COLUMBIA, Mo. _ Cuonzo Martin got a standing ovation from hundreds of fans gathered at Mizzou Arena for his introduction as Missouri's new men's basketball coach on Monday, the culmination of a quick hiring process that zeroed in on the 45-year-old coach from the start.
Missouri was the first power conference school to hire a new coach during the current hiring cycle and Martin was the only coach Mizzou seriously considered. On Monday, shortly before Martin's formal introduction, where he said he grew up admiring Mizzou coaching legend Norm Stewart, the UM Board of Curators unanimously approved Martin's seven-year contract that will pay him an average guaranteed salary of $3 million per year.
Martin replaces Kim Anderson, who was fired late last month and went 27-68 in three seasons at Mizzou. Martin is Missouri's fifth head coach since 1999.
Martin, born in St. Louis and raised in East St. Louis, comes to Mizzou with 186 Division I coaching wins from his three three-year stops at Missouri State, Tennessee and California-Berkeley. Martin has coached in two NCAA Tournaments, once at Tennessee and last year with Cal. Martin played at Purdue in the 1990s then spent eight years at his alma mater as an assistant coach before landing his first college head-coaching job at Missouri State in 2008.
On Monday, Martin said Missouri has all the makings to build a championship program.
"We have everything here to be the last team standing one day," he said. "That's my goal."
On March 12, Mizzou athletics director Jim Sterk and executive associate AD Brian White met with Martin and his wife Roberta at his home in Northern California for about four hours where they discussed the job. Sterk and White left California confident that Martin was interested but weren't certain he would accept the position.
"He said he wanted to come, but they had to talk about it as a family," Sterk said. "I think it was within the next day (he accepted the offer). But he told me, 'I want to come there' from the start."
Sterk described his connection with Martin as "a shotgun wedding" and said Missouri had to be aggressive with Martin knowing that other jobs could target him.
"Both of us were no [bull] kind of guys," Sterk said. "We just lay it out there. He told me what he thought. I told him what I thought, that he was my No. 1 choice and I wanted him to be the next coach here. That helped us down the stretch."
Martin was the only candidate Mizzou met with to discuss the job, a source confirmed. Tom Crean, Indiana's coach until he was fired last Thursday, had shown interest in the job, sources confirmed during the process, but never met with Mizzou officials.
Under the terms of Martin's contract, Mizzou cannot fire him without cause for the first three years. After Martin's third season, Mizzou can buy out the contract starting May 1, 2020, for $6 million. That total decreases each year from $3 million in 2021, $1 million in 2022 to $300,000 in 2023. Should Martin leave Missouri prior to April 30, 2018, he owes the school $10,500,000. That total decreases each year, from $7.5 million in 2020 to $150,000 through the final game of the contract's final season in 2024.
Martin's staff salary pool is $1.1 million, which accounts for three assistant coaches, a strength and conditioning coach, director of operations and director of video operations.
Martin declined to comment on specific questions about Michael Porter Sr., the former University of Washington assistant and father of prized recruiting target Michael Porter Jr., who signed with Washington in the fall but could end up at Mizzou instead. Martin only acknowledged that he knows Porter Sr. from his time coaching in the Pac-12.
Asked if he expects Martin to hire Porter, Sterk said, "He's not talking (about) that yet. But he'll get there shortly."
