Why Mizzou's Cuonzo Martin is becoming more involved in the coaching community
During his summers as a basketball player for Purdue, Cuonzo Martin was a construction worker and an employee at a local pizza shop. He was a student who needed to support himself, so he sacrificed training time for a paycheck.
When those paychecks became bigger, when Martin became the star of an Italian professional team, he was still 31 credits away from earning his bachelor’s degree — but he spent his offseasons relaxing, not studying.
The now-Missouri head coach didn’t have time for internships as a college athlete, and he didn’t have a plan for whenever his professional playing career would come to an end — both of which he thought about last week, just before he traveled to New York, where he attended his first meeting as a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ board of directors. After much prodding from peers to become more involved in the coaching community, Martin said he accepted the NABC position this summer, as well as a spot on the NCAA’s Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, because “it’s time now.”
He feels ready to bring his perspective to both groups, which seek to guide college basketball through myriad issues. Some are as minor as the season’s start date. Others, the ones Martin cares most about, are more significant — such as how to prepare athletes for a career after playing basketball, so that they don’t end up in a situation like the one Martin was in, without a plan when cancer cut his playing career short.
Fortunately for Martin, his coach at Purdue, Gene Keady, called with an opportunity to join the Boilermakers’ staff.
“That was a great plan for me,” said Martin, who knows he’s lucky basketball has taken him around the world, made him a millionaire and, perhaps most significant in his eyes, given him a career.
Keady thinks being on the NABC board is an “obligation to the basketball world,” but first Martin needed to ensure that he found the right balance in his life between his job and his family. Nearing his 11th season as a head coach, he believes he has that.
After his meeting in New York and the NBA Draft, Martin traveled to Italy for a family vacation. When he returns to Columbia, he’ll find time to play golf, a new hobby.
“When I first started as an assistant coach, I was really just trying to do my job,” Martin said. “Then you get to a point where you’re a head coach. You’re just trying to be a head coach and survive.
“Now you fast forward, you start to see things differently, how this game is being impacted, how it can help these men and women be better.”
College basketball is long on problems, and the arc of Martin’s life allows him to see them from multiple perspectives.
He grew up poor in East St. Louis, Ill. He grinded through knee injuries to star at a Big Ten school. He saw his playing career end sooner than expected because of cancer. He has coached in the Missouri Valley, the Southeastern Conference and the Pac-12.
“Because of the path he’s taken, the things he’s gone through in his life, he becomes a great resource,” said Central Florida head coach Johnny Dawkins, another member of the NABC Board of Directors who pushed Martin to take on a greater role within the organization.
That’s partially why Southeastern Conference associate commissioner Dan Leibovitz put Martin on the oversight committee. Another reason Leibovitz liked the idea of nominating Martin: He doesn’t hear from him very often. According to Leibovitz, who oversees SEC men’s basketball, Martin doesn’t call the conference office about the scheduling of referees, “doesn’t really sweat the small stuff.”
“The really good committee members are the ones who don’t talk all the time, but when they do speak, it resonates and has something meaningful to say,” Leibovitz said. “To me, that’s Cuonzo.”
When Martin first started working on Keady’s Purdue staff, his quietness in meetings surprised the legendary Boilermakers head coach, who was used to Martin being a boisterous leader as a player. But Martin said he’s quiet when he feels the need to observe and learn — and that’s how he intends to act during his meetings with the NCAA committee and the NABC Board of Directors.
The coach is walking into these endeavors with topics he’s passionate about, though. During two conversations about his increased involvement within the basketball community, Martin seemed focused on issues that impact basketball players at all levels, from recruits to retired pros.
“My job is to bring ideas, talk about different topics,” he said.
He’s wondering how to better educate prospects on the NCAA’s core course requirements and the optimal time to take the ACT.
He’s pondering how to help athletes who can’t afford to participate in the summer basketball circuit.
He’s also thinking about his summers when he was a student at Purdue, and how today student-athletes still can’t find time for many internships because of their consuming schedules — so he wants to find a way to provide internship opportunities for professional basketball players during the summers, when they return to America from their overseas teams. That would help give players a plan.
“I had college teammates that played (professionally for) 10-15 years,” Martin said. “When they were done playing, (any other career) was kind of out of sight out of mind because they had degrees but were so far removed.”
What’s the best way to address all of these problems? Martin isn’t sure. That’s why there is a committee and a board, he figures. That he’s finally joined them now, as college basketball reckons with the FBI’s investigation into the sport, adds an extra degree of importance in his mind.
“But that’s not the sole reason why I wanted to be a part of it,” Martin said. “It’ a great game. This game has done a lot for me.”