After eleven years of encountering Frank Martin’s teams, there’s comfort in knowing what’s entailed in each meeting.
By now, we take it as a given that his teams are defined by toughness, tenacity on the defensive end, physicality on the glass and, at least since he arrived at South Carolina, scattershot offense.
Now, that might read like less-than-veiled criticism, but it shouldn’t be taken that way. The 52-year-old Martin’s brand has yielded a 118-97 record and a Final Four run two years ago. If Martin stepped aside, his tenure would likely rank just behind Frank McGuire’s run in Columbia, which ended in 1980 and when the program was still an independent.