Frank Martin Wants To Restore UMass To Its Prior Greatness, But Knows It Will Take Patience

Frank Martin knows what he wants, but also knows it will take a lot of patience to get there.

Martin, 56, took over as the head men’s basketball coach at UMass last March with the goal of restoring the once-proud program to its prior greatness.

UMass is where Julius Erving played from 1969-71 under coach Jack Leaman, when the program was regularly winning Yankee regular-season championships and qualifying for the NIT.

It’s where Marcus Camby played for John Calipari in the mid-1990s when the Minutemen made one Elite Eight and a Final Four that was later vacated.

“It’s happened before,” Martin said Thursday at Atlantic 10 media day at Barclays Center, referring to UMass’s historic achievements.

South Carolina fired Martin March 14 after 10 seasons, including a Final Four appearance in 2017. He landed at UMass because his wife, Anya, was a star hurdler on the UMass track team and because he believed in the vision of UMass president Martin Meehan and AD Ryan Bamford.

“Ryan Bamford and the administration convinced me that they want to make UMass that again — a national power,” said Martin, whose program was picked to finish eighth in the 15-team conference and features second-team Preseason All-A10 senior guard Noah Fernandes, who averaged 14.9 points and 5.3 assists.

“I’ve been chasing Kansas and Kentucky for the last 18 years,” he said referring to his time coaching South Carolina in the SEC and before that Kansas State in the Big 12.

“Those are the two schools I’ve been chasing. I didn’t want to take a job to just do whatever. I wanted to be somewhere where chasing those kinds of schools is part of the university mission and they convinced me of that and I can’t see why we can’t take a run at it and see what happens.”

For his career, Martin is 286-201 with five NCAA Tournament appearances, four at Kansas State. UMass hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 2014 when Derek Kellogg was the coach. The former UMass point guard is now an assistant under Martin.

“I gotta recruit like I’ve always recruited,” Martin said. “At K-State we identified two-star guys that became five-star guys and we identified five-star guys and we got a combination of both and it’s the winningest five-year period in school history.

“You go to South Carolina and [we had] the two greatest seasons in the history of the school, and the winningest six-year period in the school since 1971.”

Still, Martin has his hands full at UMass bringing a new group together. Only two rotation players remain from last year — Fernandes and redshirt junior guard TJ Weeks Jr.

Three of his former South Carolina players — sophomore forward Ta’Quan Woodley, senior big man Wildens Leveque and graduate student forward Brandon Martin — followed him to UMass. He also added transfers from UConn, Nebraska, Boston College and LIU.

“Patience has to be your No. 1 ally,” Martin said. “The guys I kept, the guys that transferred in, the guys I recruited out of high school, they’re all doing it for the first time under me and I’m trying to learn them, they’re trying to learn me.

“I don’t have people that really understand what I want yet so I gotta be patient and I got a brand new staff though everyone on my staff with the exception of Ricky Harris and Derek Kellogg played for me.”

Like every other Division 1 coach, Martin is also navigating the new Name, Image and Likeness landscape in college basketball.

“I think it’s long overdue for that door to be opened,” he said. “The complicated thing is it wasn’t let’s open it and let’s have a plan going in. They just opened it and said good luck and have thrown us as coaches to manage the dynamics but we can’t be involved.

“The old Bill Parcells line, they want us to cook dinner, but not shop for the groceries. It’s kind of what we’re doing now. We’re not allowed to be involved in connecting A and B and yet we’re going to be held accountable interior on campus and in our locker room by our players as to who’s making money and who’s not. Everyone thinks that we’re directly involved and we’re not. It is what it is. Something will get figured out and the waters will get settled down.”

As far as how the Martin era at UMass will play out, the canvas is blank but count former UMass and current Saint Louis coach Travis Ford among those who believes Martin will make good things happen.

“He’s going to do tremendous,” said Ford, who led UMass to the NIT championship game in 2008. “They hit a home run. I mean, from every aspect. Great coach, proven great recruiter, but I’ve been there. You’ve gotta be a salesman. I mean, it’s hard to get there.

“And he is great social media-wise. He’s already energized that fanbase. He’s embraced Amherst. I think it’s a great fit for both of them.”

He added: “He’s put a great team together his first year, but it’s all about winning. You gotta win, and he’s the right guy to get it winning and they’ll come out in droves.”