[1] Cuonzo Martin attended Purdue University, where he played for Gene Keady and alongside Wooden Award winner Glenn Robinson.

The 6'6", 215 lb guard/forward helped lead the Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball team to back-to-back Big Ten Conference Titles in 1994 and 1995 and an Elite Eight appearance.

Martin held future NBA players Shawn Respert of Michigan State and Wisconsin's Michael Finley to season lows in scoring as a senior.

On March 24, 1994, Martin set a school record with the most three-pointers made in a game, making 8 of 13 threes against Kansas in a Sweet Sixteen, later broken by Carsen Edwards (3/23/19 Purdue vs Villanova).

The Cuonzo Martin Challenge Award to help raise funds for cancer research was established in his honor and he has since been cancer-free.

They accepted a bid to the National Invitation Tournament, beating Murray State University at home and then losing to Miami (FL) away in the 2nd round.

On March 27, 2011, after three seasons at Missouri State, Martin was hired as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.

[3][4] In three seasons as head coach, Martin led the Volunteers to two NITs and to the 2014 NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen.

After a slow start to the 2013–14 season, several fans began openly campaigning to have Martin replaced with his predecessor, Bruce Pearl, who was about to finish serving a show-cause penalty.

[5] On April 15, 2014, Martin was hired as the head coach of the University of California, Berkeley men's basketball team.

[8] Following Cal's loss in the first round of the 2017 National Invitation Tournament, Martin announced his resignation as head coach on March 15, 2017.

[10] On March 15, 2017, the same day as his Cal resignation, Martin was hired as the head coach of the University of Missouri men's basketball team.