Cuonzo Martin Q&A before Mizzou's season opener

“It’s been good. We have multiple guys that can make plays, especially in the half court. Even though we have one guy we outlet the ball to off of made baskets, that’s in most cases our point guard, after we get across half court, making plays, reading defenses, I like the fact that once we get across, you have multiple guys that can make plays with the basketball, especially getting to the rim.”

You mentioned an eight or nine man rotation. Do you have an idea how you’d like the start the season there or do you see that being something that evolves in the first few weeks?

“No we have an idea. If we started a game, yeah, I certainly have a five. I think we have a very solid eight. Nine and ten depend on situations. Foul struggles, flow of games. And there will be games, especially in the preseason, Jordan (Wilmore) is 7-3, how many minutes can he get against a team that’s so small? Not that he’s not productive, but situations like that. Then you have guys that can make those necessary adjustments, you can go small in those lineups. But I do have a solid eight in my head.”

Javon Pickett, how have you seen him grow as a leader?

“He’s always been all business since he stepped on campus, but I think more than anything, just a calmness about him. As you mature over the course of time, he understands the importance of a student-athlete, life after basketball, next moves, meeting people on campus, not just going to class, but getting to know my professors, the dean of certain schools. That sort of thing as you grow into it, we talk about it when guys are freshmen, but you really don’t understand and comprehend that until you get older and the impact of what it means to be a student-athlete and ultimately get a degree and hopefully have a successful career. I think he has more peace to him. What I mean by that, just as a leader, you understand what it means to lead whether you’ve seen good leadership or not so good leadership so you understand what that means. You know how you want leadership to look when you’re a freshman, so he understand that part, but he commands a lot of respect just on his work ethic alone and how he approaches practice, how he approaches games. So it makes it a lot easier.”

With the three guys that came from mid-majors, what can you sense about their hunger to be on this stage?

“The one thing I’ve noticed with these guys, as well as like Kassius (Robertson) and Dru (Smith) is the appreciation. Not so much the talent level, if you can play, you can play. I just think the appreciation. When it comes to this level, small thing, not to be boastful, but charter flights, the locker room improvements, those sorts of things you respect and appreciate that. Not that they take it for granted at other places. Now they understand that if I do the things I need to do on the floor, these are the added bonus to my success. So that sort of thing, I do notice that part. They don’t take that part for granted. But as far as the basketball part, I think once you get to this point, anybody, whether you go to a place as a freshman, I think it’s often times not big enough, not strong enough, need to work on some things, but after two years of college if you can play, you can play.”

With DaJuan Gordon, how important has his experience in the Big 12 been and how have you seen that already?

“Just playing high level basketball on a consistent basis. You’re talking about having an opportunity to play against Baylor twice a year, the national champions, and he played well that last game against them. Just that feel. He already played hard. He came from great tutelage under Coach Weber, so he understands it. He competes. The great thing often times when you transfer, and I’ve always said this when you transfer, did you address the situation? Whatever it was, you know what it is, did you address it? Because if not, it will be the same situation and he understands it. The great thing about him is he played for a guy that I played for in college, Coach Weber was an assistant coach when I was at Purdue so I can call him coach Weber and talk about him and talk about some of the things that made him successful and some of the things he needed to improve on. Coach Weber loves him and wants to see him successful so it’s not a case of they had a poor relationship. He wants to see him successful so it was a smooth transition.”

What was that that led him here?

“I just think the key is, of course when you recruit a guy, you know he’s a talented player, but I think the thing for him is having an opportunity to come and play from day one because I don’t think too many guys want to transfer and sit. I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to play from day one. Then obviously Coach Weber again, said to him, I think this would be a great place for you and here’s the reasons why.”

What has been your message to this team about the mentality you want them to have?

“The thing we always talk about, you guys have probably heard me say it a thousand times, you always try to play as hard as you can play, be as tough as you can be. We want to play the game smart, but ultimately you want to play the game together. I think when you do those things you have a chance to be successful. Unselfish basketball, but always very aggressive and individual players make plays, but you want to be a team first team and I think that’s very important.”

How have you seen that cohesiveness grow, especially in the past month?

“Smooth. Hasn’t been a problem at all. These guys transferring in, these are good guys. We spent hours—a lot of hours—outside of COVID in the recruiting process, not the high school guys, but the transfers, we had to spend a lot of time recruiting via Zoom. So that means Zoom calls with players, probably doing it once or twice a week with their families. We didn’t necessarily do Zoom calls with the coaches that they played for, we were always on the phone with them, just getting as much intel as possible. So that part has been good. I like to think they’re all good guys and they’ve proven it so far.”

Javon was saying he’s told the team ignore the outside predictions and projections. Is that something you use to motivate your team or do you ignore it if maybe some of the predictions are that they maybe aren’t expected to be great?

