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Was Cuonzo Martin Set up to Fail by Vols as Head Coach of Tennessee Basketball?

By Caleb Calhoun

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Mar 23, 2014; Raleigh, NC, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Cuonzo Martin reacts to a play against the Mercer Bears during the first half of a men

Cuonzo Martin and Tennessee on the Surface

On the surface, it does look bad. When Martin was hired. Tennessee had just been slammed by the NCAA for violations committed by the basketball program’s predecessor, Bruce Pearl. Pearl was given a three-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA.

Cuonzo Martin came in and was immediately hamstrung by recruiting as a result. Guys like Kevin Ware and Chris Jones would now not be coming to the program. His first two years he had the Vols on the bubble before getting them into the NCAA Tournament his third year.

In the midst of that run his third year, a petition was started and generated nearly 40,000 signatures to have him fired and bring back Pearl, who got the program in trouble in the first place.

Yes, it looks awful, particularly when you consider the dynamics of the region and the fact that Martin, unlike his predecessor, was running a clean program.

Add in the fact that just the year before, Mike Hamilton had hired Derek Dooley, a white coach with a losing record at Louisiana Tech, over Kevin Sumlin, a much more qualified black coach at Houston, to lead the football program, and it looked downright embarrassing.

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    • This story made it worse. Players came out and defended him, criticizing the fan base. Josh Richardson, according to the story, did not hide his views, noting that he thinks race did play a role.

    Martin put another bullet in the public perception of the Vols to go out of his way and say he spent extra money on security.

    And then, a rumor that we have all heard came out that the administration did not even want to give Martin a chance to succeed, evidenced by this portion of the story.

    "According to a source close to Martin, a booster pulled Martin’s access to a private plane on the day of a recruiting trip without explanation. Tennessee reduced its men’s basketball budget by $1.6 million between 2010-11, which was Pearl’s final season, and 2013-14, which was Martin’s last season in Knoxville, per CBSSports.com."

    Considering the fact that he inherited a program in serious trouble with the NCAA that was hamstrung in recruiting and took it to the Sweet Sixteen his third year, only to have fans calling for his head and the administration pulling any support for him, it looks unfair and, if you want to call it this,  a bit racist, particularly when he was actually recruiting okay. He brought in five-stars Jarnell Stokes and Robert Hubbs.

    But, as with always, there’s more to the story.

    Next: Deeper than the Surface

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