After my initial surprise and disappointment, I have spent the past 12 hours convincing myself this is a good hire. Wes Rucker seems to think it is. So does Seth Davis. And I don't know anything about the guy as a coach (I vaguely remember him as a player).
So instead of sulking all day over not getting Brad Stevens or Shaka Smart or Jay Wright or Lawrence Frank, I have put together a list of (somewhat) convincing reasons to accept the Martin hiring.
1) Maybe he can coach
Again, I don't know. I did not watch Missouri State this year. I did not see the match-up with Tennessee earlier in the year (a 60-56 Vols victory). I don't know what they run offensively or defensively.
They won the usually-good Missouri Valley Conference this year, but didn't make the Big Dance after losing to Indiana State in the tournament finals. Despite 25 wins, their resume didn't get them much consideration for an at-large bid because they didn't beat anyone. They lost to Tennessee and Oklahoma State - their two high-profile games. They then lost to Miami (Fla) in the NIT.
So no Big Dance in three years at MOSU, but they improved every year (from 11-20 his first year to a CBI championship his second to 26-9 this past season). He is up for two national coach of the year awards. And he comes from the impressive Gene Keady coaching tree (Matt Painter, Kevin Stallings, Steve Lavin, and Bruce Weber).
It is hard to get excited about an unknown with so much buzz surrounding terrific knowns, but maybe he's got must-have coaching chops.
2) Uncertainty
There were several articles published after the Pearl firing that credited him with making Tennessee a good basketball job.
Maybe not right now...
Tennessee is very likely to be put on some type of probation (scholarships? tournament eligibility?) and seems somewhat likely to have a new AD in the coming months.
Why would Jay Wright leave Villanova for that?
Why would Brad Stevens pick Tennessee over Oklahoma or Georgia Tech for that?
Why would Lawrence Frank leave the Celtics one month before the playoffs for that?
3) It is not as good of a job as we would like to think
As much as Vols fans want to convince themselves that this is a good job, it still isn't. Evidence?
Men's basketball is third in the UT pecking order behind football and women's basketball.
UT is the only place in the country where women's basketball is more important than men's.
There is no recruiting base for Tennessee basketball. It takes invading Memphis, Atlanta, or getting Kentucky's leftovers to field a competitive team.
There is one former Vol playing in the NBA right now - back-up point guard C.J. Watson. Big-time players do not come to Knoxville to play basketball.
The Vols will likely lose Tobias Harris and Scotty Hopson (in addition to seniors Brian Williams, Melvin Goins, Steven Pearl, Josh Bone, and Josh Fields) which means replacing four starters and top guys off the bench. Did you think Brad Stevens was salivating over the prospect of building a team around Cameron Tatum?
Cuonzo Martin is the type of coach willing to take a chance on the uncertainty of the situation and the job in general.
4) Can't Wait
Let's say the Vols waited for a shot at Stevens, Smart or Frank...and missed out on all of them. There are several high profile jobs available right now (Oklahoma, Missouri, NC State, Georgia Tech), so what happens if the Vols whiffed on the big names and were coachless in May?
What if Harris decided to sign with an agent because of the uncertainty?
What if Kevin Ware and Chris Jones ask to get out of their commitments since there is no coach?
Time was not on Tennessee's side, so waiting for a big-name coach was not an option. Martin was available and willing. And necessary.
5) And Cheap
Clay Travis tweeted about UT's budget and why the Vols are not willing to spend big bucks on coaches. I don't know all the specifics of Tennessee's financial situation, but the school is paying Pearl along with Dooley and Summitt, and possibly Hamilton and then next AD. With the current economic situation, plus the football struggles and bitterness about the Fulmer firing, there is a good chance the Athletic Department is not bringing in the money it once was or thought it would be.
So Martin is good (maybe not great), but cheap. The Vols won't be good for a few years, but they won't be paying Jay Wright for NIT berths.
Convinced?
I hope he's a great coach. I hope he's a great recruiter. I hope he keeps Tennessee basketball fun, i.e. no more Buzz ball, no more Jerry Green lifelessness, no more Kevin O'Neil boredom. But, the truth is, I just don't know anything about him.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read, I think he'll be solid. Flashy? no. Successful? Hopefully.
I also think that we were just kidding ourselves with some of the coaches on our "list." No way in hell that Brad Stevens would leave Butler for UT. Sorry, I love UT, but that guy loves Indiana and has one of the best jobs in the country: successful as hell, not a lot of pressure, low key and really, really good. Every year. No way he was leaving for Knoxville with all the uncertainty with the NCAA.
Jamie Dixon and Jay Wright? C'mon. We were offering (reportedly) a very modest pay raise to leave a secure job in a great conference with a great recruiting bases and big time success to come to Knoxville and step into an uncertain situation where our two best players may leave and out two best commitments may asked to be released from their letter of intent. How appealing does that sound for a minimal net pay raise?
The other thing we had to deal with in making this hire is Mike Hamilton. Let me make this abundantly clear: I don't think Mike Hamilton has been a bad AD in general. But, over the last few weeks and months, he's been awful. Awful. That presser he did before the NCAA Tournament started was the stupidest decision he could have possibly made. Why raise those questions at that time in an interview he didn't have to do? Surely he knew that he would be asked about Bruce's future. Everyone else in the media has asked him about it every time he's opened his mouth. Why even do the interview? From my perspective, it was a very selfish decision designed to put him in the good graces of the "powers that be" and try to save his own ass. That's weak.
(I love the fact that he hired Derreck Dooley. I think Dooley is going to be great. But, let's not forget that Hamilton was a couple of assistant coaches away from hiring David Cutcliff before he got to Dooley. Sheesh.)
Then, we have our Chancellor come out and publicly say that he'll be assisting in the search. According to a couple of sources, his role was to assure the coaching prospects that Hamilton would still be around when they took over. That's how unstable the situation within the Athletic Department is, or at least how unstable it is perceived to be. Why would any coach want to leave a stable, well paying job to walk into that mess?
One more question: why the hell did we leak any of the big names that may or may not have been on our coaching board? Seriously, all that does is make it look like we failed and had to settle for Coach Zo (which is what I'm gonna call him). Leaking those names only reiterates the perception of ineptness associated with our Athletic Department.
All in all, I think Coach Zo was a pretty good hire. He wasn't the biggest name out there, but I think he'll be solid. And, after last year, solid may be exactly what our Vols need right now.
Here is my conspiracy theory for the Hamilton interview: he knew they were firing Pearl regardless of how Tennessee finished, but also knew if UT somehow shocked Duke and made a tournament run it would be much tougher to do.
ReplyDeleteSo...
Hamilton lets the cat out of the bag to basically sink the ship so he can fire the captain.
I don't understand the list leak either. That is what made the Martin hire all the tougher - picturing Jay Wright or Anthony Grant, then getting Zo? We were set up to be disappointed.
I've calmed down about it now and am looking forward to seeing if he matches all the praise he's been getting from coaches, teammates and former players.
I don't know about Hamilton...Kiffin was a gamble that didn't pay off (though he wasn't a disaster unless the NCAA kills us), Dooley looks like a good hire, the baseball coach is terrible, and now you've got the Pearl saga. It sounds like Hamilton has support from the school, but we'll see how long that lasts when donors start withholding money until he is gone.