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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2017

Frank Martin

Phoenix, Arizona

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by South Carolina head coach Frank Martin.

COACH MARTIN: Unbelievable the last four days or so. Just incredible. I've tried real hard to keep our players in the right place get them focused in on everything that matters. But every time I got five, ten minutes to myself, I just think back at everyone that's so much better at this than I am, how many coaches have helped me in my career, how many guys I've sat and listened to and respect the heck out of that never had an opportunity to lead a team to the Final Four.

And so I'm extremely grateful, excited. And I'm trying real hard to keep our players' focus where it belongs, which is the opponent and us playing to the best of our capabilities.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Sindarius didn't practice today. He's not feeling well, what's his status going forward?
COACH MARTIN: I've got a bug myself. Luckily I don't have to play. He had a little body temperature last night when we landed. And he was a little better this morning. But I kind of told our trainer, just feed him fluids, do what doctors do and let him rest rather than stress him right now. He's our most intelligent player. And I don't mean to say that demeaning the other guys. He understands basketball at a high, high level, he doesn't need to be on the practice court to understand what we're doing.

Q. Can you explain your relationship and friendship with Chris Corchiani that ended up landing Tommy on your squad?
COACH MARTIN: His dad, may he rest in peace, was just an unbelievable high school coach, and he and my high school coach were very good friends. And they coached AAU ball together. And Gabe his older brother, he was a junior when I was a senior in high school, if I remember correctly. And we all knew one another.

And I tell Chris all the time, we were playing open gym in 1984, and I was actually -- it was the time in my career where I had a chance to make the junior college team, and been playing the best ball I ever played. I went to block one of his shots, and he kind of stuck his caboose on me as I landed and tore my ACL.

And so I tell him all the time, not only did he end my aspirations to play, but I'm also thankful because that started my coaching career. And Chris and I, over the years, our teams had incredible games against each other, just unbelievable games. What a competitor he was. And when he called me, he said that Tommy had applied at South Carolina. I said, okay. So what do we need to do? And he said, well, he told me that's where he's going. And he wants to have a chance.

And I said you got it. And Chris is phenomenal. Chris is a great human being, and I can't say enough about his dad. Gabe Corchiani, Sr. was just -- I remember being a young high school coach and a lot of people would get frustrated because Gabe loved his sons so much. I never understood that one, because as a father I'm going to promote and love my children as much as anyone out there. And I always respected him for that.

Q. You mentioned about trying to keep the guys' focus where it is. This whole run they've been not paying attention to the pressure. How hard is it to keep their mind on the game and not all the pageantry that's going on?
COACH MARTIN: You know, we don't -- I'm not one of those guys that believes in pressure when you're playing the game. I don't. I said this a long time ago. I'll say it again. You know what pressure is? 35 students, 27 desks, 18 textbooks, 180 days. You've got to educate every single kid in that classroom for 180 days. That's pressure.

I don't know. Maybe I'm too dumb to understand what pressure is in sports. I get it. We're playing a real good team. We're playing on the biggest stage of them all. I understand all that. But we've got to worry about ourselves. And we've got to worry about keeping our ears to the right voices. We have to focus on all of us doing our jobs.

I told our guys, after we practiced on the stadium -- I won't say a stadium court, I don't know what you call that. It's unbelievable. It's a monster out there. I'm just glad I had a stool. I was afraid I was going to fall off the court there. But I told our guys, I said, listen, man, never once have we ever spoken about, well, this opponent is this or that guy's really good. We speak about what we have to do to win. That's what we talk about every single day.

And I said don't be the guy that doesn't do their job to prevent us from having an opportunity of staying here until Monday night. Focus in on doing your job. And at the end of the day our job is not good enough, nothing to be ashamed of. But we're not playing the arena. We're not playing the tournament. We're not playing the Final Four. We're playing Gonzaga. So we have to focus in on doing what we have to do to figure out a way to win that game.

Q. The other three teams here are similar to yours in that there's a lot of upperclassmen, a lot of experience. What do you think it says about the tournament and college basketball that these teams have made it to this point?
COACH MARTIN: I think it's like that every year. I really do. Everyone falls in love with the one-and-done phenomenon. I get it. I coach them too. I'm lucky that I started my career with two of them. It's part of what we do. But there's a big difference between 18-year-olds and 22-year-olds.

I know there was with me. I know as a high school teacher when they left my classroom at 18 and they came back two years later to say hello they're a completely different human being. I know as a college coach, the conversations I have with my seniors are completely different than the conversations I had with the same guy when they were freshmen. There's a maturity factor.

There's -- the older we get, the less we give in to the emotion of a moment and the more we stay focused in on what matters, which is the moment that we're in, so we can act the right way and perform and think the right way. And I think that's why the older teams usually figure out a way to make it to this stage, in this moment.

I don't have a lot of experienced guys on my team. That's why the leadership of our team, I've praised it the way I have, because those guys have been just as good as I've ever had. Their willingness to help so many freshmen and first-year players has been incredible.

