Well that would be one way to impress your boss during the annual review.
"Thank you for your service......"
Strikes me as this kind of crap is par for the course for us as a program
Only problem with these numbers is that it is not 10 seasons, but 9 as there was no tournament two years ago so in 9 years they have 5 non losing seasons in conference and 4 losing records in that time span. The interesting question is that Frank Martin is a national brand and with what he took over, how would our firing him be played out across the national media. right now with the record of this team versus when he came here and Tenn. State was beating us by double digits at home. I suspect, we will be portrayed as delusional fanbase thus hurting our chance of hiring any decent coach and thus having us pick some reach that will be ridiculed by the same national media. We will also most definitely lose some of our best assets, in Freshmen Carter, and Woodley as coaches, most likely in our league will try and successfully poach them through the transfer portal. Also, GG Jackson, if their was any possibility of getting him, would be off the table. So we are faced with either giving Frank his last year, or firing him and most likely definitely looking at a new 4 year drought with no chance of post season.
Frank Martin in not a national brand.
We're so irrelevant in basketball that I'd be surprised if it even got a mention on ESPN. I can imagine a very brief, informational write-up on their site, but I doubt they'd cover it on television.
As with football (Napier, etc..), we will see that this will not play out well for the new coaching search. More people support Frank Martin as a coach than they recognize SC as a good basketball job. Some, other than us fans, think Martin has worked miracles in our league to be above the lower third. If and when he is out, he will be on TV amongst some of these basketball talking heads that control the narrative, as he has been each year we have missed the tourney. I would love to be wrong, but from discussions I have witnessed among high school, AAU and some college coaches, no one will be breaking down the door to get this job unless it is a relative risk at someone younger. We are not getting an experienced winner so if that is the direction we want to take regardless of the loss of our more talented younger players and potential recruits, then so be it.
In summary:
Here's a little perspective on SC basketball and the NCAA tournament.
Lets see how tonight plays out. Win 2 in the SECT and that might change. Next year hinges on what GG does, the returning players and the portal.
But is that the standard we want? WBB was terrible for much of the ten seasons before Dawn Staley arrived. Same with Tanner for baseball and they both won championships. If our only goal is to be better than terrible then we have only mediocrity to look forward to. I know you were saying it tongue in cheek but many point to that as justification not to aspire to greatness.
For right now I think a lot of people would settle for being good enough to make the tourney on a consistent basis.
