Missouri Basketball: Is Cuonzo Martin the right choice for the Tigers?

Missouri basketball’s newest head coach is a familiar face in the Midwest.

Major dominos fell in the Pac-12 and the SEC on Wednesday as Cuonzo Martin resigned as head coach of the California Golden Bears after three seasons on the job. Martin, who will have to pay the school $1.2 million in a buyout, later accepted a seven-year, $21 million contract to be the next head coach of the Missouri Tigers.

The Tigers recently asked Kim Anderson to step down from the position in order to pursue Martin, who has ties to the Midwest dating back to his six years coaching at Missouri State and Tennessee. Martin also grew up in the East St. Louis area and played college basketball at Purdue from 1991-95.

Missouri is in desperate need of immediate talent. The team has won a total of 27 games in the last three seasons and has suffered from significant departures like JaKeenan Gant, Montaque Gill-Ceasar, and Namon Wright, among others.

With Martin’s familiarity with the Midwest region and his knack for reeling in high-quality talent (he got Ivan Rabb, Jaylen Brown and Charlie Moore to commit to Cal), he seems to be a solid fit for the position. Add in the splash that was already made this evening, and Mizzou fans are likely jumping for joy right now.

Cuonzo Martin will add Michael Porter Sr as an assistant, per sources. Michael Porter Jr did not sign an NLI.
— Paul Biancardi (@PaulBiancardi) March 15, 2017

Michael Porter Sr. is the father of the top recruit in the class of 2017 Michael Porter Jr. and 2018 top 30 center, Jontay Porter. Porter Sr. was an assistant coach on the Missouri women’s basketball team before accepting a position with Washington, where both his sons later committed. With Porter Sr’s friend, Lorenzo Romar, getting fired after 15 years on the job, the oldest Porter is moving back to Missouri (his family grew up in Columbia and has deep ties to the area) and very well could be taking both of his sons with him.

This is obviously bad news for Washington and excellent news for the Missouri Tigers and their starving fan base.

But in the big picture, is this the right man for the job?

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We know Martin can reel in talent, but can he win with that talent? Will he stick around for longer than three years at a high major program?

Those are the questions that some of us are asking.

It’s obvious Martin has potential as a head coach and if he does indeed land both Porter brothers, that would be a phenomenal start to his tenure. Not only will Missouri have the potential number one pick on their campus, but they will be creating excitement surrounding a program that hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2010.

The concerns that I have in relation to Martin creep up, though. What has he proven at this level? He has been to just two NCAA Tournaments in nine years and failed to make it out of the first round with two lottery picks (Rabb and Brown) last season. Rabb returned this year and Martin failed to lead Cal to the Big Dance and then suffered a brutal opening round NIT loss to CSU Bakersfield.

He did help Tennessee come out from underneath an NCAA investigation and guided them to the Big Dance in 2013-14 (his last year on the job). He also won a combined 39 games in his first two years in Knoxville, including a 20-win season in year two. However, they lost in the first two rounds of the NIT in both years.

Next year, if Porter does indeed commit, Missouri is going to have to find more talent to put around him or else their season could potentially end with the third straight number one pick missing the NCAA Tournament. Porter is a sure-fire pro in 2018, so Martin will have to reset once again in 2018-19 as he tries to build a consistent winner.

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While Missouri is looking for some direction, this is a job that has a terrific fan base, great facilities, a fertile recruiting base and money to support their team. They are also an SEC program that can shoot up the standings due to the lack of powerhouses within the league. Missouri will be pleased to create some excitement and buzz (as mentioned above), but it’s fair to wonder whether Martin will win big at Mizzou and whether or not the school should have waited to poach a young assistant with the ability to rebuild the program from the ground up.

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