Cuonzo Martin

Cuonzo Martin
Sport(s)	Basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Tennessee Volunteers
Biographical details
Born	September 23, 1971 (1971-09-23) (age 40)
Place of birth	East St. Louis, Illinois, USA
Playing career
1991–1995 1995–1996 1996–1997	Purdue Vancouver Grizzlies Milwaukee Bucks
Position(s)	G/F
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2000–2008 2008–2011 2011–	Purdue (asst.) Missouri State Tennessee
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
MVC Regular Season Championship (2011)
Awards
1995: First Team All-Big Ten

Cuonzo LaMar Martin (born September 23, 1971 in East St. Louis, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player and is the current head coach of the University of Tennessee men's basketball team.

Playing career

High school

1986-1990

Playing in the shadow of LaPhonso Ellis for his freshman and sophomore years, Martin played on two state champions and a third-place team for East St. Louis Lincoln. Through his 3 years in the IHSA tournament, Martin scored 198 points and grabbed 111 rebounds in just 12 games.

In 2007, Martin and Ellis were voted one of the "100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament," recognizing their superior performance in their appearances in the tournament.^[1] http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6264533

College career

Purdue

1991-1995

Cuonzo Martin attended Purdue University, where he played for Gene Keady and alongside Wooden Award winner, Glenn Robinson. The 6'6", 215 lb guard/forward helped lead the Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball team to back-to-back Big Ten Conference Titles in 1994 and 1995 and an Elite Eight appearance. Martin held future NBA players Shawn Respert of Michigan State and Wisconsin's Michael Finley to season lows in scoring as a Senior. On March 24, 1994, Martin set a school record with the most three pointers made in a game, making 8 of 13 treys against Kansas in a Sweet Sixteen, which has since been tied up by Robbie Hummel (January 12, 2010) and Ryne Smith (November 14, 2011). Known as the team's defensive stopper, he was also deadly beyond the arc. He left Purdue with the fourth most three-point shots made with 179, behind Jaraan Cornell's 242 record, while holding the record for the highest career three-point shooting with .451 accuracy. Martin was awarded First Team All-Big Ten honors his Senior season, averaging 18.4 points a game. He currently holds another school record for most consecutive games played with 127 straight throughout his career at Purdue.

Professional career

Hawks, Bucks, Grizzlies, Italy

1995–1997

Martin was selected by the Atlanta Hawks as the 57th pick in the 2nd round of the 1995 NBA Draft. He played in only seven career NBA games for the 1995–96 expansion team Vancouver Grizzlies and the Milwaukee Bucks where he re-joined his college teammate and the number one pick in the 1994 NBA Draft Glenn Robinson during the 1996–97 season. During his tenure in the NBA, he shot 60% beyond the arc, in which he scored his only 9 points. He also played a stint professionally in the CBA for the Grand Rapids Hoops and he played the final two years of his playing career in Italy for an Italian Series Legadue team named Felice Scandone in Avellino Italy. Martin was leading the Italian team in scoring averaging nearly 19 points a game when in November he informed the Club of chest pains and a general feeling of malaise. Martin also began to notice a drop in his weight which at first he thought was due to the flu or common cold. In November 1997, Martin requested to his sports agent at the time for the Italian club to release him and send him home where he then discovered he had non-Hodgkin Lymphoma a dangerous but treatable and curable blood cancer. Martin never played another professional basketball game and began aggressive treatments and chemotherapy and the cancer went into remission. Martin returned to Purdue to finish his degree and after which the head coach at that time Gene Keady hired Martin as an assistant coach in 2000. The Cuonzo Martin Challenge Award to help raise funds for cancer research was established in his honor and he has since been cancer free.

Coaching career

Purdue

2000–2008

After Frank Kendrick left the Purdue bench in 1999, Martin served as an assistant coach for the Purdue University basketball staff at his alma mater under his former head coach Gene Keady and former teammate, Matt Painter. He helped the Boilers to an Elite Eight appearance and three NCAA Second Round appearances, along with an overall 153–129 record during his eight seasons on the Purdue bench. He was named Associate Head Coach for the 2007–08 season.

Missouri State

2008–2009

After eight seasons at Purdue, Martin accepted the head coaching position at Missouri State University of the Missouri Valley Conference on March 25, 2008. He replaced Barry Hinson. After falling to Auburn in the season opener, Martin had his first head coaching win over Central Michigan on the road. Martin's Bears won their first game at their new JQH Arena home, beating Arkansas from the SEC. They wrapped up the pre-conference season with a 7–4 record. Martin's Bears headed into conference play with only 3 players appearing in every game, due to a number of injuries. They lost their first conference game in overtime against an undefeated Illinois State. His Bears finished the season with an 11–20 record.

2009–2010

Following his first season as head coach, Martin's top 25 RPI-ranked Bears started the 2009–10 season with a 10–0 start. Missouri State averaged a 10+ margin in points per game coming into Missouri Valley Conference play. Cuonzo's squad finished seventh in conference play with a 20–12 record and accepted a bid to the CIT Tournament, which they ended up winning to finish the season with a record of 24–12.

2010–2011

In Coach Martin's third year at Missouri State, the team won their first regular season Missouri Valley Men's Basketball title and entered the Arch Madness conference tournament as the #1 seed. After reaching the finals, they lost to the Indiana State Sycamores. Although having an RPI of 44, the team was not selected as an at-large team to the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. They accepted a bid to the National Invitation Tournament, beating Murray State University at home and then losing to Miami (FL) away in the 2nd round. The team ended the season with a 26-9 record. After the season ended, there was speculation that Coach Martin was under consideration for the open position at the University of Missouri. However, Martin stated that he had not been contacted by the university about the job.^[2]

Tennessee

2011–present

On March 27, 2011, after 3 seasons at Missouri State, Martin was hired as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.^[3][4]

Coaching notes

Cuonzo Martin became the fifth Division I head coach to come out of the Gene Keady coaching tree, following Bruce Weber, Steve Lavin, Kevin Stallings and Matt Painter.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Missouri State (Missouri Valley Conference) (2008–2011)
2008–2009	Missouri State	11–20	3–15	10th
2009–2010	Missouri State	24–12	8–10	7th	CIT Champions
2010–2011	Missouri State	26–9	15–3	1st	NIT 2nd Round
Missouri State:		61–41	26–28
Tennessee (Southeastern Conference) (2011–present)
2011–2012	Tennessee	2–1	0–0
Tennessee:		2–1	0–0
Total:		63–42
National Champion         Conference Regular Season Champion         Conference Tournament Champion       Conference Regular Season & Conference Tournament Champion       Conference Division Champion

References

1. ^ IHSA - Legends of Boys Basketball
2. ^ Martin: No contact with Mizzou about job
3. ^ "Tennessee hires Cuonzo Martin". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6264533. Retrieved 28 March 2011. 
4. ^ http://thevolunteertimes.com/campbell/vol-watch-vols-hire-cuonzo-martin/ Vols hire Cunonzo Martin

External links

• Cuonzo Martin statistics, basketballreference.com

Persondata
Name	Martin, Cuonzo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 23, 1971
Place of birth	East St. Louis, Illinois, USA
Date of death
Place of death