Tennessee basketball: Cuonzo Martin is currently outperforming Vols’ Rick Barnes
Former Tennessee basketball coach Cuonzo Martin is now with the Missouri Tigers and outperforming current Volunteers’ coach Rick Barnes.
Related Story: 3 takeaways from Vols loss to Missouri
In the grand scope of things, it’s not a bad loss. Tennessee basketball fell on the road in a close one to the Missouri Tigers, a Top 40 RPI team with a lot of talent. Rick Barnes and the Vols will be fine going forward and still have a bright future.
However, the loss cemented one truth that Vols fans must admit. At this stage, their former coach Cuonzo Martin is outperforming Rick Barnes.
It happened on its own last night. Martin’s style of half-court defensive intensity dictated the flow of the entire game. Barnes and his team played Mizzou’s game as a result.
And when the Tigers turned up the defense even more so down the stretch, Tennessee basketball made far too many careless mistakes. But it’s not just Martin outcoaching Barnes in one night.
If you compare what they’re doing at their respective schools right now, it’s not even close. Yes, Barnes took over a mess in Knoxville. But he failed to have a winning season his first two years there.
Martin took over a Missouri team in much worse shape, a team that never had more than 10 wins a year the three years prior under Kim Anderson. And in one year, he has the Tigers beating the Vols in Barnes’s third year and firmly in the NCAA Tournament at this stage.
Now, you can say it’s because of Martin’s stellar recruiting class, even though his top recruit, Michael Porter Jr., has missed basically the entire season. You can also point out that Martin bolted the California Golden Bears after his team suffered a major regression in his third season.
But recruiting is just as much a part of coaching in college as anything else, so Martin still deserves credit for that. And again, I’m not comparing the entire careers of Martin and Barnes. I’m comparing what they’ve done at their respective schools right now. Looking at overall career, Barnes still wins.
However, we can actually also compare what they did at the same school. After all, Martin coached Tennessee basketball for three years, and this is Barnes’s third year.
Well, Barnes had a losing record his first year and was .500 his second year. He underperformed Martin’s first two years, who at least made the NIT and just missed the NCAA Tournament both years. But he is outperforming in the regular season his third year what Martin did his third year in Knoxville.
On top of that, Martin inherited a deeper roster than Barnes did when he came to Knoxville, so it was natural for him to be able to at least compete. At that point, you’d give Barnes the advantage and say he performed better considering all circumstances.
However, Martin did inherit a program in trouble with the NCAA and one that lost its top two players and all of its top recruits when he was named head coach. He then lost his top inside player for the year his second year and then lost Robert Hubbs III, his prized wing player, his third year, forcing him to change up his system both times early in the season. That’s why those two teams took so long to get on a roll.
When you factor that into play, it’s safe to say that Martin and Barnes are about even with the job they did at Tennessee. I’d say Barnes is doing a far better job recruiting right now for the future, though. But Martin was struggling there because of the way Vols fans so quickly turned on him his third season in hopes of getting Bruce Pearl.
By the way, speaking of Pearl, it’s safe to say Martin is outperforming him, another former Tennessee basketball coach, at this stage too. The Auburn Tigers are a better team than Missouri this year.
But it took Pearl four years to finally make the Tigers a competitive team in the SEC. And they weren’t in as bad of shape when he took over as Mizzou was when Martin took over. Martin has this team winning big in his first year.
Pearl secured elite recruiting classes in 2015 and 2016 but couldn’t get Auburn into the NCAA Tournament. Martin right now has the Tigers firmly in the tournament with just one class.
Now, it is fair to say that Pearl significantly outperformed Martin at Tennessee. He outperformed everybody.
Meanwhile, Barnes has had the better career overall than both Martin and Pearl. And he’s done a tremendous job building Tennessee basketball the way he wants, recruiting the right players and developing the team. The Vols’ future is in great shape, actually better shape than Martin had it in.
With only one senior and every key player almost certainly coming back along with the chance to secure a couple of elite recruits, Barnes did a better job positioning Tennessee basketball for the long-term. So he deserves credit for that.
However, when you look at Martin’s performance in his first season with Missouri, it’s safe to say he’s outperforming Barnes on the court. And maybe, just maybe, we should understand now why many felt Vols fans were always a little unfair to him.