NCAA Basketball rewind: Most impactful coaching hires after 2012 season
By Joey Loose
3. Frank Martin (South Carolina)
The Gamecocks made three straight Sweet Sixteens back in the early 1970s, but the program wasn’t exactly successful throughout most of their history. Typically an SEC doormat, this was certainly the case as they hunted for another new head coach in 2012, coming off a 10-win season without much success on the horizon.
The next head coach to accept that challenge was Frank Martin, a Miami native. Martin had coached at the high school level in Miami for more than a decade before transitioning to the college game. A former assistant under Bob Huggins, Martin succeeded him at Kansas State, leading the Wildcats to an Elite Eight and solid success in five years in the Big 12. Martin made the transition back to the south, hoping to actually make South Carolina potent in the SEC.
Martin isn’t third on this list because he turned South Carolina into some perennial national contender. His highlight is the 2017 Gamecocks team, which ran all the way to the Final Four as a 7-seed in impressive fashion. He’s also led South Carolina to three finishes of 4th place or higher in a tough SEC, though that run remains his only NCAA Tournament trip. Still, it’s impossible to say that this tenure has been anything short of great, with that lone Final Four making up for years of struggle for the program.