How the Missouri Tigers are preparing for SEC opener at Kentucky without Cuonzo Martin
With everyone on the Missouri men’s basketball team reportedly vaccinated, the program hadn’t been testing players regularly during the 2021-22 season. But once everyone returned from spending Christmas with their families, team doctors decided to take extra precautions.
The entire team was tested before practice on Sunday. The following night, head coach Cuonzo Martin found out that he was positive for COVID-19. No one else within the program was.
Cornell Mann and other assistants on the Tigers’ coaching staff received a text from Martin that night, but Mann was already asleep at the time. He woke up to the news in the morning that he would be tasked with taking over as acting head coach for Mizzou’s first SEC game of the season, at No. 18 Kentucky on Wednesday night.
“It’s basketball. Things do happen,” Mann said Tuesday. “I’ve been here with Coach Martin the whole time, and our whole staff have, so we understand exactly what Coach wants us to do.
“We understand how things are supposed to go. The players understand that, as well. And so I think we’re as prepared as anybody would be for this type of situation.”
Mann has been an assistant on Martin’s staff since he took over the Missouri program in 2017. Before that, the Michigan native spent the 2016-17 season with Oakland under Greg Kampe. He’s also coached at Iowa State under Fred Hoiberg (2011-15), Dayton under Brian Gregory (2008-11), Western Michigan under Steve Hawkins (2003-08) and Central Michigan under Jay Smith (2001-03).
Though he can’t be with the team in person, Martin has remained in touch with Mann and the other MU assistants, Marco Harris-Stevens and Chris Hollender, about practice plans. Mann already had the Kentucky scout, which he said makes things easier.
“Really the timeline hadn’t been much different other than making sure that we talk to Coach about the practice plan, make sure that we get together as assistants and put together and execute the practice plan to make sure that our guys are physically healthy — and they are — mentally healthy — and they are,” Mann said.
Players had their usual morning workouts and practice on Monday, according to Mann.
“It’s been pretty normal outside of the fact that the obvious said that Coach Martin is not here. And that was one day, so it could be a little more different today, but yesterday was pretty much the same, other than the obvious.”
Martin was also in touch with Kentucky coach John Calipari, who called him after hearing the news on Monday to make sure he was OK.
“He sounded good,” Calipari said. “This thing gets you asymptomatic: You have nothing and all of a sudden you get tested and you have it. So from what he and I talked about, he’s going to be fine.
Come Wednesday night, Calipari will find himself opposite Mann instead of his usual adversary.
“I just want to do the best job I can for the program,” Mann said. “Obviously, I’m an assistant coach, just like Marco Harris-Stevens and Coach Hollender, and so we’ll team up and attack this thing the best we can without Coach. No different than any coaching situation, you need help.
“And so I need those guys to help me, and I’m 100% confident that they’re going to be in the trenches and fighting just like they would, and just like I would, if Coach Martin was here.”
The game will be a tough test for the 6-6 Tigers, who have already suffered blowout defeats to Florida State, Liberty, Kansas and Illinois this season. Despite losing those contests by an average 26.5 points, Mann said the team’s confidence level “is at a decent position” entering SEC play.
He said he believes the Tigers are improving.
“Sometimes the scoreboard may trick you into thinking you’re not getting better, but we are getting better,” Mann said. “Sometimes it’s incremental, sometimes in some pretty big spots. And so I think they feel that, so I think that builds confidence. I think the confidence is continuing to get better.”
Even with Martin testing positive and the fact that more than 50 college basketball programs are currently on pause because of COVID issues, Missouri isn’t planning to test its players more regularly, according to a team spokesperson. But the program will continue to follow protocols set forth by the SEC and CDC.
All of Kentucky’s players and coaches are said to have received booster shots, but it’s unclear if that is also true for Mizzou. Martin said on Dec. 18 that the team was in the process of getting everyone boosted but hadn’t provided an update since then. A team spokesperson was unable to provide any further update on Tuesday.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 11:56 AM.
