South Carolina basketball players support Frank Martin.
South Carolina’s basketball season did not go according to plan. What started as a possible campaign for the NCAA Tournament ended with a record of 6 to 15 and 12th place in the Southeast Conference. The difficult season has led many to speculate about the future of coach Frank Martin with the program.
There is certainly some substance to the argument that Martin should leave, as his teams recorded total victories of just 16, 17 and 18 in the three seasons after the Four Finals in 2017. None of these campaigns ended with a post-season game, although the Last year’s team was prepared for at least the NIT before COVID closed in the last month of the year.
Gamecocks were supposed to take advantage of this 18-win season this year, after returning almost all of their production, but instead, the team did not work.
Of course, this season was very different from previous years, with COVID causing game cancellations and disrupting the flow of programming for several highly rated teams. Look no further than Duke and Kentucky for this evidence, as they both saw historically bad seasons while struggling to maintain any real consistency on the court.
South Carolina has been hit harder than almost everyone in the country this year, missing out on the entire month of December due to COVID tracking inside the locker room. Martin himself contracted the virus twice and was forced to waste time.
The virus affected the practice and the game, and made Gamecocks play with less total strength during the SEC game. The results were obviously not as desired by Martin, but these factors must be taken into account when evaluating the season as a whole.
Should Martin be fired or does he deserve another season? That answer will be left to the athletic administration.
What is certain, however, is the support that Martin is receiving from his previous players.
We will probably know the final decision on Frank Martin’s management in Columbia in the next few days, with sports director Ray Tanner meeting with the head coach this week. We saw a lot of support from former players throughout the football hiring process, and this seemed to have some influence on Shane Beamer’s winning job. Will the same be said for basketball?