Duke Blue Devils: Kevin Knox’s Two Days of Decision
Missouri Tigers
Wednesday – 6 PM
I have to wonder what kind of sales job Cuonzo Martin does with families. Like John Wooden, he is a Purdue alum. Unlike Wooden, he doesn’t have many major coaching achievements. Martin has won 60% of his games in his coaching career. That number doesn’t change despite coaching at varied environments like Missouri State, Tennessee, and California. He has been to the NCAA Tournament twice in nine years.
He was most famous for his ouster at Tennessee where he was guilty of not being Bruce Pearl (not a bad thing necessarily) and fleeing to California. The Golden Bears has historically been the better job. In his second year at Cal, Martin talked Jaylen Brown into showing up and rode that team to his second Tournament berth. That built up some hype for this year’s Bears but they never lived up to it.
Martin made the jump back toward home by taking the Missouri job. That seemed a little odd, since you can build a winner at Cal if you stay long enough, but maybe Martin was tired of recruiting the West Coast. Instantly, Martin hired Michael Porter’s father and gained Porter (MVP – McDonalds All-American Game) as a signee. Now there is talk that Jorday Porter might reclassify into his brother’s class and show up too.
This is all Martin has to sell. He wins 60% of his games and the Porter family will be on campus. Together, Porter and Knox could take over the SEC and dethrone Kentucky. They play Kentucky, the one shiny object on the Mizzou schedule. Sure, the other SEC schools will be mentioned. He will emphasize the chance to prove oneself against Calipari’s own legion of freshmen.
Martin can offer any position and any role because the team he inherited is not his and he is not beholden to them. He sees Knox and Porter as Rodney Hood–Jabari Parker (Okafor-Winslow?) of Duke’s past or perhaps a more exaggerated comparison. He point to Jaylen Brown as his one shining moment, proof that he can put guys in the lottery.
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He also has the advantage that he needs Knox in ways that Duke, Carolina, and Kentucky do not. Knox’s family will know that and they can read the tea leaves of Porter’s dad’s hiring. Martin will do whatever he has to, if it means Knox comes. He is far more beholden to them than any of the Hall of Fame coaching options.
The trouble for Martin is that he is selling something between Kentucky and Florida State. He wants a Porter-Knox super team that allows Porter and Knox to do whatever they want. The other problem is how involved the Porter family could be. Even Jeff Capel did not have Blake and Taylor Griffin’s dad whispering in his ear at Oklahoma. Porter’s father can do just that – during games where two of his sons might be on the court. That can’t be to Knox’s benefit.
Like FSU, there is no guarantee of team success at Mizzou, though they are in a much better position than the Seminoles to try it.