East St. Louis will be proud on Friday afternoon when our hero Cuonzo Martin returns home to seek his first NCAA bid as the head coach of the Missouri State Bears, the 2011 Missouri Valley Conference regular season champions.
The former East St. Louis Lincoln and University of Purdue star brings his boys up highway 44 to St. Louis with a 23 – 7 record and a No. 1 seed into the prestigious MVC tournament.
Missouri State will face the winner of the Illinois State-Southern Illinois game on Friday in the quarterfinals.
In addition, Coach Martin’s Bears have made a little history for the program. The MVC title was the first in the Bears’ history since joining the league 21 years ago.
In 2008 Hall of Famer and long-time MSU Athletic Director Bill Rowe had the vision to hire Martin, who at the time was the associate head coach to Matt Painter at Purdue.
In three years, Martin has energized the basketball program once again in Springfield, Mo. It is unlike the fools’ gold Saint Louis University head coach “Slick Rick” Majerus has served the local basketball community …
With defense being the main game plan for his team, Martin rewards his players on the offensive end. Like his mentor and Illinois High School Hall of Fame Coach Bennie “Boss” Lewis, Martin will allow his players to play on the offensive end IF they play aggressive defense.
“We recruit kids to fit our system,” said Martin, who helped recruit many of those players on that great Purdue team today. “Defense is were it all starts. If you don’t play it, you won’t play at Missouri State.”
Large crowds are expected this weekend for some of the finest basketball and one of the best-run tournaments in the country. I’m sure Coach Bennie Lewis, Clarence “Truck” Cannon, OC Hughes Jr., The “Party Bus Man” Mr. Fisher, one of St. Clair County’s finest (will just call him Coach CLOCKO) John Morgan, and a host of other family, relatives and supporters from the East Boogie will be in the stands for Arch Madness this weekend.
But for Martin and his team, it will all business.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun for us coming home and playing for the right to play in the NCAA tournament,” Martin said.
“The Man upstairs has blessed me here. It was great winning the conference championship at home in front of an ESPN audience. It’s great for our team, our fans and community and for Missouri State. I couldn’t be more proud of my team.”
And we in East St. Louis couldn’t be more proud of him. The cutting down of those nets on Sunday made me soooo proud of Cuonzo, whom I have covered since high school and helped with some of his youth basketball camps while at Purdue.
Knowing coach the way I do, he really wants those nets at the Scottrade Center on Sunday afternoon and an automatic berth to the field of 65.
