At the end of a season that was the worst in South Carolina in seven years, the male basketball coach Frank Martin discussed his work status, what he achieved with Gamecocks during his tenure and what his intentions are with the university administration.
“If anyone thinks I’m looking for jobs, I wouldn’t have been here for nine years,” said Martin early Tuesday through a call from Zoom. “This is my home. My family loves it here, I love it here. We have lived here for nine years. I said from day one that I don’t want to be known as the basketball coach, but as a member of this community.”
Martin has another two-year contract after the Gamecocks (6-14, 4-11) end the season, which has a guaranteed game remaining, on Thursday night as number 11 in the SEC tournament. Martin is set to earn $ 3.2 million in 2021-22 and $ 3.3 million in 2022-23. This will not be the first time that he will be a coach with another two-year contract in South Carolina.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t make contracts in the middle of the season,” said Martin. “At the end of my third year here, I had three years left at the time. Nobody came to me (about contract negotiations). I didn’t go home and worried about it. I entered my fourth year and after that year I met with the administration and two days later I signed a new contract. After that year, I have two more years, like that time.
“My name got involved in another job every year that I’m here. I never talked to any school other than Cincinnati. I asked for permission, I spoke and a day later I gave up on work. I’ve been here for nine years and everyone should know where I am. Where is the university? It is not for me to answer because I am not them and I am not talking to people right now. I will go when the season is over and anyone who wants to discredit what we did, I’m willing to argue. If I have to explain to people our successes, then these people are not convinced that I need to be the basketball coach here. “
Martin holds an overall record of 153-132 in his nine years as the head coach of Gamecocks. The program went to an NCAA Tournament (2017 – participation in the Four Finals) and an NIT (exit from the second round) under his guidance. South Carolina has won consecutive 20-win seasons (2015-16, 2016-17) for the first time since a series of three consecutive 20-win campaigns from 2003-2006. Prior to this season, the show posted six consecutive seasons without a loss. Gamecocks have won 10 or more SEC games in four of the past five seasons, producing eight SEC-prized players during that period: Michael Carrera, Sindarius Thornwell, Duane Notice, Chris silva, Hassani Gravett, Maik Kotsar, AJ Lawson and Jermaine Couisnard.
This season resulted in three separate breaks in team activity due to the covid-19 health and safety protocols, most of which took the entire month of December. As a result, seven games were canceled. Martin has had a positive result twice since last May, most recently in January, which led him to lose a game. In mid-February, a few weeks after describing how much his second fight against the disease affected him, Martin said he did not want to stop training.
“Before this crazy year, the previous six years are the first time that we have had six consecutive seasons without a loss since the 1970s,” explained Martin on Tuesday. “In the past five years, we have had the third highest number of wins at the SEC. Everyone says, ‘Well, a postseason in nine years.’ Okay, you can say that. This is on paper when you write it. When I got here nine years ago, you could have hired Coach K, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson as a team. If they cheated, they would have solved the problem much faster. We don’t cheat. When you build things without cheating, it takes time.
“In the first three years we didn’t have a chance to be a post-season team. For the next two years, we gave school record winning seasons and I don’t need to explain a Final Four. After Final Four, we hit the reset button and we were young. Last year, we were a post-season team again, but unfortunately, like all schools in the country, we were unable to finish the last chapter of our book. We were a post-season team. This year was a complete show, you know what it is from day one. “
Martin ended his answer to the question about his position at the university as chief basketball coach, stating how he handled the end of previous seasons and what he believes about his program.
“At the end of the day, I will visit my bosses, who I respect a lot, when the season is over,” said Martin. “They know where I am. Everyone knows that I had countless opportunities to leave and I chose not to speak, let alone leave. This is our home, the one we love. If I’m wanted, that’s what I want to call home. You haven’t lived anywhere for nine years, invest in the community like my family did and run away from it. I fixed this program. I know what’s not working this year, but the program hasn’t broken. We fixed it once and we will fix it again. “