Former Tennessee basketball head coach Cuonzo Martin is back in the SEC with the Missouri Tigers. But Volunteers fans need to move past him and Bruce Pearl.
On Wednesday, Cuonzo Martin left the California Golden Bears to take over the head coaching position for the Missouri Tigers. You would think that the news surrounded a Tennessee basketball coaching change.
After all, Vols fans blew up on Twitter in response and began trolling the hire. Many are still blaming him for the struggles that are currently facing the program.
Forget the fact that he hasn’t been Tennessee’s coach for three years. Forget the fact that Tennessee basketball has had two coaches since he left. Somehow, they still can’t get past Martin.
Here are just a few tweets related to Cuonzo Martin taking the Missouri job that came from Vol Nation.
Is Mizzou really dumb enough to make Cuonzo Martin the 7th highest paid coach.
— DC (@dccoletrain) March 15, 2017
Gonna enjoy beating you every single year https://t.co/J962iWNvTE
— Swagger of Tennessee (@SwaggerofUT) March 15, 2017
Of course, there are a lot more, but for the cherry on top, let’s go for the Clay Travis take. Travis is obviously affiliated with Tennessee even though he didn’t go to school there, so he’s like Paul Finebaum with Alabama.
Mizzou offering Cuonzo Martin is too perfect. You’re racist if you question how a failing coach keeps getting jobs.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 15, 2017
"Cuonzo Martin is the Lane Kiffin of college basketball. I don't know how he keeps failing up." -@ClayTravis
— FOX Sports Radio (@FoxSportsRadio) March 16, 2017
AUDIO: https://t.co/m7bgR8d4Av pic.twitter.com/CI0ZqG1zgp
And then came the responses from other people defending Martin.
Those who criticize Cuonzo Martin haven’t spent much time talking to the players who played for him, IMO. Most would take a bullet for him.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) March 15, 2017
Oh, and the topic of racism had to come up as well.
Some of you all are obsessed with Cuonzo Martin as you try to prove you're not racist by maintaining this pettiness. Still on your mind. https://t.co/bmBgsAxRzn
— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) March 15, 2017
So the question to Vol Nation is this: Why can you never move past former coaches?
As you can see, Clay Travis had to also take a shot at Lane Kiffin. Would he honestly say anything if Kiffin weren’t a former Tennessee football coach?
Of course not. But the problem runs much deeper for Tennessee basketball.
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One of the reasons life was so difficult for Martin while he was in Knoxville is that he wasn’t Bruce Pearl. Sure, the decision to fire Pearl may have been idiotic.
But Tennessee basketball fans could not stop talking about Pearl all three years Martin was in Knoxville. It got to the point that when the Vols were making an NCAA Tournament run in 2014, all they could do was talk about the Auburn Tigers hiring Pearl.
Now, Martin joins Pearl as former Tennessee basketball coaches at other schools in the SEC.
And rather than look forward into what Rick Barnes is building in Knoxville, Tennessee basketball fans are stuck debating whether or not they should’ve fired Pearl six years ago and whether or not Martin did a good job replacing him.
Only Vol Nation could manage to make Cuonzo Martin such a polarizing figure.
Here’s the deal: Martin is a great guy and a solid coach who did a decent job in all three stops. You’ll get 20-plus wins a year out of him.
He hasn’t proven himself to be a great coach. But he’s not a failing coach either, the way Travis made him out to be.
However, questioning his resume is not racist either. The fact of the matter is, since he’s only spent three years at every stop, the jury is still out on how great he can be.
Yet somehow vicious debates always surround him, and it comes from Vol Nation. They can’t get past him. Just like they can’t get past Pearl.
If you wonder why the Tennessee basketball program struggles so much, this is why. Cuonzo Martin did not set the program back by hiring Donnie Tyndall as his replacement.
He also didn’t leave it in great shape, so the excitement for next year in the program has nothing to do with him.
And while we’re at it, Pearl was not at fault for Martin failing to make the NCAA Tournament his first two years in Knoxville. He also didn’t assemble the team that Martin took to the Sweet Sixteen in 2014.
Here’s an idea Tennessee basketball fans: how about focus on the coach have and what he’s doing rather than the coach you used to have and what he did.