Looking back, Frank Martin tenure certainly kept things interesting at South Carolina
South Carolina men’s basketball officially parted ways with coach Frank Martin on Monday, March 14, 2022. Here’s a look back at some of the key highs and lows during 10 years with Martin at the helm of the Gamecocks.
March 2012: Martin is hired
Martin’s hiring from Kansas State was considered something of a coup for the Gamecocks. He had made four NCAA tournaments in five years, advancing to an Elite Eight in his third season, and coached the No. 1 recruit in the nation in Michael Beasley.
South Carolina, meanwhile, hadn’t made an NCAA tournament in eight years and hadn’t won a game in the Big Dance since 1973. But the Gamecocks paid him handsomely to lure him away from Manhattan, signing him to a six-year, $12.3 million contract and making him one of the top paid coaches in the SEC
Oct. 2012: Sindarius Thornwell commits
It didn’t take long before Martin scored a major win on the recruiting trail for USC. Before he had coached a game at USC, he won the pledge of in-state star Sindarius Thornwell. Thornwell was rated a top-30 prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings and given five stars by the recruiting service. Thornwell would go on to be named SEC All-Freshman in 2014 and SEC Player of the Year in 2017.
March 2014: Martin suspended one game for inappropriate language
At Kansas State, Martin was famous for his fiery demeanor on the sideline, often unleashing “The Glare,” a hard-eyed stare, at any player who incurred his displeasure.
In a trying 2013-14 season at USC, though, Martin’s intensity wound up costing him a one-game suspension after a video of him screaming profanities at a player in a huddle prompted complaints. It was the second such incident of the season.
Nov. 2014: PJ Dozier commits
The highest-rated recruit to ever sign with South Carolina out of high school, Dozier’s pledge marked another major in-state victory for Martin. Dozier was a McDonald’s All-American, and while he didn’t pick up any SEC honors in his career, he did play a major role in the highlight of Martin’s entire tenure.
Dec. 2015: South Carolina ranked for first time in more than a decade
Starting the 2015-16 season 10-0, the Gamecocks were ranked No. 25 in the Dec. 21 poll from the Associated Press. It was the first ranking in Martin’s tenure and the first ranking for the program since March 2003.
March 2016: Ties school record for wins, misses NCAA tournament
While the rest of that 2015-16 season was up and down for South Carolina, with an 11-7 record in the SEC but a quick exit in the conference tourney, the Gamecocks went into Selection Sunday with a 24-8 record, already the most wins by a USC team since 1996-97. But they were passed over by the selection committee, an omission that still stings for fans today. They did go on to win one more game, tying the program record for victories in a season.
March 2016: BB gun incident
While the Gamecocks didn’t make the Big Dance, they were selected as a No. 1 seed in the NIT. But before the first round, five players were suspended indefinitely. Soon, it came out that the players were involved in a series of property crimes and vandalism with a high-powered BB gun.
Police arrested two players, and police incident reports described them driving around a neighborhood, firing the BB gun out of the car and shattering windshields. The two players arrested were dismissed from the team in April.
Dec. 2016-Jan. 2017: Sindarius Thornwell suspended
Another suspension rocked the Gamecocks the next season, as Thornwell, the squad’s leading scorer, wound up missing six games for an “unspecified violation of athletic department policy.” He had previously been arrested in May and charged with marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license. Thornwell declined to get into the specifics behind his suspension — the Gamecocks went 3-3 while he was absent.
March 2017: Final Four run
Far and away the greatest postseason run in program history, the 2017 NCAA tournament will be cherished by Gamecock fans for years to come. Martin and South Carolina got to play the first two rounds in-state in Greenville after the NCAA shifted venues because of a controversial North Carolina law, and the Gamecocks used that in-state advantage to pull off a stunning upset of second-seeded Duke. From there, they rode Martin’s trademark suffocating defense to upsets over Baylor and Florida in Madison Square Garden, and Thornwell was named the East Regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
The run ended with a narrow loss to Gonzaga in the Final Four, but those four NCAA tournament victories were as many as the program had had in the previous 78 seasons, even when counting third-place games. And it put South Carolina at 26 wins, the most in program history in one season.
April 2017: Contract extension
In the wake of that Final Four run, Martin and USC agreed to a contract extension running through 2022, bumping his pay to an average annual value of $3.05 million.
Aug. 2017: Rakym Felder suspended
Thornwell, Dozier and fellow starter Duane Notice all left for the pro ranks after the Final Four run, and in August, the team’s depth took another hit when Rakym Felder, the sixth-leading scorer and a key bench player on the 2016-17 squad, was suspended indefinitely after being arrested and charged with assault and battery. He eventually re-enrolled at USC in Jan. 2018 but never played in a game and officially left the team for good in April.
Sept. 2017: Lamont Evans arrested
The FBI’s investigation into widespread bribery and corruption in college basketball shook the entire sport and resulted in 10 arrests. One of those taken into custody was assistant coach Lamont Evans, who was with Oklahoma State at the time but had spent four seasons on staff at South Carolina and had worked with Martin since his days as a student assistant at Kansas State
As part of the charges, Evans was accused of taking bribes while with the Gamecocks to steer a player to certain business managers and financial advisers once he turned pro — details of the allegations quickly identified Dozier as the player in question. Martin denied any wrongdoing and said Evans’ arrest “broke my heart.” Evans would later plead guilty to bribery conspiracy and was sentenced to three months in prison.
