While California signed men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin to a contract extension through the 2020-21 seasons last fall, there is considerable buzz that he could return to his Midwestern roots next year.
Illinois coach John Groce is on the hot seat and Missouri’s Kim Anderson is all but already fired. Martin, a star at East St. Louis Lincoln and then Purdue in the Big Ten before launching his head coaching career at Missouri State, could have his choice of jobs – but don’t count out Cal for several reasons.
Upon signing his new deal, Martin said, “I’m proud of what we’ve been able to achieve so far here in Berkeley, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to continue to build the Cal men’s basketball program.”
While his Bears are on the bubble for this year’s NCAA Tournament, Martin guided his team to a No. 4 seed in 2016.
“We’re just getting started, and we’ll continue to work tirelessly to shape our men into leaders on and off the court,” he said.
Cal is one of the nation’s toughest schools academically, yet Martin’s Bears produced an Academic Progress Rate score of 1,000 – the highest possible – for the 2014-15 academic year.
So why would he leave?
The allure of the Illini tops possible openings at Missouri, Arkansas and LSU, according to Sports Illustrated columnist Pat Thamel, who recently wrote, “The only program that makes sense in this calculus is Illinois.”
“(However), the numbers don’t add up. Groce makes about $1.7 million per year on his new contract extension, which is just about what Martin makes at Cal ($1.64 million).”
In addition, if Martin leaves Cal between April 15 of this year and April 14, 2018, he would have to pay the institution $1 million. Illini administrators and boosters would have to decide if he is worth that fee.
“Missouri is at best a lateral move—they’ve made the NCAA tournament five times in the last 14 years,” said Thamel.
“LSU is even worse. They’ve made the Dance a grand total of six times in 24 years. Arkansas has been down on their luck since Nolan Richardson was dismissed, and I can’t believe they’re in the mood to reset with Anderson finding his stride this season.”
While I doubt it will be enough to save his job, Groce’s team has put together a late-season four-game winning streak that included a 73-57 beat down of Nebraska on the road on Sunday.
The Illini were at 17-12, ninth among the Big Ten’s 14 teams. If the Illini beat pesky Michigan State on Wednesday night, take care of pitiful Rutgers on Saturday and win three games in the Big Ten Tournament, a NCAA bid is not out of the question.
Who am I kidding? Illini are NIT-bound and Groce’s tenure is coming to an end.
Claire Smith in K.C.
Claire Smith, 2017 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for “meritorious contributions to baseball,” will host the Black Women in Sports symposium at 1:30 p.m. Saturday March 11 at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
Elected by her Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) colleagues, Smith will become the first woman to receive the Spink Award on July 29 during the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum induction weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y.
A journalist since the 1970s, Smith won the honor during MLB’s Winter Meetings in December. She asked the six women covering the meetings to join her at the podium.
“I want you all to do something for me and look at this room at our brothers in arms; the guys that stood up to the athletes and teams and said that we are your peers and we deserve to be treated like you,” she said.
Alyson Footer, a reporter and columnist with MLB.com, called the celebration of Smith’s career “a well-deserved honor because of her accomplishments.”
“She was thanking us for helping her. But I told her, ‘You did all the work, blazing the trail.’ It also comes along with she’s the first woman, she’s African-American; those are two big exclusionary issues. We take for granted a little bit of how it is for us now.”
Smith, who garnered 272 votes from 449 ballots, covered the New York Yankees for the Hartford Courant beginning in 1983 and served the New York Times as a columnist from 1991-98. Her next stop was the Philadelphia Inquirer where she was a sports editor and columnist from 1998-2007.
Smith is now ESPN’s news editor of remote productions, making her responsible for the integration of news and analysis in live game broadcasts and the Baseball Tonight and Sports Center studio programs.
Smith also served as chair of the New York Chapter of the BBWAA in 1995 and ’96 and has served on three Hall of Fame Era Committees.
Charles Harris at NFL Combine
Former Missouri defensive lineman Charles Harris’ path to the NFL begins today (March 2) at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.
The select group of defensive ends and interior linemen will undergo physicals and X-rays before proceeding with psychological testing and dozens of interviews on Friday and Saturday.
The Combine experience will culminate Sunday for Harris and D-linemen when they complete their on-field workouts.
A second-team All SEC performer, Harris is a first-round selection in most mock drafts. Former Washington Redskins GM Charley Casserly has him going 19th to Tampa, while ESPN’s Todd McShay slots him at 30th to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Several pundits have him going 31st to the Atlanta Falcons.
Personally, I hope Daniel Jeremiah of nfl.com is correct in his prediction that Harris is drafted 28th by the Dallas Cowboys. “The Cowboys need help on third down; Harris is a very skilled pass rusher,” says Jeremiah.
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows, including Frank Cusumano’s “The Press Box” on KFNS. His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
