Come on man, Cuonzo is
Posted on: November 18, 2019 at 11:35:58 CT
FIJItiger
MU
Posts:
141990
Member For:
21.32 yrs
Level:
Moderator
M.O.B. Votes:
0
taking over what is likely the most challenging rebuild in modern college basketball. We are still in the very early stages of that. He inherited a D2 program in the toughest conference, an abysmal roster, a program on probation, basically zero fan support, and APR issues that limited his ability to turn the roster over.
Hiring Kim Anderson was a monumental mistake, but allowing him to coach for 3 entire seasons was akin to receiving a death penalty. When we brought him back for that third season (after 2 straight 14th place finishes, followed predictably by the least competitive MU team of all time) we might has well have mailed all potential and future recruits a letter that said 'MU DOES NOT CARE ABOUT MEN'S BASKETBALL'.
There is a very decent chance that Cuonzo isn't an elite coach and won't build a high level program here. Cuonzo is the hire that can hopefully build MU back to the point of being realistically able to hire such a coach. About 4 years from now we will likely have a rather difficult decision to make on whether we want to have a good coach with a good program or whether it is time to strive for more than that. But certainly we have to allow the good coach we did hire to do the job of rebuilding MU back to reasonable respectability.
It can not be understated how detrimental it was to give our job to someone who hadn't coached in D1 athletics since the prior century, and then after observing he couldn't possibly do the job allowing him to remain in charge of the program for 3 full seasons. There are long term and significant ramifications from doing something so stupid. The program can't simply just move on from that in a year or two. Its going to be a long and hard process to rebuild from.
Edited by FIJItiger at 11:37:00 on 11/18/19