NCAA tournament 2017: Frank Martin has earned the trust of his team, and it shows on defense

Frank Martin is known for his intensity. Over the years, his sideline persona has become the butt of jokes from fans, bloggers, and pretty much anyone who doesn’t have to deal with him directly.

For his team, Martin’s glare, his yelling, and his fire are something else. Not something to fear, but something to channel into a style of play. That’s what the South Carolina Gamecocks have done, particularly on defense, and it’s a big reason why they are now one win from the Final Four.

There are no special tricks to South Carolina’s defense, but the Gamecocks do it better and smarter than just about anybody. They are locked in for 30 seconds, then they crash the glass, and since the NCAA tournament began, there have hardly been any lapses.

That’s what Martin has been perfecting all season.

At the East Regional’s open practices on Thursday, Martin revealed to the media what he’s been telling his team since November: “Listen to me.”

He doesn’t mean to come across as arrogant. His goal, instead, is to get the entire team to buy into the same philosophy — one that he knows works and one that he has built his team around.

After a pair of electric wins last week in Greenville to open the NCAA tournament — a 93-73 win over Marquette that South Carolina broke open in the final minutes and an 88-81 stunner over Duke — the Gamecocks reached Madison Square Garden, where the third-seeded Baylor Bears awaited.

What came next was a defensive clinic. The numbers spoke for themselves: Baylor shot 30 percent overall and 23 percent from three. That averaged out to 0.76 points per possession and a turnover 24 percent of the time. The result was a 70-50 win that was never really in doubt.

It was exactly how any coach would draw it up.

South Carolina pressured the ball, with the other four players staying active in the passing lanes. Every time the ball got inside to leading scorer Johnathan Motley, black jerseys swarmed. Whenever the ball moved across the court, the Gamecocks moved with it. It was like watching a team demonstrate the shell drill in practice.

Sometimes that meant it got messy — deflections led to loose balls, which led to at least one South Carolina player on the floor to pick up the pieces. More often than not, the result was a Gamecock possession.

“I think we were in their heads the whole game,” senior star Sindarius Thornwell said. “We pride ourselves on our defense. We know that’s our bread and butter and we know we have a good defense and we go out and guard.”

In the first half, while South Carolina turned a 15-15 game into a 37-22 halftime lead, Baylor got no easy looks. Ishmail Wainright compared South Carolina’s defense to West Virginia’s famous “Press Virginia” look. The difference, however, was that the Gamecocks didn’t force turnovers before the Bears could even bring the ball up the court. Instead, they wore Baylor down. They forced the Bears to use 30 seconds to take what was ultimately a low-percentage shot. Then they rebounded.

This has become South Carolina’s calling card. The Gamecocks rank second in the nation in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, and routinely hold opponents in the 50s and 60s. They’re not the most talented team in the country, so the Gamecocks need to make up for that where they can.

“We can’t control if the shot goes in. We can’t control the referee making calls,” senior Duane Notice said. “But what we can control is our hustle, heart, and effort and control how hard and intense we are on defense. So throughout the year we pride ourselves on our defensive schemes and we want to implement them every chance we get.”

Looking back, Martin knew early on that this was possible, even if it didn’t click until March. It was a 61-46 grind-it-out win over Michigan on Nov. 23 that set the tone.

“I left that game, I said, this team has a chance to be the best defensive team I’ve coached,” Martin said. “That was my thought process when I got home and broke that film down.”

Now it’s easy to forget that South Carolina limped into the NCAA tournament, losing five out of its last seven games, including an 11-point loss to Alabama in the first round of the SEC tournament.

The committee did the Gamecocks no favors either, matching them up with a Marquette team that already owned wins over a host of tournament teams, with Duke to follow should they escape.

Yet even against Duke, where the Gamecocks surrendered 81 points, it was their defense down the stretch that flustered a Blue Devils team that at times this season appeared unstoppable. Duke committed 18 turnovers, including five each from Jayson Tatum and Frank Jackson.

South Carolina is an experienced team, led by seniors Thornwell and Notice. They were on that 14-20 team in 2014 that won just five SEC games, then the 17-16 team the next year that was stymied by injuries.

“We were always winners in high school,” Thornwell said. “And just coming in and we all had our thoughts where like, man, is it really worth it? We didn’t see it happening at that point.”

It didn’t happen the next year either, despite winning 25 games. A year later, and they are on the verge of going where no Gamecock has gone before.

Down the line on Friday, Baylor credited South Carolina for how it executed. Bears coach Scott Drew along with Wainright and Motley all called out Martin by name and noted how his team followed what he drew up.

“It’s beautiful to us, which is what matters,” Martin said, noting that some might not find South Carolina’s style to be the most entertaining. “I’m sure there’s people who don’t like it. That’s their prerogative.”

So now, somehow, South Carolina is a win away from the Final Four. The Gamecocks will face Florida Sunday afternoon at 2:20 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden with a trip to Phoenix on the line.

The goal going into the game is simple: Keep listening to coach.