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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: NASHVILLEMarch 15, 2018Cuonzo MartinNashville, Tennessee THE MODERATOR: Head coach Cuonzo Martin is here with us. He'll guide the Missouri Tigers against Florida State. He'll make an opening statement about being in Nashville, and then we will go to questions. CUONZO MARTIN: Very excited to be here. Our guys have done a really good job throughout the season, doing a lot of different things. Adversity, injuries. Tremendous effort from those guys to stay the course, stay positive, have energy. Now to be here in the NCAA tournament to play a very talented Florida State team which Coach Hamilton is one of the guys I truly respect in this profession. So happy to be here and excited to play. Q. On Sunday, you said you knew some of the tendencies of Coach Hamilton's team but obviously didn't get to see much of them on film. Now that you've had time, what stands out to you about them? CUONZO MARTIN: They're talented. I can't give you everything. They're a really good team. Length, seems like coach's teams always have length, athleticism. They score with the ball. They've done a tremendous job of defending. That's where Coach hangs his hat at. You talk about scoring 80 points. That's another level you have to factor in. The way they score, the way they transition. In most cases they will have four guys on the floor at all times that can handle, make decisions, get to the rim, make a shot. They put so much pressure on you with their length on the defensive side of the ball. The other thing they do is send four, five guys to the glass. That means you're boxing out. In most cases you might box out three, maybe four. Now you're blocking out sometimes five. That's not something we've seen a lot this season. Q. Cuonzo, now that you've had Michael for a game, has it been any -- I don't know if easier is the right word, but kind of setting where you see players playing and performing at their best now that you've got one under the belt? CUONZO MARTIN: I think he'll be -- I didn't think he played bad in the last game. I thought he played with a level of confidence. Anytime you can shoot 17 shots and I don't think he forced shots, that shows his level of confidence. That part was great, that he didn't lose that. I just think really put him in position so he can be successful. Allow it to come to him, because again the pressure, the stage, the adrenaline, all those things factor into how he performs and really having fun. But really fitting him into what the other guys are doing so he can complement the other guys. It's too late in the game for the guy to say do what we do, change to it fit him. He has to fit in to what the guys are doing. I think he'll do a good job with that. Q. Cuonzo, having guys that lost so much there in the past three years, how much do you think it means to them to be in the NCAA tournament? Also, for Kash, because a big reason why he came here was for another shot at the tournament? CUONZO MARTIN: I think it means a lot. I think it means a lot to all the guys. They put the work in and they saw some situation where I wouldn't say it started looking bleak, but when you've got guys going down, one of your key guys who you factored in as being your leading scorer, he's not there. So now you have some bumps in the road. You lose three in a row, here you come back and win a game. You lose three in a row, and the next situation, you come back and win a game. A lot of different things factored into the guys of not allowing themselves to give in or give up. I think it speaks volumes about their character, their makeup to be resilient and continue to fight. I'm just really happy for them to do that. I've never been around a situation where you win 27 games in three years. So the mental state, more than anything, before you even get to the floor, how you develop the confidence level so guys can compete and understand that they're still good players, you just went through something. So let's learn from it, let's become better basketball players. Q. Your numbers are down right now, and Barnett is sitting out tomorrow night. How much does that maybe help getting Porter back and having a full week of practice under his belt since he had some game action? CUONZO MARTIN: I think it helps a great deal. You can't -- as talented as Mike is, you can't replace what Barnett brings to the table just from the standpoint of his presence and his ability to be calm through any type of situation and the way he shoots the ball from the 3-point line at a high level. But I think Mike obviously is a very talented player and we'll put him in a position to be successful. You're not going to replace a guy of that magnitude because he's been through it for so long and guys lean on him for production. And a veteran presence. I've never been around a guy -- he's 22 years old -- with that sense of calmness to him through any situation. So most players look to that. If it's not there, it's an adjustment within itself. Q. Couple of your guys said right now, this just seems like another road game. Is that how you want them to approach this? Is there any worry about, hey, putting too much on this because it has been a while? CUONZO MARTIN: I don't really put nothing on it outside of this is what we do to be successful, defend, rebound and play as hard as you can play from start to finish. The emotions, the adrenaline, that's what it is. You can say what you want to say as a coach. Coach Keady said a lot of things in the locker room but my feelings were my feelings when I stepped on the floor. Our job as a coaching staff is to prepare the guys to play the game and to play with a level of mental toughness morning anything and stay the course. Whatever happens, up ten, down ten, whatever happens in the game, stay the course because you'll give yourself a chance to win if you do the things that we talk about. Q. Cuonzo, if you win tomorrow, you bring back Barnett Sunday. With him only missing one game, is it a lot easier to integrate a guy back into a postseason game because he's played the whole season? Or there's still a challenge? CUONZO MARTIN: I don't think there's a challenge at all because, again, his approach -- I think what makes him good is his approach to the game, his approach to practice, and he's so even-keeled. So I think that helps him. Maybe obviously deal with something mentally how he's going through, how people might perceive him when he steps on the floor, how he think what people might think of him. He might deal with that. But I thought he's had a great presence