Q. You have said that at heart you're still a high school math teacher. How, what do you mean by that?
COACH MARTIN: I'm an educator. My job is not to pay attention to the scoreboard. My job is to help the young people that are put in front of me, so I can help them become better human beings in life, to help them understand. I'll give you a quick example. We lost, at K-State, to Missouri. And I think I said this yesterday or the day before, just stuff that I reminisce about. And we're both top 10 in the country.

And we're national TV game I walk in and there's a room like this, and there's a whole lot more people there than right now. And the first question out of a gentleman's name was now that you've lost, do you think that you can get your team's attention. And I kind of felt like saying: You can't be this you know what. That's what I felt like saying. (Laughter).

Both teams are top 10 in the country and it's a one-possession game that's won in the last ten seconds of the game, it's not because the team's not listening to their coach. But the good Lord dropped a thought in my head, and I said if I were to follow your logic, then I would only teach my students on the days they failed a test. And it kind of defused me. That way it took the nonsense of losing the game out of it and it made it real for me. And we went out of the press conference, which obviously didn't last much longer because no one knew what to ask me after that one.

Q. This is a scenario you probably haven't put a lot of thought to, but if you win two games tradition dictates the winning team would go visit the White House. I'm curious how you would balance any political leanings versus the tradition and honor of that?
COACH MARTIN: Can you be a little clearer with your question? Like what do you mean by that?

Q. Would you have any hesitation to visit the White House with your team -- half of your team is immigrants?
COACH MARTIN: No, we live in the United States of America. I'm not visiting an individual's home. This is the way I look at it, it's the way I express it to our team: We're visiting the top building that represents the great country that's given every single one of us an opportunity. That's the way I would look at it.

Q. You talked about what Sindarius brings to the basketball court, but what does he bring to the locker room from an energy standpoint, leadership standpoint?
COACH MARTIN: It starts with courage. He makes all those guys understand that we're good enough. And when your best player accepts coaching like he does, it allows you to coach everyone on your team.

And then he gives. He doesn't take. Like he never comes out of practice. Never. I don't care what drill we're doing. I don't care how many times he's done it in his career, he will not come out. He'll only come out of practice if I grab him and say, Sin, get out. He won't come out.

That's how young players learn -- being around someone that never comes out, that understands film work. He grabs young guys and he shows them film. And he teaches them how to see film and how to understand film. When you give, you get a lot in return. And that's all he does is he gives. He gives courage. He gives instruction. He gives of himself.

Then he goes out on the stage and here's the other thing he does, which this is, everyone likes to have fun with me and my personality and all that -- here's the other thing that happens. When we're in a game and we're in a huddle and I'm upset at a younger player because they didn't run the play that was called, so then Sindarius couldn't get the space so he can get a shot in a crucial moment, he will defuse the huddle because he will grab me and say forget it. Tell me what you need me to do to help the young guy.

So then I go away from a mistake and focus in on a guy that's trying to help everybody so I can help him help the young guys. He's a stud.

Q. Frank, how did you meet Rudy Keeling for the first time? What did he mean for your career and what kind of things are you doing today that you took from him?
COACH MARTIN: Yeah, I met Coach Keeling, he had an assistant from Miami named Charlton Young. Charlton is now at Florida State. And they were recruiting our point guard, a young man that ended up going to play for my assistant, Perry Clark, at the University of Miami and ended up his career transferring to us at Northeastern.

But I met Coach through Charlton as they were recruiting Marcus. Marcus told me that he had no interest in going to Northeastern at the time, so I relayed that to Coach. And we developed a little bit of a friendship there because of honesty. A lot of guys would, like, run the other way. Well, this guy doesn't want to help me with a player so he's a bum. But he respected the fact that I was honest with him so he didn't waste his time.

And then Charlton left. I believe Charlton took a job at Auburn in August. And Charlton told Coach Keeling, he said, Rudy, if you speak with Frank, I think he is ready to take a job at college. And he called me and we had a conversation. And he said, you know, Frank, I'm going to think about this a little bit, but I'm pretty sure that I need someone like you on my staff.

I ended up buying myself a plane ticket, flew up to Boston. I knew he had a camp going on. And I just showed up and I wasn't going to let him change his mind. And he offered me a job, hired me. And he did something extremely powerful, because he told me, he was honest with me. He said, Frank we've got to win 15 games if not we're getting fired. And we won 14. And we got fired.

And the AD asked, the athletic director said to me -- because it's not like you get fired, you're an assistant making 28 grand, it's not like they fire you and they say, hey, we're going to keep you on staff and make sure you can pay your bills. They said we're sorry about this. Here's two weeks' pay, have a good life.

And the athletic director said, I'm going to do everything I can to convince whoever I hire to keep you. But in the meantime I don't have a job for you. So that's a great feeling, especially in a city like Boston, it's so cheap to live there (laughter). And on 28 grand, it's a whole lot of fun to pay your bills when they gave you a two-week severance pay.

