Marquette coaching search

[billyjack]

On Cuonzo Martin, it would be cool if Bluejayfanatic, Jet and other Creighton fans told us a little more about him from his Missouri Valley days. I've thought that Howland would be a fantastic hire, but since Cuonzo is being considered, I figured I'd try taking a crash-course on Cuonzo this weekend.

So here's my 4th grade book report version (double-spaced, large font):

He's from East St Louis (working class town, hometown of hard-nosed athletes Jimmy Connors and the Spinks brothers). Went to Purdue under Gene Keady, and was a teammate with Glenn Robinson. Made an Elite-8 in 94 as a junior.

After Purdue, played in a handful of games for the Grizzles and Bucks, then played in Italy. His career ended when diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphona (whoa). Had intense chemo treatments and thankfully recovered.

Coaching career:
2000 to 2008: assistant coach at Purdue under Gene Keady thru 05 and Matt Painter thru 08.
Purdue made 4 NCAA's (including 1 Elite-8) while he was an assistant.

Missouri State
2009: 11-20. 3-15 MVC.
2010: 24-12. 8-10 MVC. Won CIT tourney. Including CIT, finished season 7-2 (last 9) and 9-4 (last 13).
2011: 26-9. 15-3 MVC. Lost MVC Tourney Finals. NIT. Including NIT, finished season 9-3 in last 12 games.

Tennessee
2012: 19-15. 10-6 SEC. NIT. Finished regular season 8-1 (last 9 games) and 10-3 (last 13).
2013: 20-13. 11-7 SEC. NIT. Again finished regular season 8-1 (last 9) and 10-3 (last 13).
2014: 24-13. 11-7 SEC. NCAA Sweet 16. Finished regular season 5-1 (last 6). Including post season, finished 9-3 (last 12 games).

So, his teams tend to finish strong.
SEC was weak overall in 2014, but Tennessee had a 35 pt win vs Virginia and split with Xavier.
In 2013 Tennessee beat Xavier, Wichita State, Kentucky and Florida.
In 2012 Tennessee beat Florida twice and Connecticut.

I'd be really curious to see why Volunteer fans didn't like him. His trendlines look excellent. He followed great Bruce Pearl years, so maybe they're basing their criticism on that...? Did Martin have to clean up a lot of Pearl's mess...?

[HoosierPal]

Some higher ups or donors seem not to like Howland for one reason or the other.

Google Howland and read what he did to recruits, local AAU coaches and alumni/donors at UCLA. You will see why some "higher ups or donors" may have a red flag up.

[Omaha1]

Cuonzo got grief from MVC fans about his behavior as he was a little too excited to shake hands with an opposing coach after games a couple of times. He inherited (didn't recruit) Kyle Weems who was the MVC POY and Martin never led MSU to the NCAA tournament. Seems like a reach for Marquette.

[BEX]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... w-contract

[bluejayfanatic]

Cuonzo's teams have had a tendency to start out inconsistent and end strong. The exception being his second year at MSU (09-10) when the Bears started off 10-0 but finished 8-10 in the Valley. The Bears did win the CIT that year, though.

Another thing, Cuonzo's teams at MSU were loaded with transfers and JUCOs. Not necessarily a bad thing, but he built his core at MSU to win the Valley quickly and get out of Springfield asap (which is exactly what happened). The Bears had a 35-ish RPI that year and got snubbed by the committee. Except for Weems, Zo's reluctance to recruit high school talent left the cupboard pretty bare for Zo's replacement (also a former Purdue assistant). This is probably irrelevant to Marquette because Zo won't be looking for a fast start and quick exit in Milwaukee. His recruiting at Tenn looks solid.

Overall, Cuonzo ran a clean program and his players played hard. He was a good X's and O's coach (won a lot of close games, especially his last year at MSU). I think he ultimately wants to land back at Purdue, and he probably thinks Marquette/Big East is a better route there than the SEC. Marquette is a high-level job, though, and if he is successful there that could be his destination job.

Zo did rub a lot of Valley fans wrong in his last year at MSU. The Bears won several close games to win the conference that year, and I'm thinking specifically of home wins vs. Creighton and Wichita State in which Zo and some of his players were criticized for being over-excited and snubbing opposing coaches in the handshake line. Personally, I think that's overblown. He was a young coach who quickly turned around a program hungry for banners. I doubt that will be a problem at Marquette.

[Jet915]

Looking back at his recruiting at Tennessee, looks like he got (according to Rivals) 2 5 star recruits (Stokes, Hubbs), 1 2 star and the rest were 3 stars over 3 years. Some say that Stokes was really a Pearl recruit. To me, that is alright, not blown away by his recruiting though.

[Randy]

Hate the Cuonzo Martin option. Maybe I would eat my words in 3 years, but it just feels like a big time settle. He has been a middle of the pack SEC coach and was about to be shown the door if it was not for wins over Iowa, UMASS, and Mercer.

I would rather take a chance on a rising star. For me, the best option were:

1) Gregg Marshall
(large gap)
2) Shaka
3) Wardle/ Manning

I would not have touched Howland with a 10 ft pole. Lots of baggage there.

[bman95]

Howland is not a clean recruiter, but a decent coach known for having good defensive teams. The last 2 years in LA, it looked like those guys just didn't want to play D. But his time in Pitt as well as his early years UCLA they played great D.
When you coached guys like Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook, it should be easy to keep current MU recruits and continue the great recruiting classes for upcoming years.
Howland made the key defensive sub that led to one of the great NCAA finishes in my memory that made Adam Morrison cry.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt0VUSyVIr4

[Burrito]

It looks like Cuonzo Martin has removed his name from consideration for the Marquette job.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... sideration

[LeMoyne00]

Why do none of these big names want to come to a big time program with pay and perks? Is there something going on internally with MU athletics that everyone is removing their names?