Will Frank Martin split from basketball in South Carolina?
South Carolina’s basketball season did not go according to plan in 2021, with Gamecocks currently sitting 6-13 (4-11) in the year, with only one game remaining. Entering the season as a team designed for the NCAA Tournament, Frank Martin’s group started slowly and never regained the ability to get back on track.
“It’s one of those years,” said Martin after Tuesday’s 28-point loss to Arkansas.
The Gamecocks returned almost all of a team that was in the bubble of the NCAA tournament a season ago, but the results were drastically different. Part of this, undeniably, was a product of COVID, which caused the team to lose the entire month of December, as well as fights at the beginning of the conference program. That wasted time cost the team a sense of stability, as Gamecocks were forced to lose practice time and compete during the conference game with less total strength.
But COVID cannot take full blame for the team’s poor performance, and Martin himself acknowledges that there are other problems in the locker room that have contributed to the challenges of the season.
“We have a lot of guys who are playing for ‘me’ and not ‘us’. This is unfortunate. We need to keep trying to find out why, a year ago, with basically the same people, that never happened. This has been a messy year and it caught me off guard. I did not expect part of this that we have been dealing with and I am not talking about COVID. “
These questions must fall on the coaching staff, as it seems that veteran players are not believing what Martin is trying to teach on the court. The team often seems uninspired, which resulted in the loss of eight double-digit South Carolina conference matches. Gamecocks go through long scoring droughts, play in dull defense and seem to falter each time they appear to make a turn. There are fans and media, too, questioning whether or not Martin will be in Columbia next year.
And the people around the show are not just aiming for this season and because Martin’s future is in jeopardy. Since their run to the Final Four in 2017, Martin’s teams have recorded total wins of 17, 16 and 18. This season will be the worst of their management.
The team was unable to capitalize on the recruiting trail after running the NCAA Tournament, and the program has not been able to reach the postseason in the past three campaigns. Except for a miraculous race in the SEC tournament next week, this will continue for the fourth year in a row in 2021.
Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel recently gave an update on Martin’s management, saying his future with Gamecocks is’ confused ‘.
This will be the fourth consecutive year for Martin to miss the NCAA tournament in South Carolina, and he has only been there once in his nine seasons there. Martin suffered twice from COVID-19 during this difficult season, making it difficult to qualify for South Carolina’s 6-13 record.
That solitary NCAA trip to South Carolina resulted in a proposal for the Fourth Final in 2017, which was euphoric and historic. But the euphoria has passed and that race in Final Four is becoming a distant memory, even though it has yielded four of the NCAA’s six victories in the program’s history. At 11/04 on the SEC, the only relevant portion of Gamecocks this season came when the NCAA hit the show with two years of probation for the actions of Martin Lamont Evans’ former assistant.
There are programs that Martin’s name has been associated with, in particular, New Mexico. But Thamel talks about the high salary that would come with hiring the current Gamecock coach outside of South Carolina.
With a payment fee of $ 3 million per year, it is highly unlikely that a program will match or exceed that number, given its recent history. Martin’s contract also puts the South Carolina athletic administration in a dilemma, as he owed $ 6.5 million if he was fired at the end of the season.
Can Gamecocks pay for this acquisition just a few months after the Will Muschamp disaster, and the recent hiring of a new football team? Will sports director Ray Tanner be asked to sign another contract, as his season in Columbia may also be coming to an end?
Martin has always been a popular name mentioned in other surveys, and there will be inevitable conversations in New Mexico and DePaul this year. But Martin earns more than $ 3 million a year, and there are few paying jobs in the neighborhood that would welcome his performance.
The uncertain future of South Carolina’s AD Ray Tanner further confuses Martin’s future, as Tanner is unlikely to be around for the next three years he still has in his business. South Carolina has just signed Shane Beamer into football and has linked him to an AD that is not expected for a long time. Can they do the same in basketball?
There are many questions to be answered as the season comes to an end. For now, Martin remains the head coach of the South Carolina basketball program, but it is unclear how long that future will last.