Was Cuonzo Martin Set up to Fail by Vols as Head Coach of Tennessee Basketball?
Nov 18, 2013; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Cuonzo Martin reacts during the first half against the Citadel Bulldogs at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Final Verdict
Cuonzo Martin is a very good coach who is already doing very good things at Cal. He has recruited very well and has the Golden Bears in the Preseason Top 25.
It’s safe to say that Tennessee fans did not give him a fair shake. They paid for it with the Donnie Tyndall fiasco.
However, it is not as blatantly unfair as it has been painted out to be.
Given the fact that the previous coach was so beloved, the fact that Martin failed to do something his first two years that was a regular under that previous coach and barely did it his third year, the fact that Robert Hubbs was the only true elite player he set out to recruit from the start and was able to get, and the fact that Tennessee basketball did not have the same amount of flare it had under Pearl, there were legitimate reasons for Vols fans to not fully be behind him.
However, I am willing to say that Vols fans probably should have been more patient with him. The recruiting issues were mainly a direct result of the bad publicity from the violations that Pearl committed to begin with. He has already shown at Cal he can recruit.
When fans were already turning on him by his third year, of course he was going to have a hard time bringing in new recruits the next year.
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Meanwhile, his first season, he was introducing the Vols to a style of play that is exactly the opposite of what they played under Pearl. It took some time to adjust, but they did and had a strong finish to the season.
The second year was immediately off to a bad start with an injury to Jerronne Maymon, which was a terrible break for Martin. The Vols were 20-12 before the postseason and likely would have had five more wins had he not gotten hurt.
And the injury to Robert Hubbs his third year cost the Vols four games, which would have had them at 20-7 instead of 16-11 when his seat got the warmest.
So yes, Vols fans should have looked a bit beyond the surface with Martin to see what he was doing. But no, they did not turn on him for no reason.
And race, while it is always a factor for some people unfortunately, it was definitely not a factor for a large number of people. The Pearl effect and the trajectory of the program compared to where it was had everything to do with that.
What nobody tells you, meanwhile, is that while fans may have been hard on Martin, they were fully supportive of him after his Sweet Sixteen run in his third year. Many people who signed the petition eventually issued a public apology, and Tennessee was willing to renegotiate his contract to keep him from leaving.
Even with Pearl being hired at Auburn, the fan base was fully on board with Martin at that point. He was the one who decided to leave. And he was the one that left the following coach with no recruits to work with.
And he is the one who is succeeding at Cal while Tennessee was humiliated by hiring another coach who got into NCAA trouble. He won. We get it.
Next: Rick Barnes's First Vols Team May Look Like Bruce Pearl's Old Teams
For Martin to come back now and be willing to rehash these issues AFTER Vols fans united behind him and AFTER the administration was willing to negotiate a contract to keep him around is a bit Bush-League.