Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
1) I’m not going to spend a bunch of time recapping the game on Saturday night. I did that on Saturday night. It was frustrating. It was a game that felt like it could have (if not should have) been won and wasn’t. There were a few of those this year. If we’re being honest, though, there were a few that could have been lost and weren’t. So in the end, I really believe this team ended up about where it should have. At the beginning of the season I thought the ceiling was about a 6 seed, win a game in the tournament, maybe get to the Sweet 16 if you were playing well and pulled an upset. And that’s pretty close to what this team was. I think they should have been a higher seed, but that’s not why they lost on Saturday. The way they played proved the committee probably had them in about the right place. It was a decent season. Any season in which you make the tournament is decent. The reason it feels so hollow is that it seemed like it was going to be so much more at one point. There's not much room for gray area in analysis this year. That's too bad. This wasn't a disastrous year that should have anyone debating Cuonzo Martin's job security. But it also wasn't a year that should leave you swooning in admiration.
2) We’re going to talk a lot about the future in this post. Before we get into it here, make sure you read Mitchell Forde's recap of the season and look ahead from this morning. That discussion has to start with the coaching situation. There is a zero percent chance Cuonzo Martin is fired. Literally zero. Not very small, not slightly more than zero, not almost zero. ZERO. Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, if you don't understand why read his contract. The only way he’s leaving Missouri is on his own and I don’t see that happening. Where is he going to go? Indiana isn’t hiring him. He’s not leaving on his own and slicing his salary to go to a place like Marquette or UNLV (who hired Kevin Kruger yesterday anyway). He’s never struck me as the type of guy who leverages his situation to get an extension or holds the AD hostage. It’s not completely impossible that he leaves, but it’s certainly very unlikely in my opinion. I’m not going to tell you you have to like it. You can feel free to pound your keyboard into submission to let everyone know that you think Missouri should move on from him. But it’s absolutely not going to happen.
3) So the next question revolves around an extension. I’m on record as saying I wouldn’t do it.
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