Possible candidates to replace Cuonzo Martin as Missouri Tigers men’s basketball coach
Cuonzo Martin is out as head coach of the Missouri Tigers men’s basketball program.
Mizzou athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois will conduct a national search to find his replacement. It’ll be the program’s fifth coach in less than two decades. Eddie Fogler, a former college basketball coach for Wichita State, Vanderbilt and South Carolina, will be a consultant for the search.
This will be the first big hire of Reed-Francois’ tenure at Missouri. She has been involved in three basketball hires at previous stops. She was part of the committee that brought Martin to Tennessee from Missouri State and hired TJ Otzelberger from South Dakota when she was the athletic director at UNLV. Otzelberger. She then promoted Kevin Kruger to head coach at UNLV following the departure of Otzelberger, who just finished a successful first season at Iowa State.
Both of those hires had just finished their third seasons as head coaches at mid-majors and won a regular season title that year. Could Reed-Francois follow a similar trend at Mizzou?
Here are some names that could be considered for the role, in no particular order.
Grant McCasland, North Texas
This is a name that is going to be a hot commodity on the market this offseason. There are going to be a lot of programs trying to land Grant McCasland, and for good reason.
McCasland has recorded four 20-win seasons in his five years at North Texas, including a 24-6 record and Conference USA regular season championship this season. Last year, he led the 13th-seeded Mean Green to an upset over Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 45-year-old has built his program with a savvy mind for analytics and has developed players that went on to transfer to big time programs, such as Umoja Gibson (Oklahoma), Ryan Woolridge (Gonzaga) and James Reese (South Carolina).
Previous stops for McCasland include Arkansas State and and Baylor, where he was an assistant under Scott Drew.
McCasland signed a contract extension last July that pays him a base salary of $600,000, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Kim English, George Mason
There was a lot of traction among the fan base to bring home the former Tigers guard towards the start of the season when George Mason got off to a hot start and managed to upset Maryland. But that may have faded, as the Patriots finished the season 14-16.
The season still went much better for George Mason than expected in English’s first year and he’s already proven that he can punch above his weight with recruits, both through high school and the transfer portal. The 33-year-old brought in Tennessee’s Devonte Gaines, Colorado’s D’Shawn Schwartz and Morehead State’s Devon Cooper through the transfer portal, and each made a big impact. English also landed a commitment from four-star Justyn Fernandez, a top-80 player.
This would still be a risky hire of a young coach without much head coaching experience, but it’s certainly a way to get the fan base excited. And if you don’t get him now, much bigger programs are going to be after him in a few years.
English’s contract pays him $925,000 annually, according to The Washington Post.
Jerome Tang, Baylor assistant
Another name that will be popular this coaching cycle is Baylor associate coach Jerome Tang. He has been by Scott Drew’s side since 2003.
Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and Texas Tech’s Mark Adams both flourished in their first years as head coaches this season after serving lengthy stints as assistants. So why not try that path?
Tang has been Drew’s right hand man as he took the Bears program from turmoil to a national championship; that experience could pay dividends in guiding his own team as a head coach.
Matt McMahon, Murray State
Matt McMahon led Murray State to an impressive 30-2 record in the regular season this year, complete with a Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship and tournament title. The Racers will make the NCAA Tournament field for the third time in seven years under McMahon.
The 43-year-old has an impressive 153-66 record as a head coach. The Racers went undefeated in conference play this year and knocked off Memphis in nonconference play.
McMahon’s recruiting and development prowess is evident through NBA All-Star Ja Morant, who he coached for two years.
McMahon’s buyout is $500,000, according to WSPD. But keep in mind, if Louisville — a job he has been linked to — goes after him, Missouri doesn’t stand a chance.
Todd Golden, San Francisco
Golden, 36, in his third year leading San Francisco, is considered a rising star in the college basketball coaching ranks.
The Dons went 24-9 this season and are expected to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament out of the WCC. He is 57-35 overall as a head coach. He was previously an assistant at San Francisco and also served as an assistant under Bruce Pearl at Auburn.
Reed-Francois has ties to San Francisco, as she was an associate athletic director there from 2007-08. She also has shown a likeness to hire young coaches, and Golden fits that bill.
Jeff Linder, Wyoming
Linder has a 39-18 record in two seasons as head coach at Wyoming, including a 25-7 mark this season. The Cowboys are currently projected as one of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN.
Linder got his first head coaching gig at Northern Colorado in 2016, where he stayed through 2020 and led the Bears to a 80-50 record. He led that program to its most wins in a three-year stretch during that tenure, including a CIT championship for its first ever postseason title.
The 44-year-old is known for running an impressive offense that could bring some life to Mizzou after playing a slow, tough-nosed defensive style in recent years.
Linder’s contract pays him $505,000 annually, according to the Casper Star Tribune.
Niko Medved, Colorado State
Another coach out of the Mountain West that could draw some interest is Niko Medved.
Medved has led three different mid-major programs to the postseason and will have the Rams in the NCAA Tournament this season as well. They are currently projected as a 7-seed, according to ESPN, after recording their third consecutive 20-win season.
Previous stops for Medved include Furman and Drake. Fogler was a consulant when he was brought to Colorado State. The 48-year-old signed a contract extension in July that raised his salary to $750,000 annually. That contract doesn’t expire until 2027 and his buyout is 25% of his remaining base salary, according to the Coloradoan.
Those are the realistic candidates. Let’s take a look at two wild cards.
Sean Miller: The former Arizona head coach raises a lot of red flags, but there’s no denying that he can win at a high level. He went 302-109 from 2009-21 in Tuscon while leading the Wildcats to seven NCAA Tournaments, three Elite Eight appearances and at least a share of five Pac-12 regular season championships.
But then there’s the fact that Miller was fired by Arizona in April 2021 for his ties to the 2017 FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball. Miller’s assistant Book Richardson went on trial
This is another really risky move. Arizona imposed a one-year NCAA Tournament ban last year, but the NCAA hasn’t punished the 53-year-old Miller yet. More penalties will be coming, and that could end up hurting Mizzou if it hires him.
Thad Matta: Why not give the former Ohio State head coach a call? His name was mentioned in coaching vacancies last cycle and is now an associate athletic director for the men’s basketball team at Indiana.
Throughout his career as a head coach at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State, Matt won eight conference championships and seven tournament championships while leading his teams to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances and two Final Fours
From 2004-17 at Ohio State, Matta was named Big Ten coach of the year three times and had a 337-123 record as the winningest coach in school history.
Matta left Ohio State after dealing with health issues that took a toll on his coaching and recruiting, but he is assumed to be in better health now at age 54.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 7:46 PM.
