What makes Frank Martin scream? South Carolina players tell us

GLENDALE, Ariz. — South Carolina players don’t want to get into specifics, and it’s hard to blame them. If you spent your college years getting screamed at by Frank Martin, you probably wouldn’t want to walk down memory lane, either.

“We’ve got a lot of good stories,” junior forward Jarrell Holliman said of his head coach on Friday. “Not any I want to share.”

The face of the Gamecocks’ unlikely run to the Final Four is beat red with strained vocal cords and eyes that could stare holes through a brick wall. It belongs to Martin, the 51-year-old coach who has become the breakout star of the 2017 NCAA tournament.

Martin’s defining quality is his intensity, a trait that helped carry him from bouncer to high school coach to Bob Huggins’ protege to the biggest stage in the sport this March. The entire country has been able to witness Martin’s fire over the last three weeks, but his players have been learning to live with it since they arrived on campus.

So we asked them: What really makes Frank Martin upset?

Everything South Carolina does starts on the defensive end. The Gamecocks have risen to No. 2 in the country in defensive efficiency during this run by stifling Duke, shutting down Baylor, and stymying Florida.

It’s no wonder that most of Martin’s anguish comes from lapses on the defensive end.

“Just don’t mess up the defensive rotations,” junior forward Ran Tut said. “When you do mess up, yeah, Frank Martin do Frank Martin.”

South Carolina players described Martin’s screaming as an “everyday thing”. As Tut was talking about what gets Martin fired up, his teammates were excited to say he was just singled out a day earlier.

“I’m not gonna say what he said,” Tut said. “But you do feel some type of way when it happens.”

South Carolina has never been confused for an offensive powerhouse. The Gamecocks play at a methodical pace and largely rely on offensive rebounds to bolster their scoring. They also badly struggle to shoot the ball from the perimeter.

South Carolina is ranked No. 298 in the country in effective field goal percentage, per KenPom. Only two members of the regular rotation -- star Sindarius Thornwell and guard Rakym Felder -- shoot above 35 percent from three-point range.

It makes sense, then, that Martin isn’t yelling at his guys for misses.

“He doesn’t get on us about shots that much,” Holliman said. “It’s more about making sure we’re at where we need to be when we’re running plays.”

PJ Dozier could have played college basketball wherever he wanted. He was a five-star recruit in the class of 2015 and competed in the McDonald’s All-American Game alongside NBA players like Ben Simmons, Jaylen Brown, and Brandon Ingram.

North Carolina offered. Louisville and Georgetown and Michigan did, too. Still, Dozier, a Columbia, South Carolina native, chose to stay at home and play for the Gamecocks.

Why? Because he loves Frank Martin.

“I had tremendous faith in what he has done and what he can do,” Dozier said of his coach. “I saw it in the first couple years that he was at USC. I saw the progress, I saw the steps that they were taking year by year.”

Maik Kotsar is a freshman starter who showed up at South Carolina this year from Estonia. He said he hasn’t been fazed by the yelling because he believes it comes from a good spot.

“I think the reason (Martin) yells at people is because he believes in them,” Kostar said. “He knows the person he yells at can do better and since we can do better, he tries to make us the best we can be. He trusts and respects us and wants us to do better.”

Martin will be screaming at his players on Saturday against Gonzaga whether they’re winning or not. Just don’t think his players begrudge him for it. Tough love got South Carolina this far, and it’s not about to stop now.