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Tennessee Hires Cuonzo Martin as Basketball Head Coach

Tennessee has hired Missouri State's Cuonzo Martin to replace terminated head basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

Suffice it to say that this is not what I would consider to be the most intimidating hire Tennessee could possibly make. Martin is coming off a very strong season in which his team went 26-9, won a regular-season conference championship, and earned an NIT berth. However, his overall record at Missouri St. is only 61-41, hardly a history of mid-major dominance. Granted, I know little about what kinds of rebuilding challenges he faced in his former position, or what attracted Mike Hamilton to Martin's approach and philosophy. The guy may be a very solid coach. That said, he doesn't come with the credentials Pearl had when he was hired a few years back, and it's difficult to see him as being equal to Pearl. I would speculate that Hamilton may have known this job would be a hard sell with sanctions looming, and this is the result. It's not a worst-case scenario for Gamecocks fans, by any means.