The radio calls would come from all over Greene County, and maybe from the folks up in Polk County, and they'd ask so often about playing zone defense, it felt as suffocating as a full-court press.
Sometimes, the radio show host himself would ask. Just why wouldn't Missouri State switch to zone from a man-to-man defense? Because they sure as heck weren't defending many men.
"But Cuonzo stuck to his guns," said Kent Williams, an assistant coach on the 2008-09 Missouri State team, who sometimes filled in on Cuonzo Martin's weekly radio show. "He said, 'If we're going to win a championship, we're going to win it by these guys buying in and playing defense, and if I start changing and we start zoning to try to win today, then it's not going to help us win tomorrow.' ... And three years later, we're putting up a banner and getting rings."
Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin planted the seeds that became Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin.
His first season as a head coach _ over in Springfield in 2008-09 _ gives us a glimpse into who he hoped to be ... and who he became.
"So many unknowns, because you move one seat over," said Martin, 46, who coaches his first game for Mizzou on Friday against Iowa State.
"You don't know it at the time, but there's a lot to learn and go through, and the thing you can gain from that experience is wisdom. And here I am, going into my 10th season, and I think of my first year at Missouri State, I'm grateful for that opportunity, because they didn't owe that to me. And I was grateful for the patience the administration and fan base had for me, because it's not easy _ I don't care what year you are as a coach, when you take over a job, every fan wants to win. I think we were 11-20 if I'm not mistaken, and we've learned a lot."
Yup, his first team ever was 11-20. Won three conference games.
Hired at age 36, after years as an assistant for alma mater Purdue, Martin seemingly etched his principles into new hardwood at JQH Arena, which opened that very season. They would play hard. They would play man-to-man. They would play man-to-man hard. And they would lose, but it would help them learn to win.
The very next year, Martin's team was 24-12. And in the third season _ 2010-11 _ Missouri State went 26-9, finishing first in the Missouri Valley Conference. This catapulted him to Tennessee and California and back to Missouri.
"I knew instantly that he would turn our program around _ his energy and attention to detail was remarkable," forward Kyle Weems emailed me from Turkey, where he plays professionally. "His coaching style is someone who gives you freedom in the motion offense. He treats you as a man. ... He demanded you to work hard and get out of your comfort zone. And he also cared about you as a person, which is what made you want to buy in to his coaching. And he also holds you accountable in the classroom. He even did class checks on his own."
In his first year as a head coach, Martin didn't carry himself as some sort of overlord. Coaches on his staff talk about how open he was to hearing their suggestions about X's and O's. Martin would carry himself as "the same guy every day," then-assistant Jon Harris emphasized to me on Sunday. "Never got too high, never got too low." It's an old adage, sure, but not every coach can live by it. And Martin was a quick thinker, one time calling an inbounds play he remembered from his high school days in East St. Louis. It was a play called "clock" _ and Missouri State had never practiced it. But in a key moment against the SEC's Arkansas, Martin confidently drew it up.
"And when those moments happen, especially early in someone's career, you think _ OK, he's not afraid of the moment," said the assistant Williams, who is now the head coach at De Smet Jesuit High School.
Missouri State indeed beat Arkansas that season. But much of the hat-hanging came from playing hard in losses. Like, they hung tough, for a while at least, against Auburn. And they lost nine conference games by single digits, including two in overtime. Their top scorer was a fellow named Chris Cooks, but he battled injuries during early conference play. And they had Spencer Laurie, the Mizzou Tiger transfer. But perhaps the best talent on the team was Weems, the redshirt freshman. They felt they could grow Weems _ and grow with Weems.
Martin would tell his assistant Williams that Weems needed to be trained as a man-to-man defender, because otherwise it would be "giving in" to the future. Rick Kindhart _ Missouri State's assistant athletic director, communications _ shared a story that sounded like an ol' Tony La Russa story. Back when Yadier Molina was young, Tony didn't pinch hit for the light-hitting Yadi in a key moment ... because it could help Yadi's confidence in later games.
"It was ESPN BracketBusters game late in the season," Kindhart said. "Tennessee-Martin was leading the Ohio Valley at the time, and Missouri State had lost seven of eight. Two teams headed in opposite directions for March. The game was tied in the final moments of regulation, and Cuonzo called timeout to draw up a play. Instead of drawing up something for one of his seniors, he drew up a play for Weems. The play worked, and Weems knocked down about a 17-foot jumper at the buzzer. Two years later, I remembered that moment when Weems hit another buzzer-beater in the MVC tournament in St. Louis. I wondered if putting that confidence in Weems as a freshman allowed him to shine in the spotlight on a much bigger stage."
And the defensive mindset has worked wherever Martin has gone. Teams at Tennessee and Cal have been some of the nation's better squads in defensive efficiency, per the respected stat site KenPom.com. Martin's men play man-to-man. But there was one moment, in Martin's first-ever season, when Martin let his guard down, per how his guys guarded.
"I was actually in his ear," Williams said. "We were playing Evansville, and they didn't have any shooters, so we could zone and get 'em. Finally he budged and we did it the last seven minutes and won. But we only won three conference games that year, and he said, 'We did that to win tonight, guys. That's not what we're doing.' And we never went back to it."
