COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A veteran Mizzou team that had won four NCAA Tournament games in two seasons was KO'd in the tourney's first round in 2011, its fifth loss in six games to cap the season.
Something had gone awry, something largely intangible but evident to incoming coach Frank Haith as he studied his new team.
The chemistry had leaked out.
"He kind of brought (that point) to us early and let us know that it was something we needed to work on," MU senior guard Marcus Denmon said. "He could see that from just watching film on us before the season started.
"It was the focal point."
Elusive as the concept might be, now, senior forward Ricardo Ratliffe said: "A lot of people tell me they can see it."
"It" helps explain why a team that was less than the sum of its parts a year ago has been doing much more with less entering today's 12:30 p.m. game against No. 6 Baylor (21-3 overall, 8-3 Big 12).
"You have to have that in order to win," Haith said. "I've been around teams that don't have it, and they're talented, and you don't win."
With no reinforcements and minus injured star forward Laurence Bowers to leave only seven healthy scholarship players, MU is 22-2, ranked fourth and tied for first-place in the Big 12 at 9-2 in conference play.
More experience accounts for some of the growth. Mizzou has five seniors in the rotation, but two of them, Ricardo Ratliffe and Matt Pressey, joined the program only a year ago as junior-college transfers. Sophomore guard Phil Pressey has improved exponentially from his frenzied freshman year.
But nearly everything else in MU's rise can be attributed to a form of chemistry. Or as Denmon put it: "It can make or break a team."
Just what had gone wrong in Mike Anderson's final few weeks before leaving for Arkansas remains unclear.
But frustrated body language among players was telling at times down the stretch, senior guard Kim English has said repeatedly he wouldn't have come back to Mizzou for anyone but Haith and some were weary of Anderson's tendency to brow-beat.
"We've had chemistry, because we've been together for so long," English said. "But to be able to translate that to an on-court product is something that a head coach has to implement. (Haith) has done an amazing job of that."
Typical of Haith's high-road way, he didn't refer to anything amiss in what he saw as he took the job.
"I think they've liked each other in the past … but I think these guys really understand how to work together on the court," he said. "That's what's been impressive."
The chemical balance is apparent in multiple ways.
At its simplest, it can be seen in the unselfishness of extra passes or charges taken or loose balls pounced on.
"I don't want to mess up for Marcus," English said. "And I don't want to mess up for Steve (Moore). And Steve doesn't want to mess up for me. And Marcus …"
And so forth.
"I think it started from the day Coach Haith got here, and I just feel like it's escalated ever since," junior guard Michael Dixon said.
The change in group dynamics was set in motion by a fundamental coaching difference.
Anderson has had great success with his "fastest 40 minutes" concept, but the structure, or lack thereof, has its downside.
Players might have found zooming up-and-down the court appealing, but the whirlwind, at-times seemingly whimsical, substitution patterns and absence of specific schemes could leave them puzzled about their roles.
Under Haith, MU is playing much more organized schemes on both ends of the floor. The lineup has been the same for 24 straight games, and the substitution patterns seldom vary.
Dixon pointed to that when asked if there is a different feeling of chemistry now.
"Yeah, I think (there is). Because we know what to expect from each other," he said. "Roles are defined, and guys know what they're going to do, and guys know where shots are going to come now, and things like that."
In a more general sense, English said, Haith has provided 'structure and rules and guidelines, and we abide by those rules and guidelines. And when we don't, we're held accountable."
All of which speaks to one of chemistry's key tributaries: trust, a word that comes up repeatedly around the Tigers and Haith.
To some degree, Haith specifically has tried to foster chemistry through trust, even in small ways.
It's a "huge deal with us," he said, to have teammates help each other up, or congratulate one another for making a good pass or communicating more clearly.
"When you sense that communication getting better and better and better," Haith said, "I think you start to feel like you have really good chemistry."
Last fall, Haith put the team through a weekend of team-building training with former Navy SEALS.
Part of that included time in the deep end of a pool with an exercise that perhaps was particularly meaningful to Ratliffe, who acknowledges he has trust issues and also can't swim.
Fellow Tigers helped move him through the water, including in the deep end.
"He was depending on his teammates …," Denmon said, "for him to not drown."
Some of what contributes to chemistry, though, can't be coached.
When Bowers went down with a torn ACL in early October, for instance, he might well have shrunk from the team.
Instead, he's a vibrant part of it all, offering insights to teammates during games, moving so enthusiastically at times on the bench that Haith has fretted he'll tear his other ACL and even working officials a bit.
"I bring a lot of energy to the bench," Bowers said, smiling, "and I'm going to continue to do that and hopefully I don't get a tech."
More seriously, though, Haith and Bowers' teammates consider him a valuable cog of a team that also is made up of reserves and redshirts enmeshed in the vibe.
"I'm not playing, and that kills me," Bowers said. "But I definitely feel like I'm a part of it."
Another part of the "it" factor that's helped make Mizzou's season so far.
"I think that chemistry is an important part of the game … It really wins games," Denmon said, adding, "We had to get better at it, because it wasn't always there, and it isn't always here: We continue to work on it now."
