Prior scheduling pits Mizzou’s Cuonzo Martin against former teammate Saturday

Legendary college basketball coaches such as Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski are well-known for not wanting to schedule games against teams coached by their former players or assistants, commonly known as a coaching tree, because they don’t want to compete against friends.

Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin appears to be cut from the same cloth.

The Tigers beat Miami of Ohio on Tuesday, a team coached by Jack Owens, who was an assistant coach at Purdue after Martin left to become coach at Missouri State. The two know each other through their former boss, Boilermakers coach Matt Painter, and have been friends for years.

On Saturday, Missouri plays Green Bay, whose coach is Linc Darner, Martin’s teammate at Purdue.

In his weekly news conference Thursday, Martin said he’s not comfortable playing against his friends and that both games were scheduled before he became coach at Missouri.

“Moving forward I probably wouldn’t play them,” he said. “We’re both trying to do the same things. It’s already tough enough to win games and I wouldn’t want a loss one way or the other from a friend. I know how hard this profession is in trying to win games. If I can avoid playing against a guy I consider a friend I would do it at all costs.”

Missouri scrimmaged Missouri State in a closed doors exhibition before the start of the season as one of two preseason games that were closed to the public. The Bears are coached by Paul Lusk, who was an assistant coach at Purdue along with Martin.

Martin said it’s a different situation with Lusk because those scrimmages don’t count, which factors into his thinking.

“Missouri State is behind the scenes,” he said. “We’d do that every year if possible.”

With Martin and Darner both hailing from former Purdue coach Gene Keady’s coaching tree, Martin said both programs have similar traits to them that they took from their former coach.

“Coach (Keady) was a guy that would be time do the right things, be on time,” Martin said. “He talked about sharing the juices, which means everyone is involved. That’s the common denominator.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Prior scheduling pits Mizzou’s Cuonzo Martin against former teammate Saturday."