In news that won't surprise too many people, Cuonzo Martin has been named as Missouri State's next head basketball coach. Cuonzo has been an assistant coach at Purdue for the past eight seasons under both Keady and Painter. Prior to that, he helped lead Purdue to two Big Ten Championships and an elite eight appearance as a player back when Boilerdowd, J & Tim sat in the student section of Mackey.
Cuonzo has been an integral part of the recruiting effort that has helped rebuild the Boilers and seems to be a great relational and tactical bench coach. So now, Painter has an off-season challenge of replacing his right hand man- I hear there are a couple candidates already, one from within the Purdue basketball family and one that has been an assistant at IU the past few seasons. Regardless of experience, the new guy will have some large shoes to fill as 'Zo is both a fan and player favorite.
Good luck, Zo!! You will be missed.