South Carolina basketball: Former players back Frank Martin

South Carolina basketball players support Frank Martin.

The South Carolina basketball season didn’t go according to plan. What began as a possible NCAA Tournament campaign ended with a 6-15 record and 12th place finish in the Southeastern Conference. The tough season has led many to speculate on head coach Frank Martin’s future with the program.

There is certainly some substance to the argument that Martin should be gone, as his teams have recorded win totals of just 16, 17, and 18 in the three seasons following the Final Four run in 2017. None of those campaigns have ended with postseason play, though last year’s team was poised for at least the NIT before COVID shut down the last month of the year.

The Gamecocks were supposed to build on that 18-win season this year after returning nearly all of its production, but instead, the team fell flat.

Of course, this season was much different than previous years, with COVID causing game cancellations, and interrupting the flow of the schedule for a number of highly rated teams. Look no further than Duke and Kentucky for that evidence, as both saw historically bad seasons while struggling to maintain any real consistency on the court.

South Carolina was hit harder than most everyone in the country this year, missing the entire month of December due to COVID tracing inside the locker room. Martin, himself, contracted the virus twice, and was forced to miss time.

The virus affected both practice and play, and had the Gamecocks playing at less than full strength throughout SEC play. The results were obviously not what Martin wanted, but those factors have to be taken into account when evaluating the season as a whole.

Should Martin be fired or does he deserve one more season? That answer will be left up to athletic administration.

What is certain, though, is the support that Martin is receiving from his past players.

We will likely know the final decision on Frank Martin’s tenure in Columbia in the coming days, with athletic director Ray Tanner meeting with the head coach this week. We saw an outpouring of former player support throughout the football hiring process, and it seemed to have some influence on Shane Beamer’s landing the job. Will the same be said for basketball?