South Carolina's board of trustees officially approved a contract extension for Frank Martin Friday, adding two more years onto the deal but restructuring the buyout for both parties.
After the official approval, Ray Tanner met with the media to discuss the extension, his conversations with Martin and the factors that led to the extension.
How much did Senator (Darrell) Jackson's comments to Bob Caslen a couple weeks ago impact the decision, if at all?
Tanner: “I wasn’t involved in that. I wasn’t at the hearing that day. I heard bits and pieces but it didn’t affect me in any way. The recommendation I made to president (Bob) Caslen, my line of communication and reporting line, I ultimately made the recommendation we extend coach Martin by two years.”
Did the amount Frank Martin’s buyout have any influence recommendation to give him this contract?
Tanner: “It did not. It’s fair to say it was a lengthy review according to what a lot of reviews are. It was lengthy. Ultimately it did not affect it. I looked into it. I had a number of meetings with coach Martin personally and arrived at the decision where I recommended a two-year extension.
Did president Caslen want you to make a change?
Tanner: “No. He never told me what to do. He deferred to me as the athletics director to do an assessment and report back to him, which I did.”
Why do you think it took this long to reach this decision following the end of the season?
Tanner: “I think this was an unusual year, as we all know. You have to go back and look at where we are as a program. This is an unusual year with COVID. We crowned a national champion in Baylor and there were a lot of teams that had really successful years and others that were impacted in a lot of ways. We had a head coach that went through a physical challenge himself. We had 27 days of missed practiced and a number of players who missed time.
It was challenging at a time where maybe some programs weren’t. We did take that into consideration. At the end of the day, it’s a year. You go back and look at what happened in the last five years as well. There are some positives under coach Martin’s tenure here. I think there were a couple of regular season top three finishes, a four and a six. There were some good things there. Did we make the NCAA Tournament? We didn’t. That’s a glaring thing that stands out. You take a look at that. Ultimately you want to be playing at the end of the year.”
Any conversations you’ve had with Frank recently, have they been about needing to make the tournament next year and a caveat for his future?
Tanner: “I have not had direct conversations to that type of language. Obviously we talk about it. I’ll tell you that since we’ve been here—we came in together within a few weeks and months of each other; Eric Hyman hired him and I came in after that—we’ve always had amicable conversations that were forthright and have been very honest with each other and have been able to work well together.”
If there wasn’t a move to make a change, why did so many politicians speak out in support of keeping Martin?
Tanner: “I can’t answer that questions. There are fans, donors, politicians. They all have opinions and things they want to say, and they’re entitled to do that. There’s a new sphere out there in the Twitter-verse and people make comments. That’s part of it.”
Did Frank ask for permission to talk to other schools about their head coaching spots?
Tanner: “He never did ask me that.”
Do you feel the length of this negotiation to get on the same page has potentially hurt the program in any way?
Tanner: “I don’t think it’s hurt it in any way at all. You’re probably trying to segue into a lot of transfers that have happened. They’ve happened throughout the country. The last count I saw was 1,200 in the portal or maybe it’s higher than that. Maybe every school in the Southeastern conference has been affected. I’m well aware of 10 that have been affected. It’s just a new way of life in college athletics. Not just basketball but other sports as well.”
How do you feel like your and Martin's relationship will be after these conversations?
Tanner: “I think it’ll be as strong as it’s ever have been. We’ve always been candid with each other. I’ve been in this seat before, not the basketball seat but the coaching seat. I understand what you go through. We don’t always agree on everything but I think we respect each other to agree to disagree.”
What about Frank Martin leads you to believe he’s the guy that will be able to get things back on track after this season?
Tanner: “He’s done it before. He’s had success in the past, and he’s had success here. When you look at the big picture, you go there are not a lot of NCAA tournament appearances on his resume. There was a Final Four, but there have been some really good years too. If you look at the win loss total and where we finished in the league you’d almost say he was in the postseason that year, but it didn’t happen. We all know why it potentially didn’t happen because there were some key non-conference losses that might have kept him out of the tournament.”
What do you view as the most important part of the contract extension from a university standpoint?
Tanner: “I don’t look at it as protecting ourselves or anything other than this is a statement about our program and commitment to basketball from this university. Coach Martin is our head coach. You’re talking about a buyout situation that is a very good buyout. You can look comparably at some other buyouts across the country and he remains with a very strong buyout.”
