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AP: Martin happy as K-State coach
Published 4/6/2011 in None
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Frank Martin says he's happy coaching basketball at Kansas State.
Still, in a radio interview on Tuesday, the South Florida native indicated he would listen if Miami calls.
Martin, who's had four successful seasons at Kansas State in his first job as a head coach, was born and raised in Miami and was a well-known high school coach in the area.
Martin said no one from any other school has called him about a job.
"I've got a great job. I work with great people," he said in an interview on a syndicated radio show hosted by Tim Brando. "I look at it like this: 10 years ago as we speak, I was a Division I unemployed assistant basketball coach collecting no paychecks, having no idea how I was going to pay my rent or my son's day care bill. Ten years later, I'm at a great place."
Martin was the Big 12 coach of the year in 2010 and led the Wildcats to the Elite Eight. This year, after a rocky start that forced him to change his offense in January, Kansas State finished strong and made the NCAA tournament for the third straight year.
"If people want to throw our name out there, I look at that as a compliment and I look at that as being lucky and fortunate that I'm in a good place right now and that people out there respect what we've done," he said. "But, I haven't talked to anybody. In this business, it's hard to ever sit back and say, 'Never say never,' because then you get called a liar.
"But I'm extremely happy. I'm not going to tell you there's never going to be change, but I'm at peace where I'm at right now."
Volatile, outspoken and highly animated on the sideline, Martin is very popular with Kansas State fans who appeciate that he's brought the program out of the doldrums. They especially like that he's beaten Kansas twice, including this season when the hated Jayhawks were No. 1.
Bramlage Coliseum is frequently sold out. He signed a five-year contract extension last year that would average out to about $1.5 million annually. But his top players, Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly, will be gone next year and he faces a rebuilding job.
Miami, in contrast, does not draw well. But Martin, whose mother fled Cuba with her familly in the early 1960s, speaks fluent Spanish and recruits in South Florida and the Caribbean.
Neither Martin nor athletic director John Currie have returned calls to The Associated Press.
A school spokesman said Martin was "out of pocket" and Currie was traveling.
Late Tuesday, the school issued the following statement:
"We do not comment on any speculative situations. Coach Martin is under contract here at K-State and we are excited about the future of Wildcat basketball under his leadership."
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