COLUMBIA, Mo. – A new era in Mizzou Men’s Basketball began Monday as Cuonzo Martin was introduced as the 19th head coach to lead the storied Tigers program. Martin, who has spent the past three seasons as head coach at the University of California, has averaged 20.7 wins in nine seasons as a head coach with seven postseason appearances over the last eight years to his credit.
“We are thrilled that Cuonzo is returning to the Midwest and that his family will now call Columbia home,” Sterk said. “From the outset of our search, our goal was to find a coach who had demonstrated success, academically and on the court, while also sharing our values and who can help to reignite interest in Mizzou Men’s Basketball among our fan base. I believe we found all of that and more with Cuonzo and I look forward to watching him compete for championships and postseason appearances for many years to come.”
Martin, who was born in St. Louis and moved to East St. Louis, Ill., as a young child, owns a nine-year head coaching record of 186-121 (.606), which includes a three-year mark of 62-39 (.614) at California. He has registered six, 20-win seasons as a head coach, including a 21-13 mark in his final season at Cal, which earned the Golden Bears an NIT bid.
The 2016-17 Golden Bears cracked the Associated Press Top 25 in the season’s second poll and received votes in nearly every USA Today coaches poll registered during the year. Four Golden Bears earned All-Pac-12 recognition, as Ivan Rabb was a first-team honoree while Jabari Bird earned honorable mention honors. Kingsley Okoroh was an honorable mention All-Defensive team selection and Charlie Moore was an All-Freshman team honorable mention pick.
Martin’s Golden Bears went 23-11 in 2015-16 and tied for third in the Pac-12 en route to the program’s highest NCAA Tournament seed in school history (No. 4). A consensus top 10 recruiting class, which included top-five overall prospects Rabb and Jaylen Brown, helped the Bears fashion the best single-season record in school history at Haas Pavillion (18-0) and end the year with a 19-game homecourt win streak. All-told, the Golden Bears won a school-record 27-straight home games which spanned the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.
Cal also led the Pac-12 in both scoring defense (67.3 ppg) and field-goal percentage defense (.396).
Brown was named a 2015-16 USBWA Freshman All-American as well as the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year before being selected as the No. 3 pick by the Boston Celtics in the 2016 NBA Draft. Tyron Wallace joined Brown as Martin’s second Bear drafted, selected in the second round by the Utah Jazz.
Led by Bob Cousy Award finalist Wallace, who in his first season as Cal’s point guard, was the only Pac-12 player to finish among the top five in scoring rebounding and assists, Martin’s debut season along the Golden Bears’ sideline saw them reach the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals en route to an 18-15 final record.
While Martin’s teams enjoyed on-court success at Cal, community service was also an important staple of the Golden Bear program as he encouraged his student-athletes to pursue volunteer opportunities in the Bay Area as part of his “Building Men” philosophy. The 2016-17 Golden Bears worked with Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center to help its patients celebrate 150 years of service, visited the South Berkeley Senior Center to serve visitors a pancake breakfast on a weekday morning, and spread holiday cheer at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Christmas party.
Before moving to the West Coast, Martin spent three highly-successful seasons at Tennessee, where he guided the Volunteers to a 63-41 (.606) record and into the postseason each year (one NCAA, two NIT). His teams also finished among the top-five in the SEC standings every season, including a second-place tie in his first campaign after the Volunteers were ticketed for an 11th-place finish in the preseason poll.
After back-to-back NIT appearances in his first two years as the Volunteers head coach, Martin led Tennessee to a 24-13 record, the Sweet 16 and a No. 23 national ranking in the season-ending 2013-14 USA Today coaches poll In the process, Tennessee matched the fourth-best win total in school history and recorded its most postseason victories since the 2009-10 campaign. After earning a berth in the NCAA’s First Four, the Martin-led Volunteers captured victories over Iowa, Massachusetts and Mercer to equal the most wins in one NCAA Tournament in program history.
Under Martin’s tutelage, forward Jarnell Stokes was a two-time first-team All-SEC selection and was one of just three individuals in the six power conferences in 2013-14 to average a double-double. Stokes led the SEC and ranked seventh nationally in rebounding at 10.6 rpg, while also averaging 15.1 ppg. Predicated on tenacity and defense, Martin’s 2013-14 Tennessee squad limited opponents to just 61.7 ppg, the lowest mark in the SEC and second-lowest total at UT since 1969, as the Vols ranked 18th nationally in scoring defense.
Martin is no stranger to the Show-Me State, having launched his head coaching career at Missouri State. After an 11-20 debut season at the Springfield school, Martin led the Bears to a 24-12 record and the 2009-10 CollegeInsider.com Championship in year two.
His third season saw Missouri State record a 26-9 record en route to the program’s first-ever regular-season Missouri Valley Conference championship and an NIT bid. Martin was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year and was the 2011 recipient of the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the nation’s top minority head coach in Division I men’s basketball.
The 45-year-old Martin has served the game of basketball for more than two decades, beginning with a standout four-year playing career at Purdue. He has played and coached alongside some of the game’s most highly-regarded mentors, including Hall of Fame Coach Gene Keady. Martin is a member of a distinguished group of successful college basketball coaches to serve under Keady, along with Matt Painter (Purdue), Bruce Weber (Illinois and Kansas State), Steve Lavin (UCLA and St. John’s) and Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt and Pitt).
Martin also has experience as a coach with USA Basketball, serving on the USA Junior National Team staff at the 2011 FISU World University games in Shenzhen, China.
As a student-athlete, Martin was a 1995 first-team All-Big Ten selection at Purdue when he averaged 18.4 ppg and sank 91 three-pointers. He graduated as one of the program’s all-time leaders in three-pointers (179) and among the Boilermakers’ career scoring leaders (1,666). Playing under Keady and alongside All-American Glenn Robinson, Martin led Purdue to a pair of Big Ten titles and to a 90-37 four-year record. The Boilermakers went to the postseason each season with Martin, reaching the Elite Eight of the 1994 NCAA Tournament.
Following his collegiate playing career, Martin was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 57th overall pick of the 1995 NBA Draft. He played professionally for four years with the NBA’s Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks and Vancouver Grizzlies. In 1997, Martin was the leading scorer for Felize Scandone in Italy.
Martin returned to his alma mater where he earned his bachelor’s degree in restaurant, hotel, institutional and tourism management from Purdue in 2000, and served one season as an assistant on the staff at West Lafayette High School. After earning his degree, Martin joined Keady’s Purdue staff for the 2000-01 season as an assistant coach, his college coach, and remained with the Boilermaker program when Painter took over as head coach upon Keady’s retirement. He served as the Boilermaker’s associate coach during the 2007-08 season before taking the Missouri State post the following season. In his eight-year tenure at Purdue, mentored several all-conference standouts, including All-American and current Minnesota Timberwolves forward Robbie Hummel.
— Mizzou Athletics —
