He’s the reason South Carolina beat Kentucky, and the reason the Gamecocks always have a chance.
He’s a difference-maker even though his face turns such an angry red in most games, you’d think his head would explode.
Frank Martin is as hard-nosed of a coach as there is in college basketball.
He is absolutely fearless, but why wouldn’t he be?
The son of Cuban exiles, Martin grew up in Miami and worked his way through college first as a bouncer, but he gave that up when gunfire rang out one night from some guy who had been tossed for fighting.
Not long after Martin decided to be a basketball coach, and because he wouldn’t get his degree until he was 27, he got into the AAU scene.
He was also an assistant coach for a junior varsity basketball team at Miami High that apparently didn’t require a degree but a lot of patience.
After getting his degree at Florida International, he became a high school coach until he jumped at the chance to be an assistant at Northeastern in Boston.
Martin, who really likes to make a difference in the lives of young people, stayed active with summer basketball. When Bob Huggins needed help at Cincinnati, he reached out to Martin.
Two years later, the duo headed to Kansas State with a great recruit in Michael Beasley.
Huggins and Beasley stayed a year before leaving for West Virginia and the NBA, respectively. To the surprise of the college basketball world, Martin was offered the head coaching job at Kansas State.
He stormed the summer circuits looking for players, and then the sidelines of the Big 12. After two seasons of 20-plus wins, he took the Wildcats to the Elite 8 in 2010, their deepest run since 1988.
He had two more winning seasons that ended in the NCAA Tournament before South Carolina opened up the bank to lure him in to take over its program in 2012.
There were two initial losing seasons before a blend of international and American players started to pay dividends.
In 2017, South Carolina as a No. 7 seed beat Marquette, knocked off No. 2 Duke, defeated No. 3 Baylor and upended No. 4 Florida to make it to the Final Four.
They were eliminated by Gonzaga, a No. 1 seed, 77-73.
The last two years have not been great, and this year the Gamecocks are 11-8 overall and 3-3 in SEC play, just like the University of Arkansas.
Of the eight losses, only Stetson has a losing record. Wichita State, Northern Iowa and Houston are a combined 43-12.
The South Carolina team that will take the floor tonight in Walton Arena has experience and is 4-2 on the road this season.
Like their coach, the Gamecocks are fearless. Like almost everyone the Razorbacks play, they are a rebounding machine.
Martin has one senior in his rotation, 6-11 Maik Kotsar, who seems like he should have tenure he’s been around for so long. The native of Estonia takes up a lot of space in the middle at 270 pounds, and he’s pulled down 118 of the team’s 714 rebounds.
He’s not the team rebounding leader. That would be 6-6 sophomore Justin Minaya with 120.
Mason Jones leads the Razorbacks with 110 rebounds, but the team has only 622 total. The Razorbacks can expect to be blocked out again, and forced to use their defense and quickness to compensate for the board play.
These teams mirror each other in many ways. Both have fearless coaches who can get deeply red-faced in a heartbeat, and a bunch of kids who will dive for loose balls, take charges and do anything it takes to win.
The game tips at 7:30 p.m. and should be a good one.