After a five-year tenure in Columbia, Cuonzo Martin is out at Missouri. As CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported on Friday evening, the Missouri Tigers have decided to part ways with Martin after a 12-21 season in 2021/2022.
Martin, a former head coach at Tennessee from 2011 to 2014, has spent eight of the last 11 years in the SEC.
While Martin did improve what was a struggling Missouri program, his overall time in Missouri was disappointing. The Tigers made the NCAA tournament two times during his tenure, losing in the first round in both the 2017/2018 and 2020/2021 seasons. Cuonzo Martin finishes his Missouri tenure with an overall record of 78-77 and an SEC record of 35-53.
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During his time at Missouri, Martin found two wins in seven total matchups against Tennessee. Martin’s wins over Tennessee came during his first meeting with the Vols in January of 2018 and January of 2021.
Martin’s furthest tournament run as a head coach came in 2014 while leading Tennessee to the Sweet 16.
After his time at Tennessee, but before he took over at Missouri, Martin served as the University of California’s head coach from 2014 to 2017.
“When I think of coach (Cuonzo) Martin and his team, they play hard and are aggressive defensively,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of Missouri before their February matchup. “They’re going to contest passes and get after the ball. Anything that has to do with effort, they’re going to do it at a high level which is a testament to him and his program. They’re playing their fourth game in seven days; I think those guys are young and can bounce back quickly. We’ll have to play well because it’s going to be a hard-fought game like all these SEC games are.”
In Tennessee’s one matchup against Missouri this season, the Vols took down the Tigers by a score of 80-61 in Columbia.
After defeating Ole Miss by a score of 72 to 60 in the first round of the SEC Tournament, Cuonzo Martin and the Tigers fell to LSU in the second round by a score of 76 to 68.
