I think people aren't considering the situations that

Posted on: April 13, 2017 at 10:26:54 CT

Cuonzo walked into, at each of his stops.

1) At Missouri State. He took over a 17-16 crappy team from the year before, and went 11-20 his first year there. Year 2, he went 24-12, Year 3, - he won the Regular Season MVC title at (26-9). Pretty damn good turn around. He never made the tourney, because Wichita State dominates that conference, and rarely does NCAA take more that 1-2 from MVC. The year they won the regular season title, they lost early in MVC tourney, which caused them to miss tourney.

2) At Tennessee - he came into a mess that Bruce Pearl left behind. The University had to take "self imposed" sanctions, just to avoid NCAA sanctions coming down hard on the program. Not a great situation to walk into. Yet, year 1 he went - 19-15, Year 2 - 20-13 and Year 3 he went 24-13 and made the Sweet Sixteen. During year two, the racist idiots at Tennessee were calling for his head, and started a petition signed by 40,000 fans that wanted Cuonzo fired, and Bruce Pearl Back. It was widely publicized, and CM knew he wasn't wanted there by the fans. Yet after he took them to the Sweet sixteen in year 3, the fans had a change of heart, and the AD begged him to stay, but damage had been done. He bailed to Cal.

3) At Cal he didn't walk into that much of a mess, and he recruited well there. 1st year he went 18-15, 2nd year-23-11 and made NCAA tourney 3)21-13 and was first four out and a #1 seed in NIT.

Yes he under performed with his 5th ranked class at Cal, but overall, still pretty solid resume, considering ALL the surrounding circumstances. Could have easily made tourney 2 out of 3 years at Cal too.

So quit railing on the guy for his (.606) winning percentage or the fact that he averages roughly 21 wins a season.

I will take that ANY F---ING DAY over a guy who folded his arms, lurched the sidelines, didn't know how to coach or recruit, and had 13 scholarship athletes leave in less than 3 years.

Give Cuonzo a chance. He may not be miraculous his first year, but he's been pretty DAMN solid, every place he's been. And again, don't just look at the numbers, look at the situations, he had to inherit. Especially at his first two stops.