Cuonzo Martin has Cal poised to arrive on national scene

Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Just a little over a year ago, Cuonzo Martin decided he’d had enough. He was fresh off of leading a talented but under the radar Tennessee team to a Sweet 16 trip, but that didn’t stop nearly 40,000 fans from signing a petition in an attempt to get rid of him.

Martin won sixty percent of his games in three seasons as the coach of the Vols, but only one of his teams made a trip to the NCAA Tournament in that period. He was largely thought of as a mediocre recruiter by many who follow the program closely despite being responsible for bringing in diamond in the rough Josh Richardson and two five-star recruits in Jarnell Stokes and Robert Hubbs in his tenure.

Feeling rightfully underappreciated, Martin bolted to the west coast to take over a Cal Golden Bears program that had reached its ceiling under Mike Montgomery.

After a hot start out of the gate, beating a then-ranked Syracuse squad in the semifinals of the 2K Classic, Martin’s new team struggled the rest of the way. The Golden Bears finished 18-15 (7-11 in Pac-12), and they dropped six straight conference games during the middle of the season.

The first season at his new gig was a bumpy one, but Martin has the program poised to break out due to the very thing he was perceived to be so mediocre at during his Tennessee stint — recruiting.

Three-star small forward Davon Dillard was the first commit on board for the class of 2015. Next came four-star shooting guard Tyson Jolly, Martin’s first “major” recruit since taking the Cal job. Jolly wasn’t the biggest fish Martin had his eyes set on, though.

Sometimes, a college coach landing one big-time recruit gets the ball rolling in the right direction because it makes other highly-coveted recruits think of the program as a desirable place to play. For Martin, that guy was Ivan Rabb. Martin made the five-star power forward a priority from day one, not wanting to see the California native walk right out of Cal’s backyard.

Jaylen Brown, a five-star wing out of Georgia, took notice of Rabb’s commitment. The two had discussed being a package deal along with Caleb Swanigan, currently a Michigan State commit, before either picked a school. Recruits making a pact to go to the same school is nothing new, particularly in the last few years.

It’s somewhat odd that a school like Cal attracted the pair of stars, but that has a lot to do with Martin and his tremendous staff of assistants. Some luck probably factored into it, but it’s not likely that this would have happened had Martin and company not been working their tails off.

With Rabb and Brown on board, Cal projects to have one of the best starting fives in the country. Point guard Tyrone Wallace is returning for his senior season, which will be huge for the two youngsters. Wallace is a tremendous steadying presence, and he led the team in points, rebounds, and assists last season.

Junior sharpshooter Jordan Matthews projects to be Wallace’s backcourt partner once again, which will add a certain level of cohesiveness to the offense. Kingsley Okoroh might round out the starting five for the Golden Bears, and he should be much more polished than he was as a freshman after a year of experience and a full offseason to improve. All three roster holdovers should be able to complement Rabb and Brown well, and all their strengths combine to make what should be a potent lineup on both ends of the floor.

Cal has only ever had two players (Shareef Abdur-Raheem and Jamal Sampson) go one-and-done in the history of the program, but that number might double after the upcoming season. Many coaches complain about the one-and-done rule, but it’s a good problem for a program to have. Rabb and Brown will both likely be ready to make the leap to the NBA, and something strange would have to happen to get either to return to school for a sophomore victory lap despite whatever they might be saying right now.

Martin and his staff have busted it on the recruiting trail, and their efforts are paying dividends in big ways. To be sure, Montgomery — Martin’s predecessor — wasn’t a terrible recruiter but things proved to be incredibly inconsistent for him on the recruiting trail year-to-year, and he didn’t deliver enough on the court with the talent he did have to make people believe he could ever take the program to that next level. Martin’s results in year one weren’t so different from Montgomery’s, and the major question that needs to be answered going forward is can Martin take the program to new heights, or is he doomed to linger around the middle of the pack most seasons like the man who came before him?

It’s too early to say one way or the other with certainty, but the way Martin is recruiting will certainly give him a major leg up.