in dealing with tough situations, even on the floor. I think he'll be okay. Q. Wondering if you could elaborate on your relationship with Coach Hamilton. When did you first meet him and what has he meant to you throughout your career? CUONZO MARTIN: Well, I've known him for a long time, even though we hadn't met, you know, when I watched him from afar. His presence as a coach, his reputation. So I started coaching in 2000 at Purdue with Coach Keady, so I would imagine somewhere around there. When you're an assistant coach, and even as an African-American coach who has been through it a long time, you migrate to guys to get information. How do you do this, how do you maintain, how do you have success. It's all those things. I think it probably started with one of his assistant coaches. You're always around each other, wanting to meet Coach and his demeanor. His calmness as a man, as a leader really stood out to me. I've been a defensive-minded guy. Coach is built on that. So just developing that relationship from that. Really oftentimes we talk a lot, it's not even about the basketball piece. We talk about the development of young men, how can you help young guys outside of basketball. How can you help coaches when they come into this profession, like he helped me when I first got into it with the information he gave me. How can you help other guys getting into it. We spend a lot of time talking about that more so than the actual game. Q. The 38 minutes you're missing now from Jordan, are Reed and Bret playing similar roles as they were last week or do you ask the core six guys to play more than they would otherwise? CUONZO MARTIN: The thing we talk about is being prepared. In Bret Rau's case, be prepared to play. Same way with Reed. He's in the fold. We don't go into the game and say we'll try to get this guy 15 minutes. We play basketball. We try to win the basketball game. We want our key guys to be on the floor. This time, you don't have time to rest. You can rest in the summertime. You have April, May, rest then. This is basketball. I think for most young guys, I would imagine at this stage, I'm not fatigued or exhausted by anything. I'm trying to win games. Q. Coach, going back to your relationship with Leonard Hamilton, is there maybe a particular conversation in mind that sticks out in your mind? How much has he kind of helped your career? CUONZO MARTIN: I think the biggest thing -- and a lot of conversations because this is years. The biggest thing, I think, what he always talked about is even though you've been around coaches -- and I was under Coach Keady and obviously Coach Keady is like a father to me and he taught me a lot of things. He just said you always want to have your own style, whatever that is. He said, Don't let it be a struggle to do what you want to do as a basketball coach. If it doesn't work, then it was what you wanted to do as a coach. And that was a hard thing for me for years, to understand that, because you have a blueprint in your mind. You think this is what it's supposed to be. If you want to tweak something, make a change, should I do this, will it work. Just being confident in doing what you do. This is my tenth year as a head coach, just even that conversation years ago, some things I've changed this year and it helped me become a better coach. So that's the information I would give a new coach, a young coach. You have to be able to do what you feel is best and what you feel comfortable with, and not get caught up in what you see somebody else doing. And just be you. Q. Cuonzo, with all the changes to your roster all year long, the guys never really seemed all that rattled by it. How have you liked their approach to kind of the outside noise when there's a lot of changes happening? CUONZO MARTIN: Well, I thank you for that, just in your observation, because that's what, amongst a lot of things, I take most pride in. Because outside of whatever happens on the floor, you win some, you lose some, you miss shots, you turn the ball over, whatever happens. But you talk about real life. This all translates to real life. Stuff happens in your families as a father, a husband, you're the leader of your family. What do you do when adversity hits? Do you break? Do you give up? Do you quit? Do you deal with it, brush it off and keep moving forward? That's what I tell our guys. Not that you don't deal with situations. Deal with it, learn from it. Some lessons are more painful than others, but let's make the necessary adjustments, deal what you need to deal with and let's move forward. We don't have time to complain and make excuses. The truth of the matter, this is what I tell them, this is only a sport. This is real life. Somebody didn't wake up this morning. Now let's put this in perspective of what it really is. It's a sport. It's a lot of entertainment at a high level and everybody wants to win and be successful, but, man, I'm not losing a lot of sleep over you missing ten shots in a game when somebody lost their life. That's the big picture. Q. Coach Martin, you recruited Phil Cofer to Tennessee. When you left Tennessee, he came to Florida State. Was there a conversation between you or your staff and Leonard and his staff, or was Phil being recruited by Florida State at the same time? CUONZO MARTIN: No, we -- well, as I recall, when I left -- one thing I left, when I left Tennessee, with the current guys at Tennessee and even the guys that we recruited, what I suggested to all those guys, to stay at Tennessee and be part of it because I thought they had a big core. That was the biggest thing. I've never been a guy to try to poach a guy, take a guy, all those things. Be a part of what you're doing. In Phil's case because I knew his mom and dad real well, it wasn't as if I was saying, okay, let's get you on the back side to go to Coach Hamilton. Once guys found out they were -- I was in transition, so it wasn't like I was on the phone helping other guys. I was trying to find my way, what I was doing. I think it maybe came down to the point where his mom and dad talked to me, what's the option, what about this program, what about that program. Maybe I gave my two cents, but it wasn't a case of Coach Leonard doing something he shouldn't have been doing or whatever. It was all above board. I think it was a good fit for them. At the same time, what happened them, they were recruiting him as well so it worked out for them, yes. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Best of luck against Florida State. CUONZO MARTIN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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