The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees approved on Friday a four-year contract extension for Gamecock men’s basketball head coach Frank Martin. Martin’s contract has been extended through the 2021-22 season, beginning at $2.45 million. Steadily improving in each of Martin’s four years as head coach, South Carolina posted one of the top season performances in its 108-year history in 2015-16, setting the mark for regular-season wins (24) and matching the school record for wins in a season with a 25-9 record.
“Frank has done an outstanding job with our basketball program at South Carolina and I’m thrilled that he is our head coach,” Gamecock athletics director Ray Tanner said. “During Frank’s tenure, our basketball team has had tremendous growth, not only on the court, but also in the classroom. Frank is passionate about academics and community outreach, and that translates to his team as well. Our program has taken tremendous strides under Frank, and is in position to be an NCAA Tournament team. Frank is building a winning culture and we are very excited to have him as the leader of our men’s basketball program.”
“My family, staff and I are so excited that we will continue to call Columbia, South Carolina, home,” Martin said. “I am so thankful for all the players that have sacrificed so much in helping us to build our program for us to be given this opportunity. We are ecstatic and so thankful to continue to work hand-in-hand with our great leaders, Dr. Harris Pastides and Ray Tanner. Giving all of Gamecock Nation a championship basketball program is what we will continue to strive for.”
South Carolina has shown steady improvements under the four-year direction of Martin, culminating with the outstanding 2015-16 campaign, when the Gamecocks got off to their best start at 15-0 since the 1933-34 season. After finishing the non-conference portion of its schedule undefeated, Carolina went on to post 11 SEC wins, which tied for the second-most all-time for the Gamecocks in SEC play, and were the most league wins since also posting 11 in 1998. Carolina won five more conference games this season than 2014-15, and with their tie for third in the league race, the Gamecocks had their best finish since the SEC combined its East and West Divisions in 2012. After Carolina posted 14 wins in each of Martin’s first two seasons at the helm, the squad went 17-16 in 2014-15 for its first winning season since 2009, before the historic 25-win campaign of 2015-16.
Under Martin, Carolina has also excelled in the classroom and in the community. Academically, Carolina has set high water marks over the course of the past four years, including a stretch of five straight semesters with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and a team record for GPA in the fall semester of 2014 with a cumulative mark of 3.299. Men’s basketball student-athletes follow in the footprint that Martin has set, embracing the community with several outreach initiatives. The team set a program record for community service hours during the 2014-15 campaign.
http://www.gamecocksonline.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/040116aaa.html
