Tennessee athletic director made solid hire
Mike Hamilton has gotten a lot wrong as Tennessee’s athletics director. Monday’s hiring of Cuonzo Martin as his new men’s basketball coach was not one of his wrong moves.
I still say UT’s best option was to sign up women’s coach Pat Summitt, one of the Tennessee legends Martin mentioned during his introductory press conference Monday. However, Martin is in no way a bad get for the Vols.
At this moment, Tennessee is not a premier job, no matter what its fans want to believe. It can be a premier job — Martin called it a “Top-25” job — but right now the program is in flux. Hamilton deserves credit for approaching the hire as such. If he had operated under the same delusions of grandeur UT fans were expressing, it would’ve made Oregon’s job search of a year ago look well-executed.
At least when Oregon went after every big name in America, it did so with Phil Knight’s checkbook in its back pocket.
Hamilton wouldn’t have had that at his disposal if he had done what the Vol Nation wanted and made runs at Shaka Smart, Brad Stevens, Buzz Williams and every other unrealistic possibility under the sun.
Going about business that way would’ve left Tennessee stuck hiring its eighth or ninth choice. That poor guy, whoever he would’ve been, would have entered the gig with two strikes already on him. Instead, Hamilton acted quietly and swiftly. He came away with a good up-and-coming name and the best option available given Tennessee’s limitations.
Martin, 39, is young. He has grit — a native of East St. Louis, Martin has survived cancer. He has shown he can turn a program around. His first year at Missouri State ended with the Bears 11-20; he’ll leave them 26-9 and the Missouri Valley Conference regular season champions.
He brings the same type of Midwestern roots the dearly departed Bruce Pearl arrived with from Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Martin also has an impeccable pedigree. As a member of the Gene Keady coaching tree, along with St. John’s coach Steve Lavin, Illinois coach Bruce Weber, Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings and Purdue coach Matt Painter, he has precedent for success at a high level.
Are there some questions about Martin? No doubt. He has never made an NCAA Tournament appearance. He has only been a head coach for three seasons. Most obviously, Missouri State isn’t Tennessee, and the Missouri Valley isn’t the Southeastern Conference.
However, all of that is small stuff compared to the state the UT program is in. The belief is that any potential NCAA sanctions may be softened with Pearl now out of the fold, but no one will really know until the NCAA makes its ruling. Martin admitted that he needed some questions answered about the NCAA situation when he interviewed, but he added that he has been told things would work out. Knowing he had a good job at MSU, I tend to believe those promises to Martin have validity, and UT will be able to navigate whatever comes.
As I said, I’ve hammered Hamilton in the past. Part of me still can’t believe he has weathered all of the storms that have rolled through Rocky Top in recent memory. But he got the job done, and in a tough spot at that. Fair is fair — Hamilton got this one right.