The coaching search is really heating up for the Illinois basketball team and many names have been thrown out there as potential replacements for John Groce.
One name I continue to hear is California’s head coach Cuonzo Martin. This has been a hot name for a while now for one reason or another.
But when I dig down deeper is Martin really a good choice to be the next leader of this program? I understand why people are attracted to him, though. He can get players to come to Champaign and he is from the Midwest.
I think there are a lot more pitfalls to Martin being the next head coach. While the surface looks nice and shiny, there is really a lot more not to like about him as a coach.
Let’s start by just looking at his coaching record. He has been with three total programs for a total of nine years. He has spent three years with each of the teams he has coached. In those nine years, Martin has only made the NCAA tournament two times.
Now taking that into consideration, if you wanted Groce gone because he couldn’t make the postseason then why would you want Martin? He has been in the game nine seasons and has only made two NCAA tournament appearances. That is about par for the course with Groce.
I will look at the recruiting side of things now with Martin. When coaches come into programs usually the first recruiting class is not their guys. All the coach has to do is convince the players to stay with their commitments.
So with that being the case, I looked at the 2012 and 2013 classes for Tennessee and the 2015 and 2016 classes with California.
The class of 2012 for Tennessee wasn’t in the top 25 in the nation. They had a three-star commit and two others players who weren’t ranked. The class of 2013 was better. Martin had a five-star, No. 20 player in the nation, commit but the rest of the class had two three-stars and two unranked players.
These two classes at Tennessee weren’t great. Martin couldn’t crack the top 25 in recruiting in either of these two years. But, things have been slightly better with Cal, though.
Martin was able to get two five-star players to commit to Cal from the class of 2015. These two players were ranked No. 4 and No. 5 in the nation. This was a class that also ranked No. 3 in the team rankings as well.
But, in 2016 Martin only had a four-star commit and another non-ranked player. The team wasn’t in the top 25 once again and one of their five-stars from the previous class went to the NBA.
Let me lay it out for you. I won’t count Missouri State in the mix in which Martin spent three years there before going to Tennessee. So in the six years he has been at high-level D1 programs, Tennessee and Cal, Martin has only made the NCAA tournament two times.
In addition to him only making the tournament 33-percent of the time, Martin has only one top 25 recruiting class in his four real classes. So really, is there any benefit to letting Groce go and hiring a guy who doesn’t have much better of a resume?
Next: Jamall Walker getting a shot as the Illini head coach
I want Illinois to hire someone who has a coaching resume that blows me away. That is someone who can come in and recruit with their charm but also with their history. That is who Whitman needs to hire and I don’t think it is Martin.