Yes, he will love Columbia, but who cares. Get over it! He had every opportunity to succeed here and didn't get the job done and Frazier took over.
Mark Smith transferring to Missouri
Yes, he will love Columbia, but who cares. Get over it! He had every opportunity to succeed here and didn't get the job done and Frazier took over.
I meant to say parents instead of players, but yes players is a different story
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mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Guess Mark’s parents needed to get a few final posts in with their Loyalty handles.
Hands Malone
- Quad-Cities, IL
What you are seeing is the rude awakening that stiffer D-1 college competition makes some stronger and others weaker. Smith may work out at Mizzou or he may not. One of the parents complaints was that the kid was being used at more than the PG position and that. was confusing. In Smith's own comments, he states that Captain Compliance is going to use him in various ways so what the difference.
Smith obviously need to mature more and try meeting instead of running from adversity.
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
"MS wasn't great defensively either"???
That's being generous.
The poor kid was lost on defense for most of the year. Had no idea of ball-you-man at all. Opposing teams knew that and he was punished a lot on the defensive side. As for DW inbounding the ball against MD, that was an interesting call from BU. But IIRC, he had used AJ in that spot a couple of times and he struggled seeing the open man as well.
Good luck to MS in the future. Hopefully he finds a system that works for he and his family.
Deleted member 29907
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Players don't get pulled for 1 mistake, they get pulled for making the same mistake or a mistake from lack of effort. Bombing 3s from 4 feet behind the 3 point line first 6 seconds down the court is not acceptable and taught to the team.
TF didn't seem to have a problem adjusting and he made mistakes, but was typically the first one back to try to get the charge or steal to make up for the mistake.
Finally, our previous coach was MUCH too forgiving of players making the same mistake or not hustling and that taught "it's ok guys". BU has higher standards.
Not that I wanted MS to leave, but he was given alot of opportunity, and would have gotten more if he didn't reach and get into foul trouble early too often. Also not saying BU is perfect and I disagreed with some of his choices - including giving MS as much play as he did over DMW who I think has a much higher ceiling and BBIQ.
Deleted member 8632
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MS insists his primary position at Miznoz will be point guard. Man I hope he is. Future braggin rights games will be awesome!
Illinois75 joined today. and has 1 post to his credit. I'm guessing Misouri troll.
I was a fan of MS, but against better competition it was pretty obvious he just wasn't good enough handling the ball or playing defense to be a point guard.
Honestly not sure what his parents expected BU to do at that point.
Can he become a decent college player? I would guess he can.... but I doubt it will be playing PG with the ball in his hands. it's just too bad that if he had shown some patience here he would have developed far better than under Martin imo.
But that's on him and his family not UI. He had plenty of opportunity to get better. Now he's just another Tiger that I loathe.
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
I'm as disappointed as anyone that MS left, but can we at least be reasonable on how we judge him? BU said on several occasions about how he was one of the hardest working players on the team (a la the story of him being the in the gym when BU was going to get his shoes). It would be nice if we can class things up a bit and have an honest assessment instead of sour grape "boo boo"ing a kid.
I think his (and/or perhaps his parents') expectations are unreasonable. He has potential, but needs to work his tail off. He could've done that here, but my sense is his expectations coming in didn't fit with what the reality of the situation was and, apparently, that was irreparable. Oh well, that's too bad. Went to a rival - that's fine - his choice. But he shouldn't be surprised if that riles up the illini nation fan base.
Hello Mr. Smith! I hope your son enjoys Columbia. Hopefully, he won't have to go through any race riots during his time there.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
well, MS now has that special relationship he needs....hope the new coach coming in MS' junior year will be all warm and fuzzy to him too....
He will never be a D 1 PG worthy of high major praise...watch some videos and watch his hips and feet movement and you will see why he was always a step or two slow and got caught watching the ball instead of his man...foul prone and lacking consistent shooting % has doomed him to being a good reserve but not a starter to be feared...
can he improve ?...sure, but will he after quitting on us and going to misery with a vagabond coach and going up against the SEC teams on a nightly basis...
I wish him no ill will, but I WILL NOT be rooting for him one bit...he quit on us, so I'm quitting on him..
