South Carolina Basketball: Can Frank Martin save his job?

What’s Frank Martin’s future with South Carolina basketball?

Frank Martin is entering year 10 with the South Carolina basketball program, and it could be the season in which he faces the most pressure. The Gamecocks are coming off their worst performance of the Martin era, stumbling to a 6-14 overall record, and a 12th place finish in the SEC. The defense was almost non-existent over the short season, causing the team to lose by 10 or more points in 12 of their 14 defeats. The Gamecocks dropped nine of their final 10 contests, with their last six losses coming by an average of 21.5 points per game.

While the team struggled much of last year, I believe that Coach Martin will be back for year 11 so long as the program shows improvement in 2020.

It’s hard to hold last year against the veteran coach, with his team playing short-handed for a majority of the season. South Carolina missed all of December due to COVID tracing in the Gamecock locker room. Martin, himself, contracted the virus twice. While the team was uncompetitive last year, his 2019 squad won 18 games and was on the fringe of an NCAA Tournament bid prior to the event being cancelled amid the pandemic. Should the Gamecocks produce similar results in the upcoming campaign, Martin’s job should be safe.

Though it’s hard to hold last year against the head coach, the heat on his seat is rising after missing out on the postseason in each of the four years since the program’s Final Four run in 2017. Making things a bit more challenging, the roster saw major turnover this offseason. Six players have transferred, and last year’s leading scorer is off to the NBA.

Coming in to fill the voids are four proven playmakers from the transfer portal, and a ’21 recruiting class that ranked inside the nation’s top 40. The group possesses postseason experience and veteran leadership, with two of the four incoming transfers having played in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT. The newcomers combined to average 40.7 ppg last season, so it seems like Martin has some new offensive weapons to work with. They’ll look to improve a unit that was tied for 139th in the nation in scoring, averaging 72.5 ppg, while also getting back to the defensive roots that their head coach is known for.

We can scrap last year’s performance, but expectations should still be high in Columbia. If Martin can find a way to improve the results, at least slightly, then he should be safe. If not, South Carolina basketball could be gearing up for a coaching search in the near future.