Frank Martin Bashes Own Team!

Frank Martin is the head coach for the University of South Carolina's men's basketball team. This is his first season at the helm for the Gamecocks who own a 12-12 record. Martin, well-known for displaying his emotions on the sideline during games as well as during post-game interviews, was "embarrassed" after what has transpired over the past month involving the play of his basketball team. The Gamecocks have lost five games in a row, and seven of their last eight.


In the clip above, Martin completely bashes his own team after an ugly 64-46 loss to LSU. I mean, he completely tears his team to pieces...shreds it!


Some  notable quotes:
1) "I've never been more embarrassed to call myself a basketball coach."

2) "If you take Bruce Ellington off our team, you'd probably have the 12 leading candidates for the Return of the Living Dead."

3) "The desire to play is not there. I've always taken pride to get guys to do what I ask them to do. And right now that's not happening. And they didn't bring me here to create a bigger problem. They brought me here to fix a problem. And I'm not doing a very good job of that right now."

4) "If this was the NBA we'd fine them, we'd take their money, we'd release them, and say 'Good luck ever finding another job.' It's not the NBA. We're an education, so somehow, someway we have to reach them. But it's embarrassing."

5) "We lead the country in air-ball layups. Guys can't make layups it's hard to win."

6) "If I had Jacob Pullen, Rodney McGruder, Denis Clemente, Brent Wright, Sylbrin Robinson, Udonis Haslem, Steve Blake, Jose Baseu, Gimel Martinez, Allen Edwards, Steve Edwards, Doug Edwards, I don't know, any of those guys...if I had any of them on my team, then I'd have a guy I could trust on my team."


In the final quote, Martin rattles off several of his former players who gave energy, passion and fire on a consistent basis during games. The only thing I'm wondering now is after a press conference of this magnitude where your coach rips the team apart, how do the players respond? Positive? Negative? How would you respond if you were a player on South Carolina??

-David Otero

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