Potential matchup between ‘misunderstood’ coaches awaits South Carolina in Cancun
Nowadays — a long time since the two served on the same coaching staff — Frank Martin will sit in his South Carolina basketball office, stare at the ceiling and hear Bob Huggins’ husky voice.
He’s talking about switching defenses to better fit personnel, he’s instilling confidence in a player who is close to giving up hope, he’s helping a close friend get a job, he’s screaming at Martin for their team getting beat by Rajon Rondo jump shots.
Martin, with the Gamecocks, and Huggins, with West Virginia, are in Mexico this week for the Cancun Challenge. USC (4-1) plays Wichita State (5-0) at 6 p.m. Tuesday and WVU (4-0) takes on Northern Iowa (6-0) afterward. Should the Gamecocks and Mountaineers both win — or lose — they’ll meet Wednesday.
“We might even break down film together if we’re playing each other,” Martin said. “I’ll criticize his team, he’ll criticize mine.”
Call it constructive criticism, something Martin received from Huggins on more than a few occasions while the two were on the bench together at Cincinnati (2004-05) and Kansas State (2006-07). Huggins was the head coach for both programs while Martin was one of his charges.
Those Bearcats made the NCAA Tournament and won a first-round game over Iowa, setting up a showdown with border rival Kentucky two days later. Martin, performing a duty typical of an assistant coach, delivered the scouting report on the Wildcats. He instructed the Cincinnati guards to go under perimeter ball screens against Rondo, UK’s trigger-shy point guard.
“Rajon Rondo had made three, four, five 3s all year,” said Andy Kennedy, another Cincinnati assistant of the time, “but hadn’t really made one in months.”
Naturally, the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-point lead as Rondo hit two 3s within the first 11 minutes. Huggins called timeout.
“Huggs turned to me and unloaded on me like there was no tomorrow on that sideline,” Martin said. “And AK was just standing there looking at me saying, ‘Holy cow, man, I can’t believe this guy.’
“So Huggs told the team, ‘The heck with whatever this genius over here has said to do. We’re going over the ball-screen.’ And we came back and almost won the game.”
Martin revealed the above story on a recent podcast with Stadium’s Jeff Goodman. Kennedy was happy to confirm it for The State.
“Huggs committed to telling Frank how smart he was in his game-planning in not so many kind words,” Kennedy said. “That was hilarious.”
Martin is now 13 seasons into his own head coaching career — including five as Huggins’ replacement at K-State — that’s never short on sideline tongue-lashings. Just note that Martin knows what it’s like to be on the other end of them.
“Whether you’re a player or a coach,” Kennedy said, “you’re going to be held accountable. That’s a given for most every successful coach, most definitely from Bob Huggins.”
Huggins and Martin remain as tight as any opposing coaches in college basketball. They first connected when Huggins was recruiting Martin’s players at Miami Senior High School in Florida. Huggins then helped Martin get his first college gig at Northeastern before getting him to Cincinnati and vouching for him at Kansas State after the school president questioned Martin’s credentials.
“I was trying to tell them to hire Frank,” Huggins recently told reporters in Morgantown, West Virginia. “I said, ‘No, he’s got all kinds of head coaching experience.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but it’s high school,’ and I said, ‘Let me explain something to you. He coached better players in high school than I had at Cincinnati.’ He would have six, seven high-level Division I guys. You want to talk about hard? You’ve got to manage those egos and you’ve got everybody in their ear — this guy wants to outscore that guy and all that. All he did was win state championship after state championship and go undefeated.
“So I knew the guy could coach, knew he could deal with people.”
Martin and Huggins hold regular conversations, often talking basketball strategy and human development. Huggins is an “unbelievable source” for Martin.
“I think Huggs is the smartest person I’ve ever come across,” Martin said. “And I don’t say that sarcastically. I wholeheartedly mean that. If you look at his career, he’s won big at every school he’s been at playing different styles.
“He’s not an ego guy. He’s not into forcing people to play his way. He’s going to make you compete, now. He doesn’t let you ever take a day off. He doesn’t ever allow you to feel that you’re not good enough.”
Neither Martin nor Huggins is a big fan of playing one another. It’s happened just once before, a double overtime win for West Virginia over Kansas State in 2011.
If it happens again, neither coaching box will lack life, character or a certain kind of passion.
“People see snippets of an outburst on a sideline and they want to characterize people,” Kennedy said, “but both are pretty misunderstood as it relates to the things they do above and beyond for not only their players, but for people that are in their circle. Both are very charitable, both give up their time to help the game grow.
“And both have had tremendous success.”
But first, Gregg Marshall
A familiar name in these parts stands in the way of a Martin-Huggins matchup.
Wichita State is coached by Gregg Marshall, a Greenwood native who took Winthrop to seven NCAA Tournaments from 1998-2007. His name popped up during both of USC’s most recent coaching searches.
“Gregg is phenomenal at what he does,” Martin said.
The Shockers went to the Final Four in 2013 as one of their seven Big Dance appearances under Marshall.
WICHITA STATE VS. SOUTH CAROLINA
Where: Cancun, Mexico
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: 107.5 The Game in Columbia area
Projected starting lineups
Wichita State (5-0)
G Dexter Dennis 10.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg
G Grant Sherfield 7.8 ppg, 2.2 rpg
G Erik Stevenson 10.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg
F Trey Wade 12.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg
C Morris Udeze 8.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg
South Carolina (4-1)
G Jair Bolden 11.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg
G A.J. Lawson 17.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg
F Justin Minaya 7.0 ppg, 4.6 rpg
F Wildens Leveque 4.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg
F Maik Kotsar 7.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