Illiini
- In the land of the Nittany Lion
Obviously a Miznoz troll. No Illinois fan would say, "He will love Columbia." We might say he will like playing for Mizzou or whatever, but "He will love Columbia" is how a Miznozian would phrase it.
A troll. And not a very good one.
Tevo
- Wilmette, IL
I don't know how anyone who wasn’t at practice day in and day out can’t say he “quit” on the team, unless you think that anyone who changes their mind is “quitting”. Maybe everyone realized exactly what they have said, that Mark's skills and abilities aren't a good match for what Underwood and team want to do. From what Mark's mom said, it sounds like he was tried at the 1, and the 2, and the 3 (despite “positionless basketball” I guess), and nothing clicked (at least coach didn’t feel it did). I'm guessing that’s what the “honesty” comments stem from — that Underwood was recruiting him to be a PG, but then didn't keep him there. Again, I would hesitate to use “lie” and “dishonest”; if they tried him at PG and it didn't work, then you have to try something different, even if you had a stated intention to the contrary. New information comes along, you adjust and move forward. Underwood did that during the season, and Smith did that at the end of the season.
As for Cuonzo being a “vagabond coach”... um, Underwood has coached at three different schools the last three seasons. Our glass house can't weather that particular stone throwing.
Not really a fair comparison, though.
I'll admit that going from Oklahoma State to Illinois after one year was unusual, but he did get like a 300% raise.
However, going from Stephen F. Austin to Oklahoma State after three years is way different than going from Tennessee to California to Missouri.
He left Tenn. because fans got a petition together (40,000 signed it) to fire him early on. After the team turned it around and they made the tourney and the sweet sixteen they tried to get him to sign a new contract. He chose to leave.
Now if you want to believe him on why he went to Missouri it's because he wanted to be part of the change there. To set a high standard and positive atmosphere for African Americans.
I think Martin and Underwood will both be at their Universities for a long while now.
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My point still stands. If Martin were at a school like Stephen F. Austin it wouldn't have mattered what the fans or administration did he would not have turned down a school like Cal if offered the job.
And let me be clear, I'm not saying that Cuonzo Martin is going to leave Missoura after three years. I just don't think that comparing his and Underwood's coaching careers is comparing apples to apples.
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Agree, and if someone uses SFA for Underwood then they should include Missouri State for Martin. I think it's unfair to both of them to use those schools though.
Deleted member 631370
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You really need to work on your trolling game, because this is just too transparent.
You can't open your post with "I'm a Mark Smith fan, but not a BU fan yet because I gotta see it".
The logic here is just mind-numbingly terrible.
You're not sold on a guy who has gone to the tournament 4 out of 5 years and is one of the tops in NCAA history for most wins in his first four seasons? Okay, fine. You want to wait and see what he does at Illinois -- that's reasonable. A wait-and-see approach is a valid approach.
But you cannot then extend Mark Smith a benefit-of-the-doubt that you're not willing to extend to Underwood.
In short, Underwood has succeeded in 80% of his seasons as a coach thus far. Mark Smith just finished a year in which he averaged 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist a game in Big Ten play. And Smith is the guy you're sold on?
LOL.
I am not sure if you are talking about my post or the post to which I was responding.
I was responding to the poster who insinuated that Underwood is some kind of nomad coach who has a history of school jumping like Cuonzo. I simply made the point that their coaching histories are very different.
Now, regardless of Cuonzo's past, I agree with you that if he is successful at Mizzou I think he could be there for a long time for the reasons you mentioned. It's like those people who made the same argument about Self when he left for Kansas. Sometimes, people really do have dream jobs.
I can't believe there are nearly 200 posts about someone who isn't on the team anymore ... he gone, and I don't care that he is ... i believe BU is making quick upgrades to the talent on the team, and that is what really matters ... not where some former player, who did not look like he was going to be a significant contributor here, transferred to.
+100
Recent events illustrate how useless and toothless they are.
Regarding Smith, I really don't care what school he goes to and look forward to Braggin Rights.
Whether you like Martin or not this SI article on him is a good read.
https://www.si.com/college-basketba...all-coach-cuonzo-martin-cancer-michael-porter
It talks about his upbringing, career, and why he (and his wife) chose to go to Missouri.