Frank Martin defends himself, USC basketball program amidst FBI probe

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — Frank Martin seemed defensive, excited, amicable, disagreeable, humorous, honest and repulsed all in one 67-minute long press conference Thursday afternoon in Columbia.

After all, the basketball season starts in a month, but that was the furthest thought from anyone’s mind.

Last week, the FBI arrested five assistant college basketball coaches in connection with a bribery scheme. One of those five was Martin’s former assistant at South Carolina, Lamont Evans, who, for the past two seasons, has served as the assistant coach at Oklahoma State.

“Frank Martin is not being investigated; Lamont Evans is being investigated,” Martin said clearly enough that anyone in the room could understand. “Our basketball program (USC’s) is not being investigated. Lamont is being investigated.”

The investigation stems from allegations that these five assistants steered players to sign with certain advisers or agents in exchange for money.

In Evans case, he’s accused of accepting $22,000 in bribes for convincing his players to sign with advisers.

At the heart of the issue is “pay to play”, or whether NCAA basketball players, specifically, should be compensated by the NCAA for playing basketball.

Martin says players should receive a portion of the money from jersey sales and player “likeness” (if a player is used in a video game, ad, etc.).

“Create a fund. 30-percent of those profits goes into a fund for the young man, 30-percent goes to the university,” said Martin. “30-percent then goes to that company (that makes the jerseys). That leaves 10-percent. Tell the young man, pick a charity of your liking and it’ll go to that charity.”

Martin says the news of Evans’ involvement in the scheme “broke my heart”, but he has no interest in talking to his former assistant yet.