I like Cuonzo, but revisiting my posts from 2017 reminded me

Posted on: January 10, 2020 at 15:37:07 CT

of how obvious it was — to almost everyone except Sterk — that there were better options. It's sad that our AD is paid nearly a million dollars per year, yet most of the fans on this board were more capable at identifying and evaluating candidates than he was. At the time, Sterk said he was *intent* on hiring a coach from the P6 ranks and wouldn't even consider mid-major candidates (for example, coaches like Eric Musselman at Nevada). I criticized this flawed approach during the search (in March of 2017) and expressed my concerns with CM who had been reported as one of Sterk's top choices:

LSU is reportedly pursuing [Musselman], as we should be. It makes me sick that we haven't heard similar rumors about Sterk and MU. Instead, we keep hearing that Sterk is arbitrarily limiting himself to P6 coaches, going after washed-up retreads like Tom Cream and Cuonzo Martin (who both lost in the first round of the NIT last night). Crean and Cuonzo have high floors but low ceilings. It would be so "Mizzou" if we hire one of them when there are candidates like Eric Musselman. I'm confident that we could get him for $3 million, and it would be the best investment Mizzou ever made. If it takes a bidding war, so be it — offer whatever it takes.

One last thing: We regret not hiring guys like Bill Self, Bob Huggins, and Gregg Marshall when we had the chance. In 2-3 years, I guarantee that Musselman will be considered one of the hottest commodities in college basketball. If we don't hire him now, we'll look back on yet another mistake and always think of what could have been. Like we have with Self, Huggins, Marshall, and all the other up-and-coming coaches (at the time) that we overlooked. Let's not make that mistake again.
[...]
[Cuonzo] has fallen down my list. Not because his team has struggled recently, but because I've realized that he isn't that good of a recruiter - certainly not as good as I originally thought. His ceiling just isn't high enough to get excited about him, though it would be a decent fallback if we miss out on all those other guys. He *could* do well here.

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Again, I like Cuonzo, I think it was a decent hire and I still have faith he can succeed here, but the fact is there were better options. I'm confident that Musselman (in 2017) would have accepted the lucrative contract that Sterk offered CM.