Seeds of Success From the Metro East

(Indianapolis, IN) – Nice, local guys can finish first.  Former high school basketball players from the St. Louis area are succeeding on the largest college basketball stage and they’re doing it together.

Cuonzo Martin of East St. Louis Lincoln High School is the Head Coach at Tennessee and leading a group of coaches all from Illinois, and two of them from the near St. Louis area. Martin led Lincoln to two IHSA championships and was named as one of “100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament”.

Martin played at Purdue and professionally and spent nine years as an assistant coach. He has amassed 124 coaching wins his six head coaching seasons and this year he’s coaching in the NCAA tournament for the first time.

Coach Martin told me his staff shares values they learned playing at good, hard working southern Illinois high school programs.

 

Assistant Coach Jon Harris was a stellar player at Edwardsville High School. He received the “The St. Louis Post-Dispatch” ‘Player of the Year’ award, was all state and was an honorable mention all american. After a playing career at Marquette where he was a two year captain, Harris has been a college assistant.

Assistant Kent Williams played at Mount Vernon (79 miles from St. Louis) where he was an absolute star. He played collegiately at Southern Illinois and has been coaching with Martin at Purdue, Missouri State and now at Tennessee.

Harris stays in touch with the Tigers program and is proud of what they are accomplishing. Williams told me he couldn’t have imagined being a coach at an SEC program back in his Mount Vernon days.

 

The Southwestern Conference is affecting the national scene and this coming fall some East Side guys Armon Fletcher from Edwardsville and Alton Marquette’s Deion Lavender are both headed to Williams’ old school, Southern Illinois. Some of the best high school basketball anywhere is played just across the Mississippi.

Do Good