever heard,'' Young said. ''I mean, every year you hear more and more rumors and some of them are so out there that after a while you just start forgetting about them.''

In case anybody missed the gathering storm clouds, Snyder addressed the situation after Missouri's latest loss, a 26-point drubbing at lightly regarded Baylor on Tuesday night.

''What I told them was let's not make this about me, my job, them individually, their performance,'' Snyder said. ''Let's make it about us and just stick together and do the best job we can.''

Players appreciate that attitude.

''He's taking it like a man,'' senior guard Jimmy McKinney said. ''He's taking it as a great coach would, and he's going to continue to coach us.''

Expectations were low for this season's team, coming off a 16-17 finish. Missouri fit the profile with a 33-point neutral-court loss to Illinois before winning six of seven, one of the victories on the road over ranked Oklahoma and another coming in overtime over rival Kansas.

Then came the losing streak, by an average margin of 19 points. Against Baylor, the effort of his players appeared indifferent at times, although they insist they have not quit.

''It's what's inside of you,'' McKinney said. ''If you feel like a quitter, you're a quitter.''

Coaches also insist nobody has given up, that it just looks that way.

''There are maybe moments on the court when we don't play as hard as we would like, and someone might equate that to quitting, but that's not the case,'' associate head coach Melvin Watkins said. ''Our kids are good kids, good people first.

''We'll depend on them to go out and give us a hard day's work.''