Evaluating the Frank Martin era at South Carolina. What’s possible for his future?
March 22, 2019
THE STATE
Three hours before South Carolina learned that officially its 2018-19 basketball season was over, Gamecocks coach Frank Martin shared a story on Twitter about incoming freshman Trae Hannibal and added “My man” with a fist emoji.
In the days since USC was left out of the NIT, Martin has been relatively quiet — while buzz builds around him.
Two prominent college basketball voices threw his name into the mix for the UNLV job. A writer for the Las Vegas Review Journal tweeted that Martin was contacted about the Running Rebels opening, “but financial terms don’t appear to make sense for him at this time and talks likely won’t proceed.”
It’s all made for fodder among fans across message boards, talk radio and social media. What’s the best way to properly evaluate Martin’s seven seasons as South Carolina’s coach? Is he happy in his current job?
Would he leave?
Jeff Goodman, lead college basketball analyst for WatchStadium.com, listed Martin among his candidates for the UNLV gig shortly after the Rebels fired Marvin Menzies. Fox Sports’ Doug Gottleib tweeted March 18: “If I’m UNLV, why not see if Frank Martin wants a fresh start? Helluva coach, great with Vegas kind of kids.”
(For the record, former USC All-American Sindarius Thonrwell replied to Gottleib, “Cut it out my coach ain’t going no where.”)
Martin is 129-106 after seven seasons in Columbia, and all signs point to he’ll be back for an eighth. Martin is third all-time in wins at South Carolina. He led the Gamecocks in 2017 to their first NCAA Tournament win in 44 years — and then to their first Final Four, ever.
USC has won 10 or more SEC games six times since joining the league in 1991, half of which have come under Martin, including this past season.
(Note: The SEC schedule went from 16 to 18 games in 2012-13)
“The feel of the South Carolina program,” Goodman told The State, “would be that it’s a football school, which Frank was able to take them to the Final Four, despite some of their shortcomings in terms of tradition and resources compared to other schools in the league, things of that nature.
“I mean, what he did was ridiculous.”
But a small portion of the fan base also likes to look at what he hasn’t done. The ‘17 Big Dance came after an NIT appearance the year before. Those are Martin’s lone postseason appearances at Carolina.
The Gamecocks are 33-32 since the Final Four run — and the departures of Thornwell (Los Angeles Clippers) and P.J. Dozier (Boston Celtics).
“Your margin for error when you’re at South Carolina is slim,” Goodman said. “It’s slim. You don’t get pros every year. You lose a pro, it hurts. It hurts more.
“You get to a Final Four and then people think you’re going to be going to the NCAA Tournament every year at South Carolina. That just doesn’t happen.
“But he got you a Final Four. If I had told any South Carolina basketball fan, ‘All right, we’ll give ya a Final Four, but you’re not going to go to the tournament for eight years,’ they’d probably sign up.
“On one hand, it’s not like he set the world on fire every year. So you can look at it objectively and be like, ‘All right, he had one really good year.’ And then on the flip side, you’re like, well, it’s a really hard job. He did get them to the Final Four.”
Martin, the 22nd-highest paid coach in America, is signed to South Carolina through 2023. He’s on pace for 219 wins by then, second only to Naismith Hall of Famer Frank McGuire at USC.
But to accomplish such a feat, he’d have to stick around.
“I think Frank Martin would leave for the right situation,” Goodman said. “He’s not gonna leave for just anything. I know he loves his boss, I know he loves the area, everything like that.
“But again, if there was a better situation that came up, where they was probably more support overall, yeah, I could see him leaving if it was a top 10 or 15 school or something that was more about basketball. I think there’s a chance.”
South Carolina ranked fourth in the SEC this season in attendance. The average of 11,472, however, is only the fifth-highest of the Martin era.
On March 9, after USC rolled Georgia to clinch fourth place in the SEC in front of an announced crowd of 11,927 at the 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena, Martin was clear on where his program stood — and the perception battles it still fights.
“We’ve fought to build a culture here,” Martin said, “and we continue to fight to build it. It’s not there. ... Too many people around here want to speak about our bad days and they don’t want to speak about the totality of the good days. And that’s unfortunate.
“But when I talk about apathy, and I’ve talked about that a lot over the last seven years, that’s what I’m talking about. ... I’m extremely proud of where we’re at. I just think that needs to be told and people need to stop talking about South Carolina like we’re still irrelevant like we were seven eight, nine years ago. We’ve earned the right for people to put us in the conversation with the successful programs in this conference.”
