Cuonzo Martin

[ozark trout fisher]

is Missouri's new coach.

This is a very solid hire. Not a home run, but very good. He should get Mizzou back to the 20 win range in due time. I don't know how much more he can do, but that would be a nice start.

[Flysmallie]

I know very little about basketball but he did good things when he was here in town with Missouri State. 

[Jerry Rapp]

yep, he will get them to national prominence.  Not.   Kicking the can down the road.  In my opinion, they should have put a blank contract in front of the Wichita State coach and told him to fill in the blanks if the administration was truly committed to making Missouri a top 20 program year after year.  But remember, this humble opinion is from me, who thought Kim Anderson would do what Martin has been hired to do.  I did watch the Cards pre-season game on TV today.  They lost 8-0. 

[Al Agnew]

Marshall from Wichita was never going to give Mizzou serious consideration, no matter how much money you threw at him.  He's holding out for one of maybe four "blue blood" jobs, like Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, or Duke.  Since none of them are open this year, he'll stick where he is.  He's making $3.5 million or so at Wichita, and is pretty much a god in that town.

Crean is the one that is hard to figure.  Reports are the Mizzou talked to him, but like Painter a few years ago, he simply used Mizzou to try to leverage more money out of Indiana...yet a large part of the fan base at Indiana doesn't want him anymore, and even the AD isn't making noise like he's still their guy.

Cuonzo is a good hire, maybe the best, safest hire that Mizzou could have done.  Not sure how excited the fan base will be with him, but if he can recruit a couple of highly rated players they'll like him, and if he can win more games than he loses in a year or two most will get on board with him.

[ozark trout fisher]

3 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Marshall from Wichita was never going to give Mizzou serious consideration, no matter how much money you threw at him.  He's holding out for one of maybe four "blue blood" jobs, like Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, or Duke.  Since none of them are open this year, he'll stick where he is.  He's making $3.5 million or so at Wichita, and is pretty much a god in that town.

Crean is the one that is hard to figure.  Reports are the Mizzou talked to him, but like Painter a few years ago, he simply used Mizzou to try to leverage more money out of Indiana...yet a large part of the fan base at Indiana doesn't want him anymore, and even the AD isn't making noise like he's still their guy.

Cuonzo is a good hire, maybe the best, safest hire that Mizzou could have done.  Not sure how excited the fan base will be with him, but if he can recruit a couple of highly rated players they'll like him, and if he can win more games than he loses in a year or two most will get on board with him.

He may be bringing Michael Porter Jr with him, the #1 recruit in 2017 and by all accounts a potentially program changing player. Appears to have hired the kid's dad onto his staff already. Hard to be much more obvious than that.

IF that works out (and it's still very much not certain) the "rebuild" may be very short indeed. Of course even if he does come, he's just one guy...but still.

That's obviously a big situation to watch right now.

[Quillback]

Do you think that Porter kid will be a one and done? 

[ozark trout fisher]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

Do you think that Porter kid will be a one and done? 

Almost certainly, unless he gets injured/has an awful year.

He's projected as a top 5 pick whenever he comes out. 

[Quillback]

I wonder how that will work out, Kentucky makes the one and done thing work, but other schools don't seem to have much luck with it.  One of those being UW which just fired Romar.  They had Markell Fultz this year and they stunk.  Ironic that Porter was signed to UW, but now it looks like he can leave if he wants to. 

LSU with Ben Simmons is another one that comes to mind, I don't think they made the NCAA tourney with Simmons last year.  I watched a few LSU games last year and I never got the impression that he was giving it a 100% effort.  I could be wrong on that for sure.  I think the danger of these one and dones, is that staying healthy and showcasing their skills is more important to them than winning.  And I don't blame them, lots of money on the line.

[stlfisher]

This is a good hire IMO. Martin is a great recruiter, but the jury is out on his coaching IMO.  Not sure he was in good situations at either Cal or TN (ran him off).   It is very interesting reading the Porter rumors that came out yesterday.   It appears this has been in the works for awhile with Anderson and Romar on the hot seat.  I was aware Romar was the godfather to the Porter kids, but did not know that Martin and Porter Sr were in each others wedding.  I don't see how those kids don't end up at Mizzou now. If Sterk manages to pull this off it would be pretty incredible IMO.  He certainly did his research and knows how to make a splash.  

We will see if Martin can keep the ball rolling, but for a day at least the program appears headed for a 180.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jerry Rapp]

7 hours ago, Quillback said:

I wonder how that will work out, Kentucky makes the one and done thing work, but other schools don't seem to have much luck with it.  One of those being UW which just fired Romar.  They had Markell Fultz this year and they stunk.  Ironic that Porter was signed to UW, but now it looks like he can leave if he wants to. 

LSU with Ben Simmons is another one that comes to mind, I don't think they made the NCAA tourney with Simmons last year.  I watched a few LSU games last year and I never got the impression that he was giving it a 100% effort.  I could be wrong on that for sure.  I think the danger of these one and dones, is that staying healthy and showcasing their skills is more important to them than winning.  And I don't blame them, lots of money on the line.

it is not ironic QB.  Romar hired Porter's dad for an assistant coach.  And I will admit the more I read about this hire and at least the short term potential I recall my kicking the can down the road reference.  By the way, Porter has an younger, taller brother who will be a senior in HS this year and ranked very high.