Cuonzo Martin hire, attendance woes, highlight Sterk’s first year as Missouri’s Athletic Director

Less than one year ago, Missouri lost Athletic Director Mack Rhoades, who took an opening at Baylor University, and replaced him with Jim Sterk of San Diego State, who chose to accept the challenge of rebuilding a Mizzou athletic department reeling from the combination of racial campus unrest, a struggling men’s basketball team, and a football program undergoing a coaching change, with Barry Odom having recently replaced the retired Gary Pinkel.

Through those challenges, light seems to be getting brighter at the end of the Missouri tunnel.  Unquestionably Sterk’s boldest decision to date involves the firing of men’s basketball coach and MU alum Kim Anderson, followed by the hiring of Cal coach and East St. Louis native Cuonzo Martin.  In quick succession, a highly-rated recruiting class, highlighted by top prospect Michael Porter Jr., has followed.  Visiting with KTTN Sports Director Tom Johnson at a recent Mizzou caravan visit to Northwestern High School in Mendon, Sterk spoke about the factors involved in the decision to change basketball coaches:

The ability to recruit St. Louis more effectively was just one of the reasons that Sterk hired Martin to rebuild the Tigers basketball program:

With the struggles of the two biggest money making programs at Mizzou, empty seats were very noticeable at both football and men’s basketball games over the past year.  It is a problem not overlooked by Sterk and the MU athletic department as a whole:

Missouri’s long-time Athletic Director, prior to the hiring of Mack Rhoades, was Mike Alden, who, late in his tenure at Mizzou, began to make comments concerning the future of the Hearnes Center, noting the aging facility was not cost-efficient for MU.  Rumors of a Hearnes demolition, perhaps replacing it with a 5,000 seat type facility for wrestling, volleyball, and women’s basketball, were mentioned.  However, Sterk sounds more bullish on the continued use, and existence, of the Hearnes Center:

While not a “Power 5” school, Sterk had a good thing going at San Diego State, with a powerhouse men’s basketball program led by former Michigan coach Steve Fisher, and an improving football program in a major West Coast market.  Sterk was asked what about the Missouri job intrigued him enough to accept the challenge in Columbia:

That is University of Missouri Athletic Director Jim Sterk.