The University of South Carolina board of trustees has preliminarily approved a two-year contract extension for men's basketball head coach Frank Martin Friday morning.

Martin's now on a four-year contract through March 31, 2025 and would maintain his regular salary of $3.3 million annually but his buyout has been restructured.

Martin's buyout, if fired between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 would be a prorated salary of compensation through March 31, 2023. If fired after April 1, 2022 the university would owe no more than $3 million.

The university would not be required to pay a buyout for the final two years of his deal that were added on Friday.

Martin, if he terminates the deal and opts to go elsewhere would not be obligated to pay a buyout.

The contract extension will go through full board approval later today.

Martin, who just completed his ninth season in Columbia, has a 153-131 overall record and a 70-88 mark in SEC play.

The university also approved officially a one-year contract extension for assistant coach Chuck Martin.

Martin came to South Carolina before the 2012 season, inheriting a full rebuild of a program and turned the Gamecocks into a postseason team in year four, making the NIT.

Martin's crowning achievement to this point is the Gamecocks' magical run to the Final Four in 2017, the first in program history.

That team included multiple players who landed on NBA rosters, headlined by 2017 SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell.

But the Gamecocks have struggled to build on that success, dealing with roster turnover and early-season losses that hampered tournament resumes, keeping them out of the Big Dance in the years since.

The struggles continued this season with the Gamecocks finishing 6-15 overall with just four SEC wins during a tough year for a variety of reasons, COVID being one of them.

But Martin's .552 winning percentage at South Carolina is tied with Eddie Fogler for third-most in school history behind Frank McGuire (.666) and Bill Foster (.583) and after an offseason where Martin's future was in doubt, the Gamecocks have decided to back Martin with an extension.

Martin, for his part, believes that the issues from this past season can be fixed.

While the Gamecocks currently have four outgoing players in the transfer portal—Trae Hannibal, Jalyn McCreary, Justin Minaya and T.J. Moss —Martin has added two incoming transfers in the last week in point guard Chico Carter Jr. and big-man A.J. Wilson.

Martin and the Gamecocks await decisions on the future of standouts Jermaine Couisnard, Keyshawn Bryant and A.J. Lawson. Couisnard and Bryant have entered their names into the NBA Draft and will go through the process but could still return as Lawson did the last two seasons. Lawson has not announced his current plans for the 2021-22 season.

The Gamecocks have four incoming high school prospects in Devin Carter, Jacobi Wright, Carlous Williams and TaQuan Woodley.