And I went in to see Coach and he said to me, he said, Frank, you don't make any money. If the only job that you can get is this one, it's okay. I'd rather you go work somewhere else because I'm not happy with this right now. But I also want you to understand that if you get hired here, it's not like you're burning a bridge with me. I get it.

And six weeks later that's the only job I could land was to go back, Ron Everhart, offered me a job six weeks later. And Coach Keeling remained a dear friend forever and ever until the day he passed.

Q. You said you've leaned on Bob Huggins and Billy Donovan to help prepare you for your first Final Four. What was their advice to you?
COACH MARTIN: We didn't talk basketball. We talked about all the stuff that kind of prevents you from focusing in on basketball, and how they managed it and the mistakes they made in their first time through and how they tried to adjust it every single time that they both have been fortunate to be a part of it.

And so I've tried my best. I can't do it the way Hugs does it. I can't do it the way Billy D did it. I've gotta do things the way my mind and my personality and based on the way our team is, the way I've got to manage it for this team. But that's what happens when you have conversations with people you trust, is that it stimulates your mind. It makes you think. It makes you create the ideas.

I think the biggest mistake people make is that they try to do things how it works for someone else. Then players read right through your stuff. So I had to -- I had to take all their suggestions, which the funny part is the biggest distraction for both, and neither one knew that they had said this to me, was dealing with the tickets. That was the biggest distraction.

Keep people away from your players -- family members, everybody, because of tickets. Deal with it early in the week. Put a deadline, and once the deadline's over it's over. You've got to move away from it. And I thought that was great advice, because that is, for kids, that is the biggest distraction.

And then we've talked a lot. I tell kids all the time, the hardest thing in life is saying no to people you love. Hardest thing. People you care for, say no. It's hard to do as a grown man. It's impossible to do as a teenager. But you gotta do that sometimes. And when I say no, I'm not talking about tickets, I'm talking about like the attention, like, hey, man I want you to come here. Hey, I need you to come over and take pictures with these people.

No, I'm not going to Phoenix to vacation. This is not a family get-away. This is South Carolina going to play basketball, with an opportunity to do something special. Can't do it. And I tell kids, this is what I tell kids all the time, if you don't want to be the bad guy, there's a lot of people that think I'm a bad guy, just add to the list. I'll be more than happy to be the bad guy.

Q. About four years ago Chris Silva kicked off and left his life, came to America with a dream of playing in the NBA and playing at this level. First part, can you imagine what that must be like to kind of, to leave everything behind at that age? And also what's been your favorite thing about him since you've been with him?
COACH MARTIN: Yeah, you look at my track record. I've coached a lot of foreign kids. And I understand their journey. That's what my family went through. I respect the journey that they're on. I respect the fact that they come here to figure out a way to make a better life so they can do better to help their families. And they go through difficult moments.

I'll tell you what the hardest time of the year for those kids are, right after Christmas, because most of them don't get to go home to see family. And, yeah, they go to someone else's, a teammates' house or girlfriend's house, whatever it may be, that's someone else's family. And we reconvene after Christmas and a lot of those foreign guys, guys from other countries, struggle in those couple of weeks right after Christmas break. They really do. Because that's when they feel lonely.

But that's how we run our program. We invest -- my wife, our staff, their wives, our children, you know, my kids are around our players all the time. All the time. And it's just to make them feel welcome, allow them to understand that this is a lot deeper than basketball. And I couldn't be prouder of Chris. Chris has been -- and I said this last, after the Duke game, I believe. I've been harder on him than anyone on our team, because we need him to be real good for our team to be as good as it can be.

And he's not at a place yet from a basketball knowledge to do some of the things that he's eventually going to do. But he doesn't run away from it. He loves it. And I was real hard on him at practice in the middle of the year and I could tell that I beat him up a little bit too much. And the next day I called him in said, Chris. He said, Coach, that's why I came here, because I want you to help me be great. I felt better. I said, but still I don't need to beat you up that way. He said, don't worry about it. We're okay. And he's phenomenal. He's absolutely great to be around.

Q. How well did the guys adapt to shooting at baskets located in the middle of a football stadium today?
COACH MARTIN: The wall seems a whole lot further than it does at our gym, I'll tell you that. It was interesting, seeing the guys out there today shooting balls, listening to them. God, it looks different. But we'll have an opportunity to shoot some balls in here again tomorrow. And I don't know. I never got the opportunity to shoot in a place like this, so I wouldn't know any different. Heck, the way I shot, I was setting screens and taking charges, I wasn't worried about shooting the ball.

But it will be fine. Kids are players, man. We go out to a park right now and play on 8-foot rims the first couple of seconds it takes a while and eventually everyone adapts and shoots the ball in the basket.

I know this, Gonzaga and us, neither one of us has an advantage with that one. We're both going through it for the first time. So hopefully if it affects us, hopefully it affects them, too.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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