“I mean even when I was a ballplayer, I never wasted time with it. Couldn’t wait till we laced them up against that opponent, but I didn’t sit in bed every night they picked us this or that. That’s a waste of time. You’re a ballplayer, you put the work in, I don’t know how much time you have to worry about that and deal with that. Because you still have to perform. You can feel a certain way, but let your production show how you feel as opposed to spending a lot of time talking about it.”

What excitement level can you sense from the guys for the season opener?

“I think they’re very excited. They treated the scrimmages like they were games because they were so excited to play. You go up against each other for so long and I think in their minds and I know we felt this way as coaches, the unknown because there are so many new guys, who your starters are, who’s the guy that’s the leading scorer, that sort of thing. So they feel those things as players and I think they were excited to play those two scrimmages and they did a good job in those scrimmages and I think they’re ready to go now.”

Can you take us through preparation for Central Michigan and maybe some things that stand out to you?

“Not really. Only reason because they had a closed scrimmage. It’s always hard getting intel that way. Tony Barbee’s a new coach, they have new personnel. So we’ll just kind of prepare like we assume they’ll play. It’s one of those games where you don’t have personnel like that or scouting information, it’s one of those games you have to practice what you do best. We cover ball screen coverage, we cover post D, we cover situations if they have smaller lineups, how will Jordan play in those lineups? It’s just the same for when they play against us. They can kind of prepare for what they think we do as a program, but they don’t really know for sure with new personnel.”

Talking about blocking out the noise, how much harder is that than it was when you were a player and how do you help them do that?

“I think it’s extremely hard for today’s athlete. That’s professional athlete, college athlete. I think it’s extremely hard. Cause they have access to their phone. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with that. The issue in my opinion is what’s being said, especially when you’re talking about youth. You can criticize the coach as an adult, but some of the things that are said about prospects, especially high school, college athletes, 18 to 23 years old, they’re still young men and women. Some of the stuff that is said about them it is just sad and unfortunate that an adult would speak like that about young men and young women. It’s just a sport. It’s mind blowing to me. I can’t wrap my mind around it. Then you wonder why society has anxiety, stress level, depression, suicide, all these issues. That’s real. They got to live with it, see it every day. That’s tough. You got to go into locker rooms. That’s one thing I wish would change, especially dealing with athletes. As adults, as coaches, I don’t have a problem with that. When you’re talking about prospects like that, I don’t understand.”

How do you help them block it out?

“We talk about it all the time. But again, that phone is a part of their life. I’m not saying that’s bad, it’s part of their life. We didn’t have phones. I imagine I would have been the same way if I had a phone like that. I see it all the time. Then where you get in trouble, if in your mind you have a good name, you pull your name up and it feels good. Then all of a sudden the next game, it’s not so good. You’re looking at your phone, like, that’s hard because there’s a next game. I wish that part could change. I wish there was certain laws that they couldn’t see or deal with that. I’m not only talking sports. I’m talking youth in schools. You’re talking bullying and that sort (of stuff) that goes on and on and on. So it amazes me how can people can criticize if they’ve never walked in those shoes before, it’s amazing how you could say they should do this, should do that, but you’ve never worn those sneakers before, you’ve never taken a big shot, you’ve never missed a big shot, you’ve never taken a big free throw down the stretch, you’ve never been in those shoes how do you know what it feels like? It’s mind blowing.”

With the younger guys do you use Javon and Kobe (Brown) to help them block that out?

“That’s just giving them life situations. What happens is, it’s just being strong and put it in perspective. Because part of it, you go through life, there’s bigger things in life that they will deal with and some have already dealt with. Some have lost their parents. There’s a lot of stuff out there. So it’s hard to say block it out because that’s their world. Especially somebody that likes me and then they say negative things about me, that’s hard for me to deal with. So I just say brace yourself for battle. That’s life battles. It goes with the territory on this stage.”

What’s your philosophy when it comes to recruiting. What kind of guy do you want coming in this program?

“A guy that one has a competitive spirit, that really competes that’s trying to win. What you find a lot of times, no matter how talented a prospect is, I’m not sure they look at the scoreboard to see who won the game. Somebody has to win the game. I want an intelligent athlete and what I mean, it doesn’t have to be all A’s in school, but that understands and values the level of intelligence of what’s going on on the floor. Then you want a person that values teammates. That’s important. I was around teammates, like one of my teammates, when Glenn Robinson would score 30 points a game, he would sit there and try to get him 40 points. He was okay with that. If he scores 40, let’s try to get him 50. This guy was a very successful player as well and I thought that was a great attribute to have to be okay with somebody else having success and applaud his success. I want guys like that that really appreciate their teammates having success. Let’s roll because we’re all winning together. I think that’s very important that you understand that. Then you always want leadership. Leadership could be verbal leadership or it could be leadership just by your actions and your work ethic. Like Javon has always been a leader who led by example. Kobe’s a guy who leads by example. Javon has taken that next step where there’s oral communication in leadership and he’s done a great job with it. I do think you can be a leader, you don’t have to be vocal, but you can be a leader with your actions.”

