Even though there hasn't been recruiting to travel to this offseason, he's stayed pretty busy.

After the season abruptly ended in mid-March, Martin's contracted and gotten over COVID-19, had a knee replacement, hired a new assistant coach, been named the chair of the National Association of Basketball Coaches committee on race reconciliation all while maintaining his duties as head coach.

Now, he and the rest of the Gamecocks' staff are ready to welcome back players before the start of workouts next week.

Before that, though, Martin spoke with GamecockCentral and answered a few questions about starting back up with his players.

GC: How has NABC Committee on Racial Reconciliation gone so far now that you're a month into it?

“It’s been tremendous. It’s really time consuming. The humble approach you get from all the coaches coming from different backgrounds and willingness from all of us who are a part of it now to give up our time and educate each other so we can turn around and educate as best we can our locker rooms, then our campuses and then our communities.

Also see: Breaking down a few in-state hoops targets

We’re leaders in our communities. Some people like that, some people don’t. That’s OK. But we have to utilize our platform on our campuses and our communities to continue growth, man. Not to blame and sit around and figure out who’s at fault for everything.

It’s a matter of understanding things better. When Steve Forbes, who just got hired at Wake Forest, and gets on a call with our committee and says, ‘I have a college degree in American history and a lot of the stuff I learned the last two months is something I was never taught about.’ That’s powerful.

This is a guy, that’s what he studied, and he’s sitting there saying, ‘Whatever my degree educated me on was not reality so let me sit here and get better educated about this.’ Those are powerful moments. As a coach, as a peer, you have to respect that humbleness and be willing to express things so he can understand and he can become better and I can become better. That’s what I’m experiencing with this committee."

GC: Your team is due back this week, how excited are you to get guys back on campus?

“The time on the court to me is secondary right now. it’s just about for all of us to get to a place of normalcy again. In our lives, man, we’re around each other so much and then all of a sudden, for four months we’re away from each other again. It’s like reuniting with family.

Also see: Insider notes from the hoops and baseball programs

You get pulled away from your family and you talk to them on the phone and with Zoom you get to see each other, but you’re not living with each other anymore. It’s going to be real healing for all of us to get around each other. We’ll worry about the courts and workouts as we start getting into the end of the month and into August and eventually September. Right now it’s a matter of healing and being happy we’re around each other again.”

GC: How are you approaching workouts with the status of a lot of sports up in the air this year?

“We’re not sitting around worrying about whether we’re playing or not. We’re just worried about creating this invisible bubble. I can only speak for our campus, but there’s people that put in so much time and effort to create this invisible bubble and create this safety net around all our athletes on our campus.

To get our guys inside that bubble right now it creates safety. When they’re not inside that bubble and there’s no responsibility, when I was 20 years old if you didn’t give me structure I wouldn’t be paying attention to this stuff. I would be running around to bars and beaches and probably be getting sick.

Also see: Latest scoop on football targets making decisions

This is more about creating an avenue of safety for our guys to live within structure in the place they’ve all been living in, which is a college campus and the structure of their daily lives. That’s where the normalcy comes from: getting back to structure. As human beings, all of us want to succeed look for structure. We don’t look for do whatever we want to do, we look for structure. Structure is what allows us to live. Hopefully that puts our guys back in that kind of place.”

GC: How's Will Bailey adjusting to things right now and what are you expecting from him now he can work on-court with players?

“He’s been great. He just moved into his apartment Sunday. That’s one thing behind him. he’s been great. We’ve had some Zoom calls as a staff…Will and I are spending time with each other. Players get here Sunday.

His biggest ally is his ability to help players get better and build relationships. That’s one of his biggest strengths. That’s why he’s such a great fit on our staff. That’s why I’m so excited for him to start and he’s excited to start building a relationship with guys in our gym and locker room.”