Frank Martin has been a one-year wonder at South Carolina

For as unexpected and amazing as the 2017 Final Four run was for South Carolina fans, Frank Martin’s tenure in Columbia has been otherwise unremarkable.

South Carolina finished third in the SEC in back-to-back seasons with Carolina legend Sindarius Thornwell leading the charge in 2016 and 2017. Those are also the only two years they have been ranked in the AP Poll under Martin. And 2017 is the only tournament appearance since his arrival in 2013.

Remove those ’16 and ’17 seasons and Martin is 115-123 with one top-five SEC finish and four 11th or lower. Even including those two special seasons, Martin is significantly below .500 over his career in league play at 74-96. Until recently, he was losing all those games in a bad Southeastern Conference.

So, thank the heavens for Sindarius Thornwell and PJ Dozier. They slayed Duke in the second round and overcame conference rival Florida to earn the Gamecocks’ only Final Four appearance in school history. Quite literally, the best South Carolina basketball season ever! Sure, I guess that should earn Frank Martin immunity for life in the Palmetto State.

If we’re analyzing his coaching run in Columbia objectively, he’s mostly a failure. Not that South Carolina was achieving anything better before he arrived, though.

Compare him to Mark Stoops at Kentucky. A program of comparable success to South Carolina Basketball prior to his arrival. Say 2018 Kentucky pulled off wins over Texas A&M and Tennessee and snuck into the College Football Playoff. That man’s statue would already be standing outside Kroger Field. But what if Kentucky never made a bowl game in any other season, got slaughtered annually in the SEC and lost to Louisville every year?

I’ll take the sustained success over a one-year wonder. I have a feeling his leash of goodwill is beginning to run short.