South Carolina basketball: Best and worst coaches of all-time

BEST

Frank McGuire

McGuire tops the list for many reasons. His 283 wins are most in program history, 114 more than the next closest coach. He took the Gamecocks to four NCAA appearances, three Sweet 16s, three NIT appearances, an ACC regular season title, and an ACC tournament title throughout his 16-year coaching stint.

McGuire coached some of the program’s top players, including John Roche, Alex English, Bobby Cremins, Tom Owens, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters, and Mike Dunleavy. He’s one of just seven Gamecock coaches to win a regular season conference title, and one of just two to win a conference tournament championship. He won ACC coach of the year honors in 1969, and is tied with Frank Martin for the most NCAA tournament wins in Carolina history.

McGuire’s 16-year tenure is South Carolina basketball’s longest, and his 66% winning percentage ranks second amongst Gamecock coaches that coached more than one season.

Frank Martin

Martin is the only coach to lead a Gamecock program to the Final Four, as his 2017 squad was just a shot away from making a national title appearance. He currently sits at third on the school’s all-time wins list with 147, a number that will only continue to grow. He could leapfrog Frank Johnson with another stellar season, as he’s just 22 wins behind the second-place spot.

And what coach Martin took over was a team coming off of a two-win SEC campaign, which had a mass departure following the firing of previous coach Darrin Horn. To go from a last-placed cellar dweller to the Final Four in just five short seasons is a testament to his coaching abilities. Martin’s 26-win season in ’17 remains a program record, and he was recognized with the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award following the season’s end.

Martin has also taken the Gamecocks to the NIT once, and would’ve done so again last year had the season not been cut short.

Eddie Fogler

It was tough to choose between Fogler and Dave Odom for the final spot. Odom actually took over following Fogler’s tenure, winning 128 games between 2001-2008 and leading the Gamecocks to an NCAA tournament appearance and two NIT titles. He won SEC coach of the year in 2004 and posted four 20-win seasons in Columbia.

But Fogler’s accomplishments in Columbia give him the edge, here. He is the only coach to lead the Gamecocks to an SEC regular season crown, posting a 15-1 conference record in 1997. That team was ranked 4th nationally entering the postseason. He led South Carolina to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in ’97 and ’98, once as a No. 2 seed and the next as a No. 3 seed.

Fogler also took the Gamecocks to two NITs, and finished his tenure with 123 wins, fifth most in program history. His two NCAA appearances are second most by a South Carolina head coach.