Kentucky enjoyed its win at Alabama but South Carolina coach Frank Martin says Tuesday's game is nothing special for his team. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Coming off a 24-point loss at Tennessee, it would seem like beating visiting Kentucky Tuesday night could be a chance for South Carolina to salvage its season. Kentucky has had some strange losses at South Carolina under John Calipari — remember 2014 when Calipari got ejected and a month later UK was headed to the Final Four.
Yet South Carolina coach Frank Martin insists this is just another game on the schedule — win or lose. Maybe Martin was just feeling testy after getting routed by the Vols. Then again, he’s always kind of surly but also brutally honest.
“So after the Kentucky game, we canceling the last seven games of the season? I’m asking you. You’re asking me a question, so I’m asking you. They canceling the last, what is it six? Seven? How many we got left after Kentucky? I don’t even know. So the last seven games, they don’t count?” Martin said when asked about the importance of the UK game.
“What if we win six of the last seven. So we beat Kentucky on Tuesday, we gonna have a parade cause we beat Kentucky? And the last seven teams are going to say, ‘Oh, they beat Kentucky. Let’s line up and not play’?
“This league is really, really hard. There’s not a team in this league that you just show up and have an okay game and win.”
Still, this game figures to be a hard game for South Carolina to win. The Gamecocks are 13-9 overall but just 4-6 in SEC play. Kentucky has won at Texas A&M and Alabama in its last two road SEC games and also threw in that road beatdown of Kansas.
Martin has been at South Carolina 10 seasons and only one team has been to the NCAA Tournament. That came in 2017 when the Gamecocks went all the way to the Final Four for the only time in program history.
“We do not ride the emotional wave of wins and losses like this game’s bigger than that one or that loss is bigger than that one,” Martin said. “Every loss stinks. There’s not a loss that you go home and feel good about.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got 18 conference games to play. You’ve got to go win the next one. That’s it. And when you win that one, you prepare to win the next one. At the end of the day, let the chips fall where they may.”
One Response
What else is a guy like Frank Martin going to say?
However, watch what he does tonight to answer this question, and I fully expect a packed arena, some special pregame ceremony, the USC players jumping higher than ever before, and shooting the ball like champions when the game starts.
SEC teams throw so much energy and emotion at Kentucky that over the years, these SEC teams lose a disproportionate number of their games that follow their superbowl.
What has Frank Martin’s record been in the 1 to 2 games following each Kentucky game during his stint at USC? That is a little piece of research that could provide the basis for an interesting follow up question for a coach.