Quote:
Originally Posted by Chiefspants
Where do you think your standing is on hiring a new coach compared to where you were after Kim? Do you think Cuonzo/the Porter Recruits at least elevated you above the rock-****ing bottom Kim took your program? I ask not as a dig, just as someone who can empathize being stuck in that rock bottom hell during the hiring process with KU football ever since Lew Perkins decided to axe Mangino for hurting some feelings during football practices (though we all know it was due to internal politics). Hopefully Leopold is a step forward for us, but we ultimately won’t know until we can get beyond a 3 win season.
Your last paragraph is interesting, if memory serves it was Kim’s biggest failure and I’m a bit surprised Cuonzo is having a similar struggle in that capacity due to his (relative) success with Cali before he made the jump to Mizzou.
|
Yes, the standing is better because despite the fact they’re going to be Kim Anderson level bad this year, they weren’t that awful in the previous years. Morale isn’t as shot as it was.
Martin’s success at Cal/Tennessee was a mirage (and honestly, he should have done better at both places).
His last Tennessee team was loaded with good college talent, and it barely made the NCAA tournament before going on a run. They were in the First Four game, in case you had forgotten.
At Cal, he totally lucked out landing Ivan Rabb (a local 5-star who was going to Cal as long as the coach was 1/2 decent) and Jaylen Brown (who bonded with Rabb, wanted to get away from home, etc.). And then even with those two and 3-4 really good guards/future pros (all of whom he inherited) he made it as a 4-seed and got bounced round 1.
His issues - bad game day coach who spends all his time focusing of defense,
conditioning, and toughness and doesn’t understand or like the offensive driven focus of modern basketball, inconsistent recruiter whose style clashes with recruits with options- were present then, too.
He just didn’t stay either place long enough for his recruiting to bottom out the roster (he left year 4/5 messes at both schools, that someone else had to deal with).