VTTW Board Index

That's right folks

So it seems.

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN (https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN)

Rob Lewis confirming

If it happens, I hope the UT admin have been on top of this and have approached some good coaching prospects before now.

It's done. All media reporting it

  Paging Gregg Marshall  Paging Gregg Marshall

Meh. 

I'm fully prepared to be underwhelmed by the next hire.

Why would Cuonzo pick Cal over Marquette. Any thoughts?

Marquette didn't pick him

He didn't. My thoughts (and not just mine; many others as well) were always that Marquette didn't offer the job to Martin. The timing of the interviews were just too suspicious. Martin interviewed on a Sunday, his imminent hire was supposedly a done deal on Monday morning, Marquette interviewed Wojo on Monday afternoon, and Martin didn't announce he was staying at UT until late Monday night. That told me that Marquette didn't offer Martin after his interview, then after the Wojo interview they informed Martin that he was no longer in the running.

Martin's departure for Cal solidifies that in my mind. No coach east of the Rocky Mountains, especially one with deep roots in the Midwest, would take the Cal job over the Marquette job if he truly had a choice.

Brendan Quinn, who covered UT sports for the News Sentinel up until a few months ago when he jumped to the Alabama beat, tweeted minutes ago that this is exactly what Dave Hart wanted. I'm not sure I disagree with that take. If Hart was sold on Martin, why have we not heard specifics of Martin's raise and contract extension? Those things are given when a coach rejects another school to stay with his current school, and it had been 2 weeks since Martin supposedly "rejected" Marquette.

If Quinn is right (and Wes Boling, because he tweeted essentially the same thing), it makes sense that Hart would have a short list of potential candidates that he's ready to run with. Of course, like Vinnie, I'm prepared to be underwhelmed. This is Tennessee basketball, after all. We'll find some way to screw it up.

Thanks. That says a lot about how well or how bad he is as a coach. But why Cal and not stay at UT. Unless the writing was on the wall that he was not long for the UT job.

That's why I think what Quinn and Boling are tweeting re: Hart makes a lot of sense.

Well, I didn't want to say it while he was still our coach, but now I can: this is for the best.  I don't know if the next guy will do any better, but I think it's clear that this team was headed for a big crash next year now that all of Bruce's recruits are gone, and Cuonzo wasn't recruiting at a level that gave me any hope for the future.  We'll probably lose most or all of this current recruiting class, but that's OK.  Unlike football, basketball is a sport, where, if you hire the right guy, you can withstand a bad class.  Witness Bruce's first year, where all of Buzz's commits bailed and we were left with only Ryan Childress, whom Bruce brought over from UWM. 

I know people will be crying out for guys like Marshall and Smart, but I doubt we'll get either.  Keep an eye on Ben Howland.  We could do a hell of a lot worse.

He wasn't happy here. No one wants to work somewhere they're not happy. Let him move on, and let Hart prove his worth

We aren't getting Smart and we probably aren't getting Marshall. I'm not sure Howland would come to UT. Obviously he would like to get back into coaching, and I'm sure UT could do worse (though he doesn't exactly overwhelm me), but at his age would he want to tackle a job like the UT job? I think he's very much like Phil Fulmer — lot of success, game passed him by to some extent, got fired, would like to coach again, but wants to be selective about where he goes.

Archie Miller is obviously gonna get a few mentions.

It's funny how quickly the basketball coaching profession revolves. When Pearl was fired, I really wanted Anthony Grant. Now he's on his way out at Alabama.

I hope whoever we hire isn't treated the way Martin was (and I mean by the fans).

I didn't sign the petition, but if CCM is leaving because he got his feelings hurt by the petition, he can go. I live 4 miles from Rupp arena, and I can tell you UK fans were turning on him this year before the run. Demanding fans are exactly what you need for excellence. You think UK fans would settle? Bama fans in football?

Some people are saying ti is the vocal fans that led Martin to bolt....if so then he has the smallest pair known to the coaching profession.  Criticism when you underwhelm is the norm in College Sports no matter where you coach.  This past year was by example the definition of underperfomrnace exzcept during the NCAA tournament.  When you lose to Texas A&M twice in one season as well as several other teams that Martin and the Vols lost to you have no excuses when people criticize your performance.  If players want to poiont fingers at the fans for "mistreating" the coach then can we point fingers at the players for not playing up to their potential each and every game?  Frankly that is all a load of HORSESH$T cause I was taught to go oout and try to excel each and every game and NOT take off plays games etc.  All of that devolvews on the coaches as well since they are the ones that are suppossed ot be coaching effort and heart and all that other mnotivation stuff.

Also I am not convinced that Martin was a LTS - AKA Long Term Solution.....after the BP ride we got kind of spoiled being a perrenial NCAA tourney team and it is hard to come off that high....but I think the next coach is in a worse position than Martin found the program

Bull....Martin was getting paid a whole lot of money...he deserved the criticism of the program when it was underperforming during the year.  If he left because of that....dont let the door hit ya on the ASS!!!

The good news: for once we're losing a coach, and THEY owe US a buyout.  Maybe we can use that money to pay off Dooley. :dance:

Yup.

Petitions specifically to hire a former coach that lied to the NCAA which meant the job had to opened up for him. Faulted when players missed pressure foul shots that were the difference in winning and losing games (that may fall under the underperforming clause but I'll bet he didn't coach them to do that). Running a clean program with not nearly enough felony charges. Not ranting and raving on the sidelines to the point of getting technical fouls and even ejected a few times. Oh hell, lets taking him out back and beat the $hit out of him.

Without even knowing anything about Cal, IMO the Marquette situation was messed up.  News reports stated bluntly that "Cuonzo removed himself from consideration".  Looking at Marquette, I can easily believe that.  It doesn't look like a great situation at all to me.

I suspect Cal is much better, but haven't yet looked into it.

Cuonzo was treated here like he would have been treated anywhere else under the same circumstances. If that's not fair, then it's big time college sports that aren't fair, because that's all this is. You are expected to follow success with success and when you don't, the fans have basically zero patience. That's life. Cuonzo made a hefty sum of money to absorb the fans' scorn.

Cal is more his speed, I suspect.

So other programs have the most popular coach in their history still living in town and about to be eligible for employement again?

Hmmmm..... :naughty:

Maybe, maybe not.   I suspect lack of talent on next year's roster had more to do with it.

What is true is that the petition was very unusual and it likely factored in, though again I don't think it was the main thing.

.

FTR I don't think it was the fans.. the administration did not really support him, and Hart's statements today seem to support that. One thing Hart said about the buyout was interesting. "Coaches in year 4 aren't usually worried about buyouts"