Support grows to keep Frank Martin as South Carolina’s basketball coach
Rumors have swirled around South Carolina men’s basketball coach Frank Martin for two weeks, with several reports declaring a coaching change was imminent.
But Martin remains employed by the Gamecocks, and it appears the tide is turning to keep him in Columbia.
At least two prominent South Carolina lawmakers have thrown their support behind Martin, with both Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and former state Sen. Joel Lourie telling The State on Friday that they are advocates for the nine-year USC head coach. Their stances appear to be part of a bigger effort to avoid a coaching change.
While Benjamin declined to go into specifics about the nature of his conversations about Martin, he said he has “done very direct outreach on his behalf.”
“I think Frank’s amazing,” Benjamin told The State. “I think he’s been great for the program. He’s taken us places we’ve never been before, and I believe he can do it again.”
Lourie, who retired from office in 2017 after 18 years serving in the South Carolina legislature, said he’s also been a “very strong advocate” for Martin, which stems from his lifelong fandom of Gamecocks basketball and his personal interactions with Martin. He said he’s attended games regularly since program legend John Roche’s playing days, and he called USC alum Alex English one of his childhood heroes.
“Frank Martin has put our program in the most consistently competitive position of any coach since Frank McGuire,” Lourie told The State. “I’m hopeful that they’ll work out something and allow him to continue his job here.
“... I have been a very strong advocate for him. Because I really think what he means to this community, and what he means to this basketball program and what he means to the university, I think it would be a very sad development if he were not able to stay here.”
On March 13 a SportsTalkSC report said the USC coach wasn’t expected to be retained, but on Friday the same outlet reported that “over the past 48 hours, the sentiment has shifted to Martin remaining as the Gamecocks head coach, largely due to pressure exerted by some state senators on USC’s administration and the board of trustees.”
Hired in 2012, Martin, 54, has compiled a 153-134 career record with the Gamecocks and has two years left on his contract, making roughly $3 million per year. Per his contract, USC would owe Martin a $6.5 million buyout should the school decide to fire him. According to multiple reports, that buyout has been a point of contention.
On Thursday, USC President Bob Caslen spoke at a higher education financial committee hearing at the South Carolina State House, where state Sen. Darrell Jackson brought up buyouts for coaches and whether those funds could be allocated elsewhere. The buyout for football coach Will Muschamp, who is now on Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia, totaled nearly $13 million.
“During a very challenging year for the school and athletics ... the school chose to pay $13 million to a coach not to coach, who by the way is coaching somewhere else,” Jackson said at the hearing.
It’s not yet known if or when the university will show support for Martin, either in the form of a public vote of confidence or through a contract extension — or both.
The USC basketball team finished the year with its worst record under Martin, going 6-15 (4-12 SEC) after six straight seasons of finishing .500 or better. COVID-19 loomed large over the program, with Martin testing positive twice for the virus and with the team shut down for nearly seven weeks between December and January.
“I think the world, whether it’s business, whether it’s education, whatever, everybody’s gonna look at the year 2021 with a big asterisk beside it,” Lourie told The State. “And I can tell you, I’ve talked to Frank several times, because we have lunch, several times a year or breakfast. He’ll come by and we’ll have coffee. He is anxious to get back on that court.
“He has got more passion than I’ve seen in him in a long time. He’s very disappointed at how the season turned out, but he’s not making any excuses. Clearly, we all know what he was up against. But Frank’s not a guy that makes excuses. He’s a guy that gets results. And he’s full of passion. He’s excited about his team, is excited about his recruits. That’s the kind of guy you want coaching the South Carolina basketball team, in my humble opinion.”
— The State’s Lou Bezjak contributed
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 6:51 PM.
