Frank Martin addresses UNLV rumor

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It’s been a busy offseason for Frank Martin since the Gamecocks got eliminated from the SEC Tournament with the head coach’s name surfacing for a few head coaching jobs now that the season’s over, especially the UNLV opening.

Martin put some of those rumors to bed Tuesday in his postseason press conference saying there haven’t been any conversations between him and the Rebels.

“I can tell you UNLV has not spoken to me, UNLV has not spoken to my agent, there hasn’t been third-party conversations. I saw that report and I have a wife and kids. When you get home from work and your wife’s like, ‘We need to talk.’ And I’m like what the heck can happen? We just got beat by Auburn, I’m miserable what could happen? And she said I was talking to UNLV. I’m like, ‘stop, please. How would I do something without including you in the conversation?’ I don’t know where it came from. I really don’t.”

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UNLV fired head coach Marvin Menzies after three seasons where he led the Runnin’ Rebels to a 48-48 record, including a 17-14 mark this season.

Former Gamecock head coach Eddie Folger is part of the search firm UNLV hired to handle the coaching search and Martin’s name quickly popped up after that.

Adam Hill, UNLV reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal, tweeted on March 17 that Martin “has been contacted about the opening” but talks stalled when the two sides realized financial agreements “don’t appear to make sense for him at this time.”

Martin said even though that report is out, he hadn’t had any talks with UNLV.

“I have not talked to the school, my agent has not spoken with the school. Find out who the search firm is,” he said. “If I was going to talk to somebody, I think the person helping them I would have spoken with them. It’s flattering anyone your name gets involved. That means people actually respect what you do. My intention, my goal is to keep building the program here.”

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Martin said he’s always been a name to come up when UNLV hires a new coach and was contacted while at Kansas State for the opening when he was in Houston to watch the Final Four.

He built a relationship during his time as an assistant under Bob Huggins with former Rebels head coach Jerry Tarkanian and said that relationship with Huggins and Tarkanian both is one of the reasons his name always surfaces when the UNLV job comes open.

“Because of that conversation in a hotel lobby in Houston whatever year that was, I’ve always been linked to that job,” Martin said. “My friendship, my relationship with Jerry Tarkanian and the people around him, his assistant coaches I’ve always been fond of that group of people. I think it’s a great job.”

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Martin is finishing his seventh year in Columbia and is two years removed from taking the Gamecocks to the program’s first-ever Final Four in 2017.

Since then the Gamecocks are 33-32 in the regular season with a .500 SEC record over two years. They went 16-16 this year but finished top four in the conference with an 11-7 record.

This year they battled injury but are returning a core group of underclassmen in AJ Lawson, Keyshawn Bryant and Alanzo Frink that played significant minutes this year while getting Justin Minaya back from injury next season.