Nov. 2017: 100 wins
Only fourth other coaches in the 110-year history of South Carolina basketball had won 100 games with the Gamecocks. Martin became the fifth when USC defeated Western Michigan 79-66 in Conway as part of the relocated Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
Jan.-May 2018: The Brian Bowen Era
Perhaps one of the oddest footnotes in the Frank Martin era was the five-month stretch small forward transfer Brian Bowen spent in Columbia. The five-star, top-20 recruit transferred to USC after the same scandal that resulted in Evans’ arrest implicated his family and led Louisville to suspend him indefinitely.
The McDonald’s All-American and the Gamecocks petitioned the NCAA to make him eligible, but it never seemed very likely he would ever be cleared. Sure enough, in May the NCAA told South Carolina that Bowen would have to sit out at least one more season, and Bowen made the decision to turn pro. He never played a minute for USC, but Bowen was proclaimed a Gamecock for life by Martin.
Jan. 2018: Zion Williamson picks Duke
The most celebrated South Carolina prospect since Kevin Garnett, and perhaps ever, Williamson had the Gamecocks in his final group of five. In the run-up to his highly anticipated commitment ceremony, though Martin and South Carolina were considered outside shots. After he chose Duke, those in Williamson’s camp praised the job Martin had done in recruiting him.
A few months later, radio host Dan Patrick asked Martin how close he was to actually reeling in Williamson, which would have been the recruiting upset to end all upsets. Martin held his thumb and index finger millimeters apart.
March 2019: Four-seed in SEC
The 2018-19 season presented one of the most confounding stretches of the Martin era at South Carolina. The Gamecocks slumped their way through the nonconference portion of the schedule, losing to such lowly teams as Stony Brook and Wyoming. But in conference play, South Carolina came alive, compiling an 11-7 record and knocking off ranked Auburn and Mississippi State. That gave the Gamecocks the No. 4 seed and a double bye in the SEC tourney, one of three times they accomplished that under Martin.
Dec. 2019-Jan. 2020: Upset city
Over the course of his tenure, Martin compiled an 18-28 record against ranked opponents. Two of those came in close proximity to each other and marked some of the finest victories Martin had at USC.
The first, over defending national champion and No. 9 Virginia, marked an authoritative road win in a hostile environment where the Cavaliers hadn’t lost to a nonconference opponent in three years.
The second, a few weeks later at home against SEC powerhouse and No. 10 Kentucky, came in front of a sellout crowd and featured a buzzer-beating, 30-foot heave from guard Jermaine Cousinard that became an instant classic.
Feb. 2020: Notice of allegations from NCAA
Two and a half years after Evans was arrested, South Carolina was hit by the NCAA with a notice of allegations, allegeding a Level I violation, the most serious tier of offense. At the same time, the allegations did not include loss of institutional control by Martin and did not appear aimed at forcing the Gamecocks to vacate any wins, including the Final Four run.
2020-21 season: COVID-19 pauses hammer team
After the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely ended any hopes the Gamecocks had for an SEC tournament run and postseason play in 2020, South Carolina returned to the court for the 2020-21 season with what many believed to be its most talented squad since the Final Four team.
But the pandemic hit South Carolina not once, not twice but three times during the season, forcing pauses and the cancellation of six games. Martin, who got COVID in May, tested positive again and said the second bout “kicked my tail.” Also in January, junior forward Alanzo Frink was declared out for the rest of the season due to medical reasons.
South Carolina limped to the end of the 2020-21 season, finishing 5-16 for its worst winning percentage since the 1998-99 season. Martin was relieved of his duties several days after the Gamecocks fell to Ole Miss in the SEC tournament, which ensured the team would miss the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in nine seasons.
Feb. 2021: Light NCAA sanctions
The NCAA formally handed down its punishment for the Lamont Evans scandal in February, mostly sparing the Gamecocks from any major punishment like vacating wins or postseason bans. Instead, they were simply put on probation and self-imposed other punishments, such as a reduction in unofficial recruiting visits.
2021-22 season: New roster, a rebound
After the COVID-19 issues that plagued South Carolina the previous season, Martin retooled the USC roster, bringing in nine new players. Veteran guards Erik Stevenson and James Reese proved to be valuable additions, with both establishing themselves as team leaders and starters, and freshmen Devin Carter, Ta’Quan Woodley and Jacobi Wright each played significant minutes.
The new-look Gamecocks delivered some highlight-reel moments, including a half-court buzzer beater by Reese in overtime on the road at Ole Miss, as well as wins over LSU and Texas A&M on the road. The Gamecocks finished 18-13 (9-9 SEC) and tied for fifth-place in the regular season standings and earned a No. 7 seed in the SEC tournament, where they went one-and-done.
March 14, 2022: The end
Despite the improved effort from the Gamecocks after a difficult pandemic season, USC still couldn’t do quite enough to reach the postseason. Ultimately, the team’s No. 93 NET ranking sunk its chances of earning either an NCAA tournament or NIT bid.
After South Carolina’s name wasn’t called on Selection Sunday, the USC administration decided to make a change on the following Monday, announcing that it had fired Martin. His Gamecocks tenure ended with a winning season, but the Gamecocks made just one NCAA tournament appearance during his reign.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 3:25 PM.