My thoughts on the Cuonzo Martin hire...

Posted on: March 16, 2017 at 13:21:22 CT

All things considered, it was a good hire, and I would grade it a B-. If we end up landing Porter Sr. as an assistant and get both sons, MPJ and Jontay, then it's a B+ (i.e. very good). I think there's a 90% chance we get Porter Sr. and MPJ, and a 75% chance we get Jontay to follow. I think JP's preference is to play at OU with his friend Trae Young, but he'll probably join his dad and brother at MU if they come.

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THE GOOD:

• Cuonzo is a good recruiter who has shown the ability to win recruiting battles for 5-star blue chip McDonald's All-American type players. More importantly, he has the potential to be an ELITE recruiter in the St. Louis area, giving us instant credibility and respect with coaches and players in The Lou. That's something we've always wanted and needed, and the value of it should not be underestimated.

• The Porter brothers may be one-and-dones, but bringing players like that to Mizzou (including #1 in the nation) gives our program a huge kick-start as well as credibility and momentum for recruiting other top players. It would be an instantaneous rebuild and put Mizzou on the map in STL and nation-wide.

• He is an excellent defensive coach — something he does not get enough credit for. Think about this: 3 of his last 4 teams have had top 20 defenses according to Kenpom, with the outlier being his first year at Cal.

• His floor is high, and his ceiling might be as well. He has proven that he can produce a legitimate top 10 team. His final team at Tennessee was top 10 overall in Kenpom. I think if he's given time to build a program and establish an identity and recruiting pipelines, he has the potential to finish top 4 in the SEC perennially, and even compete for SEC titles and deep NCAA tournament runs on occasion.

• He's young and probably still learning as a head coach. He's not a good coach offensively, yet, but he can either improve in that regard or higher some great assistants who can fill the void.

• It's a great fit, with his ESTL roots and having been the coach at MSU. Personally, he was my #1 choice back in 2011, but unfortunately Alden and Tennessee got in the way of that.

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THE BAD:

Honestly, there's nothing that's THAT bad about Cuonzo. He's not perfect, but no coach is. My qualms during the coaching search were simply due to there being a few better candidates. Of the realistic choices we had, I think Musselman would have been the best ( http://tigerboard.com/boards/view.php?message=14651392 ), followed by Keatts. Ironically, I think Cal will end up hiring Musselman to fill the vacancy we created by hiring Cuonzo. And they should, it would be an excellent fit for both schools.

With that said, we hired one of the best candidates we could. I would much rather have Cuonzo than creepy Tom Crean, so I think we dodged a bullet in that regard. Will be interesting to see how the dominoes fall.

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FINAL NOTE:

It's great to see that Mizzou is once again committed to Men's Basketball. Sterk decided who he wanted and acted swiftly and decisively. Thank God the Mike Alden and Kim Anderson eras are behind us.