As head coach of South Carolina Dawn Staley prepares her number 1 seed team for the 2021 NCAA Tournament, she can’t help seeing reports about her colleague’s future, Frank Martin.
Reports from the past two weeks hovered over Carolina’s male basketball coach losing his job at Columbia, something Staley doesn’t agree should happen. Martin has two more years on his contract after making 6-15 in his ninth season in Columbia.
“Frank and I have been here for nine years. We have mutual respect for our programs, ” Staley said at a recent press conference.
“I hear all the garbage that is on social media. I say that before you jump and condemn someone, you have to understand what the coaches go through. Yes, we are in a results-based profession, but there are many intricacies to success. I think when Frank’s teams are healthy, when he’s healthy, he puts a product that we can all be proud of. He was hit hard this year by Covid, himself, his family and his team. It is really difficult to overcome this. We were lucky that we didn’t have so many cases during the season, so we managed to move on.
“Frank has given us great years. I think there’s a lot more to the tank. I support him publicly, particularly and I will let the powers talk about it. I support Frank Martin. “
Wednesday morning update on Martin, Gamecocks (VIP) | NBA Gamecocks tweet about Martin
While in South Carolina, Martin has a 153-133 overall record (70-89 in the SEC), the third highest number of victories for a Gamecocks coach, behind only Frank McGuire (283 in 16 seasons) and Frank Johnson (174 in 14.5 seasons). Gamecocks ended up losing the 2020-21 season in nine of their last 10 games. Seven of those losses were decided by double digits. Seven games were canceled this season due to three different pauses in team activity due to the covid-19 health and safety protocols. Martin tested positive for the virus twice, once in May and once during the season in January.
The overall 6-15 record broke South Carolina’s six-season streak, which ended with a victory or even a record that dates back to the 2014-15 season. Under Martin’s command, the Gamecocks participated in an NCAA tournament, which resulted in a spot in the Final Four in 2017.
Staley is in her 13th season in South Carolina. She has guided her program to nine NCAA tournaments (including this spot in 2021), four Sweet 16 submissions, an Elite Eight submission, two Final Fours and a national championship (2017). The program won six SEC tournament titles and five SEC regular season titles. The US Women’s National Team head coach won the Naismith, WBCA, Associate Press and USBWA National Coach of the Year awards in 2020. She has a 327-102 record in South Carolina.
Gamecocks (22-4) will play No. 16 seed Mercer in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, a 6pm tip on ESPN in San Antonio.