March 22, 2019
THE STATE
Three hours before South Carolina learned that officially its 2018-19 basketball season was over, Gamecocks coach Frank Martin shared a story on Twitter about incoming freshman Trae Hannibal and added “My man” with a fist emoji.
In the days since USC was left out of the NIT, Martin has been relatively quiet — while buzz builds around him.
Two prominent college basketball voices threw his name into the mix for the UNLV job. A writer for the Las Vegas Review Journal tweeted that Martin was contacted about the Running Rebels opening, “but financial terms don’t appear to make sense for him at this time and talks likely won’t proceed.”
It’s all made for fodder among fans across message boards, talk radio and social media. What’s the best way to properly evaluate Martin’s seven seasons as South Carolina’s coach? Is he happy in his current job?
Would he leave?
Jeff Goodman, lead college basketball analyst for WatchStadium.com, listed Martin among his candidates for the UNLV gig shortly after the Rebels fired Marvin Menzies. Fox Sports’ Doug Gottleib tweeted March 18: “If I’m UNLV, why not see if Frank Martin wants a fresh start? Helluva coach, great with Vegas kind of kids.”
(For the record, former USC All-American Sindarius Thonrwell replied to Gottleib, “Cut it out my coach ain’t going no where.”)
Martin is 129-106 after seven seasons in Columbia, and all signs point to he’ll be back for an eighth. Martin is third all-time in wins at South Carolina. He led the Gamecocks in 2017 to their first NCAA Tournament win in 44 years — and then to their first Final Four, ever.
USC has won 10 or more SEC games six times since joining the league in 1991, half of which have come under Martin, including this past season.
(Note: The SEC schedule went from 16 to 18 games in 2012-13)
“The feel of the South Carolina program,” Goodman told The State, “would be that it’s a football school, which Frank was able to take them to the Final Four, despite some of their shortcomings in terms of tradition and resources compared to other schools in the league, things of that nature.
“I mean, what he did was ridiculous.”
But a small portion of the fan base also likes to look at what he hasn’t done. The ‘17 Big Dance came after an NIT appearance the year before. Those are Martin’s lone postseason appearances at Carolina.
The Gamecocks are 33-32 since the Final Four run — and the departures of Thornwell (Los Angeles Clippers) and P.J. Dozier (Boston Celtics).
“Your margin for error when you’re at South Carolina is slim,” Goodman said. “It’s slim. You don’t get pros every year. You lose a pro, it hurts. It hurts more.
“You get to a Final Four and then people think you’re going to be going to the NCAA Tournament every year at South Carolina. That just doesn’t happen.
“But he got you a Final Four. If I had told any South Carolina basketball fan, ‘All right, we’ll give ya a Final Four, but you’re not going to go to the tournament for eight years,’ they’d probably sign up.
“On one hand, it’s not like he set the world on fire every year. So you can look at it objectively and be like, ‘All right, he had one really good year.’ And then on the flip side, you’re like, well, it’s a really hard job. He did get them to the Final Four.”
Martin, the 22nd-highest paid coach in America, is signed to South Carolina through 2023. He’s on pace for 219 wins by then, second only to Naismith Hall of Famer Frank McGuire at USC.
But to accomplish such a feat, he’d have to stick around.
“I think Frank Martin would leave for the right situation,” Goodman said. “He’s not gonna leave for just anything. I know he loves his boss, I know he loves the area, everything like that.
“But again, if there was a better situation that came up, where they was probably more support overall, yeah, I could see him leaving if it was a top 10 or 15 school or something that was more about basketball. I think there’s a chance.”
South Carolina ranked fourth in the SEC this season in attendance. The average of 11,472, however, is only the fifth-highest of the Martin era.
On March 9, after USC rolled Georgia to clinch fourth place in the SEC in front of an announced crowd of 11,927 at the 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena, Martin was clear on where his program stood — and the perception battles it still fights.
“We’ve fought to build a culture here,” Martin said, “and we continue to fight to build it. It’s not there. ... Too many people around here want to speak about our bad days and they don’t want to speak about the totality of the good days. And that’s unfortunate.
“But when I talk about apathy, and I’ve talked about that a lot over the last seven years, that’s what I’m talking about. ... I’m extremely proud of where we’re at. I just think that needs to be told and people need to stop talking about South Carolina like we’re still irrelevant like we were seven eight, nine years ago. We’ve earned the right for people to put us in the conversation with the successful programs in this conference.”