More about Martin

Today's KC Star has a special piece by longtime Miami journalist and author Robert Andrew Powell (books include "We Own This Game" and "Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of America's Youth"). ***[EDIT: Powell is not the author of sole influence, his reporting about Martin at MSH was the basis for the chapter about Martin in the book. Sorry.]*** It runs through the multitude of problems surrounding Frank Martin's tenure at Miami Senior High School. Essentially, here are the highlights...

* Martin and the Stingarees won state championships in 1996, '97 and '98.

* The state high school sports governing association investigated the program and found Martin had recruited multiple players (including stars like Udonis Haslem and Steve Blake) from outside his school's district. The players claimed to live with people inside the district when, in fact, they didn't.

* The school was fined and/or forced to pay a total of $7,500 and had to forfeit its 1998 state title.

* Martin was fired.

That's bad. I don't care how you want to spin that. Martin and his program flagrantly violated the FHSAA's rules. Even though I think the rules are stupid (Nebraska has open enrollment in high school, which essentially allows kids to go to school wherever they want), the rules are there to be followed.

Ok, big deal you say, Martin was never personally implicated, as Powell later mentions. It was just his program. The point is, it was his program. Sure, Mark Mangino wasn't personally implicated in KU's academic fraud case, but the point is it's HIS program. The blame falls on the guy at the top, as it should. A responsible coach needs to know what is going on within his program. We don't know what level of involvement Martin had with setting up the situation. Maybe it was all his assistants and he had no personal responsibility. Maybe he personally took care of all of it. I don't know, and you don't know.

Does all this concern me? Maybe, a little bit. We've hired a guy who got caught cheating in the past. Here's why I'm NOT that worried. This was almost 10 years ago, in Miami. Martin has been a college assistant in the interim, and he's never been accused of any wrongdoing. He's been at K-State for a year, and has recruited several of our incoming players, and there's no indication he did any of it illegally. Since the problems at MSH, he's had two children. People can change, and I'm willing to give him a chance.

Further, I've met and talked with Tim Weiser. I haven't personally talked with Jon Wefald, but I spent four years on campus. He has his hands in everything. We know that from Weiser's first attempt to fire Jim Wooldridge. I highly doubt these two will stand aside and allow somebody to get the entire athletic department and university into trouble. We saw that last year, when Weiser announced we wouldn't continue to recruit Tyree Evans. It did appear later Evans came back into the mix, but there was never any indication that it was anything other than Evans saying he wanted to play for Bob Huggins. We'll probably never really know the truth. Given the lack of public comment from Weiser, I think he was probably uneasy about recruiting Evans, but he wanted to avoid a public standoff with his basketball coach. Also, Evans pled guilty to lesser charges, so Weiser's uneasiness may have subsided.

Others think "[t]his will be a disaster." Thanks nostradomus. I'll be sure to email Tim Weiser and Jon Wefald soon and let them know we made a huge mistake, so they can check with all of you first when we have to hire a new coach and defend against numerous NCAA infractions. Don't want to fuckin' hear it, Jayhawk fans. One of our two programs is on probation right now, remind me which one it is? Yeah, thought so. Wait your turn, you people are more impatient than a seven year old with ADD. If we do end up on probation because of this, I'll sit here and take my hits from y'all. Til then, shut the fuck up and get your football coach an anti-theft system for his car.

***

In other news, let's hope the door doesn't hit Jason Bennett in the ass on his way out. He says he's "looking at his options." However, when he later says "I just don't want to play here" I think everyone can join me in saying 'good riddance.' If you don't want to be at our school, then good luck and happy trails. I was excited when we landed Bennett last year; I mean, who wouldn't be? We had a highly rated 7-footer coming to play for us. When I first saw him I realized he'd be a bit of a project, but he made absolutely no progress throughout the season. Best of luck JB.

Also, Martin announced strength coach Scott Greenwalt has been retained for next year. That's good news, as it appeared to me our players had added a lot of strength and endurance last year as compared to previous seasons.

***

A belated congrats to K-State students Brad Lutz and Ella Todd for winning Udall Scholarships this year. Since 1986 (the beginning of the Wefald era), K-State is first in the nation among public universities in combined number of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater and Udall scholarships, and is sixth when all public and private universities are included.