NCAA Basketball: Michigan and South Carolina headlines Sunday Mailbag

Is Frank Martin coaching his last season at South Carolina?  Who are the top 3 options to replace him? – Patrick Madden (@TheSportsJD)

It is going to be really hard to get a read on what South Carolina plans to do with head coach Frank Martin. He is still riding really high off of the surprise Final Four appearance a handful of seasons ago now. Since that point, he has not done all that well in Columbia.

Coach Martin is a great human and an even better leader and mentor to the kids he coaches. He does coach them tough but loves them like his own kids and he has no problem getting players into the program or getting them to stay in the program. He is the ultimate players’ coach. That does not mean he can’t be fired.

Coach Martin took over for Darrin Horn as the coach of the Gamecocks and when he got there the team had not had much recent success. Horn never made the tournament and had one winning season. Martin has had four winning seasons and is on pace this year for another.

The SEC is loaded this year and if the Gamecocks can somehow get to .500 in the league they are going to put themselves in a great position for some form of postseason play. If that happens there is no way that South Carolina fires Martin. I do believe that the Gamecocks are going to play good enough to find themselves on the bubble at the end of the year.

If South Carolina does go a different direction with their basketball program many would be shocked especially if they end up on the bubble and find themselves in the NIT. The list of potential replacements would be large and it would be hard to think of someone at a mid-major who would not want that job. It is in a great location in Columbia, South Carolina, the SEC is one of the premier conferences in the entire sport and they are in a recruiting hot spot.

Martin is safe but he better start stringing some wins together and making a few more tournaments to give South Carolina a return on their investment.