USC fans can thank Eddie Fogler for Frank Martin

Frank Martin stands at 96 wins during his five-year stay at South Carolina, notching the school’s winningest single season this year and leading the Gamecocks to their first Final Four. He is fifth on the all-time wins chart, 27 behind fourth-place Eddie Fogler.

Fogler probably won’t mind Martin passing him someday, perhaps as soon as next year. He’s the guy who helped get Martin here.

“I’ve grown to have unbelievable trust in him. I respected him from afar,” Martin said. “He was pretty much the person that convinced me that this was the right place.”

Fogler, who stayed in Columbia after resigning from USC following the 2000-01 season, politely declined to comment for this story, other than crediting former athletics director Eric Hyman for hiring Martin.

It was a group effort. Fogler and Martin had a history at Kansas State, and the relationship paid off when Martin felt he needed a new school.

“Coach Fogler had a lot to do with me getting the head job at Kansas State, him and Tim Weiser, who I saw in New York and is a dear friend and was the AD that hired me at K-State. We’re very close,” Martin said. “So Eddie had something to do with me getting hired there.”

Martin was an assistant under Bob Huggins at Kansas State in 2006-07, following him from Cincinnati. After that season, Huggins’ alma mater, West Virginia, called.

Martin previously said he was in the car, driving to the airport to go to Morgantown, W. Va., with Huggins when Huggins called and told him to go back. Kansas State was going to promote him to head coach and he had to take it.

Martin U-turned, went back to Manhattan and the Wildcats had five 20-win seasons under his watch, including a 29-8 year that finished eight points short of the Final Four in 2009-10.

After one more year at K-State, Martin said he needed a fresh start. USC was coming off a 10-21 season, Darrin Horn’s tenure ending with a whimper after an SEC East championship three years earlier.

There was a lot to like and a lot not to like. The Gamecocks were long past their glory days. They played in a cavernous arena that was great when it was full but mostly dreary as attendance mimicked the losses. The SEC was, as it continues to do, fighting a reputation as a football league that featured Kentucky basketball.

Yet Fogler sold Martin on what could happen. It spoke volumes to Martin that Fogler remained in Columbia after he left USC.

“At the end of the day, Eddie coached here,” Martin said. “He understood the dynamics, the good and the bad here, and he shared those with me.”

Martin estimated he moved 15-16 times as a child and it wasn’t enjoyable. He likes to get in one place and put roots down. It was a leap of faith to leave one great position for a program where there surely wasn’t Michael Beasley waiting for him, but the more he talked with Fogler, the more he knew it was the right choice.

“I like going places and digging my feet in the sand and buckling in and calling it home. I enjoy that,” Martin said. “Knowing that’s what he did here, that was very, very powerful for me, professionally.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 1:55 AM with the headline "USC fans can thank Eddie Fogler for Frank Martin."