After five seasons leading the program, Missouri Basketball has announced that Cuonzo Martin will not return as head coach of the Tigers. A former player at Purdue and 2nd round Draft pick by the Atlanta Hawks, Martin was at his fourth head coaching position at the D1 level, lasting longer at Missouri than any of the other three schools.
The first decade of his career came in West Lafayette, first at the high school level and then as an assistant under Gene Keady and Matt Painter with the Boilermakers. Martin’s first chance to run his own program came in 2008 when he was hired to take the reigns at Missouri State in the MVC. After a tough first season, Martin led the Bears on a fantastic turnaround, winning the CIT title in 2010 and the MVC regular-season title the following season.
Following those three seasons, he accepted the head coaching job at Tennessee, replacing Bruce Pearl who had been shown the door as a result of recruiting violations. His three years with the Volunteers were solid, albeit not quite at the same level of success that Pearl had experienced. In 2014, he led the Volunteers to a surprise run to the Sweet Sixteen, his first trip to the NCAA Tournament as a head coach.
A few weeks later, Martin parlayed that success into the head coaching job at California. He was able to recruit some top talent to the Golden Bears, leading the program to the NCAA Tournament in 2016, which remains their most recent trip to the Big Dance. He averaged more than 20 wins a season in all three of these positions, spending exactly three years at Missouri State, Tennessee, and California.
Missouri hired him in 2017 and his five-year tenure with the Tigers was filled with ups and downs. He twice led the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament, though they were eliminated in the first round both times. The other three years were all under .500, with less than impressive results against SEC opponents. After a 12-21 mark this past season, his worst single-season record since that rebuilding year at Missouri State, the Tigers decided it was time to look for a new leader for their program.
This Missouri program can win games and compete in the SEC, but it’s going to take the right coach to do it. It seems like ages ago that these Tigers were a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament, though 2012’s success did end with that upset at the hands of Norfolk State after all. The right head coach can take them back to this caliber a program, much like recent hires have done at Alabama, Arkansas, and Auburn in recent years.
We’ll be taking a deep dive into seven potential names, all of them solid candidates who could revolutionize this Tigers program. We present them now in alphabetical order.