Javon was close to a 40% shooter most of the year last year. Can he be a little bit more high volume shooter?

“I think so. He’s really shooting the lights out. Again, he’s never one to make excuses, but he dealt with a lot of injuries last season. He fought through it as best as he could, but he’s really shooting the ball well right now. He puts the work, he puts so much time into it. As a coach, you want all your guys to be successful, but when guys work like that, you want those guys to make it happen.”

A lot of the teams you play in the non-conference have new coaches and a lot of turnover. What are the advantages and disadvantages of that?

“I think the advantage is in the preparation of how we operate. It’s not so much a new coach, but if you have the personnel to do what you need to do you can still be successful. I just think it’s what we do and how we operate and how we gel because again, I’m just as excited to play that first game because I’d like to see who we are. We had good showings behind the scenes, but it’s a different dynamic when you’re around fans, when you have fans in the facilities and you’re scoring in front of the fans. This guy scored the basketball, make the extra pass, we did that in the scrimmage, we did that in practice, now are we still making the extra pass, are we still blocking out, are we still screening the same way, are we still doing the same things that make us successful?”

Do you expect a difference, not just in your team, but across the country in the level of play versus last year at the beginning of the year when everything was so disjointed and nobody was having practices?

“I think so, but also still COVID is real. That’s real. You still have the dynamic of injuries, but I think so. I think there will be a tremendous amount of excitement, especially when you have fans in the arena. I’m excited to get rolling.”

Most of the year last year Javon was off the ball a lot. Should we expect him to initiate the offense or who should we expect to?

“We have three point guards on paper. When you say point guard on paper, Boogie Coleman, Anton (Brookshire), and Kaleb (Brown). Now you have guys like Javon will bring it up, Kobe will bring it up, but you’ll put those guys in situations where they grab the ball, but if the ball goes in the basket, most of the time we get the ball to our point guard. Now if Javon and Kobe get rebounds, they’ll bring it up and initiate the offense.”

With Kaleb (Brown) what have you thought of his vision and passing and how has he done so far?

“He has a good feel for the game. Good size at the point guard position. He can do other things. He’s proven that he’s a better three-point shooter than I thought he was, but he’s doing a good job because he understands, he plays hard on defense, good size on him. I like where he is right now.”

How have you seen Kobe grow on and off the court?

“Just the same old Kobe. His role is one day at a time. Those two guys, when you’re talking Kobe and Javon, they’re professionals in how they approach day to day operations. Whether it’s I need to get treatment, working on my game, going to class, they’re very successful in the classroom, take care of business of the court. They just do what they do and they make your job as a coach a lot easier. You respect what they do and often times as a coach you can take for granted what they bring to the table instead of applauding what they do much more. So I’ve been constantly really recognizing those guys doing a great job. They’re doing a great job. It’s not necessarily production on the floor, but just can you imagine being successful every day, going to class every day? Not only going to class, but being successful in the classroom and more than that being present in practice where you’re not injured all the time. Even if you’re not maximum, you have to fight Javon to get him off the court if he’s injured, but those guys are present every day and there’s something to be said about that. The rehab, you don’t have to call them and say did you get your rehab in? Seven o’clock in the morning, six o’clock in the morning, they’ll be in rehab. Again, those guys will be very successful in life because they understand there’s something bigger than them and they’re part of a team.”

You mentioned an eight or nine man rotation. Where does Sean Durugordon fit in that?

“Sean’s really progressing and I think the biggest thing with Sean, he’s one of our better talents, you’re talking sheer talent, running, jumping, athleticism. The key with Sean right now is just the reps under his belt, just the years under his belt because he has all the parts. Just the nuances of the game, small things in the game that you just pick up over time when you start playing the game at nine, ten, eleven years old, you pick up over time. So those things Sean will learn. He’s a very intelligent guy in the classroom. Just learning the things of the game. And I think that he has a tremendous future, but I think he’ll find his way.”

Is there anybody in your mind on this team that has the green light to shoot from three?

“I would say all of them. The guy I’m about to say, he might think he has a green light, Jordan. But all of them, this is what they practice and they all can shoot threes. Some of them can shoot them off the dribble, some of them can pull up, but all of them, again he thinks he can shoot them, Jordan made them up top yesterday at the top of the key, but all of them shoot it. All of them have the green light to shoot the ball from three.”