Grading Cuonzo

I’d break down the coaching job into three basic main tasks:

1. HR - recruiting, developing and retaining staff and players

2. On-court operations - In-game coaching, managing assistants to develop on-court results, preparation

3. PR - maintaining a positive program image, interacting with media, donors and fans, avoiding huge press controversies

Grades -
Recruiting - B-, after an initial burst of A+ recruiting in year one, he has regressed back to slightly above average. 2020 was a 13th ranked class in the SEC, 2019 was 8th in the SEC, 2018 was 5th in the SEC.

The actual results are a little worse than those rankings even look. On to retaining.

Retaining - C, Tilmon staying until his senior year was a benefit. Losing Jackson and McKinney before they even settled into CoMo wasn’t. Pinson is likely gone and Braun might be as well.

Talent Identification - C, see KJ Santos or Torrance Watson or Jordan Wilmore.

Development - C, Watson, Pickett and Mark Smith don’t appear to be better now than they were two and three years ago. Tilmon finally had the year he should have had his sophomore year.

Staff - B-, nothing to brag about here. It’s a stable group that isn’t getting DUIs. They’re not really doing anything special either.

Grade for HR: C+

In Game operations: C, he’s going to play man no matter what. There’s a few games every year where the opponent knows how we are going to attack them offensively and completely neutralizes us with a good game plan (Tennessee at home this year comes to mind). Substitution patterns appear to be decided with a Magic 8 ball.

PR: B. He’s been a good stabilizing force here. Nothing flashy. The press generally likes him. No big flubs publicly. Appears to be a strong positive influence on his players.

Overall grade - C+