Frank Martin apologizes for end-game altercation: ‘Absolute B.S. by our players’
There’s no mincing words. South Carolina’s 80-56 loss at Coastal Carolina on Wednesday night was ugly.
But the ugliest part came in the game’s very last second.
With Coastal trying to salt away the game, the Gamecocks forced a last-second jump ball. Coastal player DeShawn Thomas threw the ball forcefully at USC’s Chico Carter Jr., then Gamecocks big man Josh Gray picked the ball up and threw it at a Coastal player’s head.
The sequence resulted in technical foul for Thomas and flagrant 2 foul for Gray, which resulted in an ejection and an irate Frank Martin greeting him on the sideline.
Martin addressed the altercation in his opening statement after the game.
“I’d like to apologize to Coastal Carolina for our lack of right behavior there at the end of the game,” Martin said. “That’s completely uncalled for. I totally do not support what just happened. That’s absolute B.S. by our players.
“We got thoroughly outplayed, and then we’re gonna act like that at the end of the game. That’s embarrassing, and I apologize for Coastal Carolina and everybody in the building for that.”
The incident bothered Martin so much he said it was the only aspect of the game he addressed with the Gamecocks after their 24-point loss.
“That’s not the way my teams act,” Martin said. “I’ve been doing this long enough, and that’s a disrespect to the game, a disrespect to the people Coastal Carolina for us to do the B.S. that we pulled there in the end of the game. That’s the only thing I addressed.
“... There’s no basketball to be talked about. We were embarrassing.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Frank Martin apologizes for end-game altercation: ‘Absolute B.S. by our players’."
