Two days after coaching his team to a Final Four berth, Frank Martin said he’s learned which people really understand what he does. The most important people to him in the coaching world haven’t called because they understand what he’s going through.

“In moments like this you know who the people that really understand are because they don’t call, they don't text. They leave you alone, because they get it,” Martin said.

Before getting on a plane bound for Phoenix to compete for a national title and all the distractions that come with it, Martin said he had speak with two people, Bob Huggins and Billy Donovan. He spoke to both Final Four experienced coaches on Monday about how to handle the biggest stage of college basketball.

One would think Martin called Huggins, his mentor, because his West Virginia team, which plays a similar style of defense as South Carolina, played Gonzaga in the Sweet 16. The Zags are the Gamecocks’ opponent on Saturday in the Final Four.

“I called him last night. He said, ‘I figured you’d eventually call.’ We were on the phone for an hour. We spoke about everything,” Martin said on Tuesday. “We briefly spoke about Gonzaga. Huggs and Mark Few (Gonzaga’s head coach) are good friends too, so I’m not going to put a friend of mine in the middle of that.”

The main reason for the phone call to Huggins and Donovan, a two-time national champion coach at Florida, was to seek advice. The advice helped.

“I speak about being on this ride before and the Sweet 16 and all that. This week is a brand new week for me. I’m sure I’m going to mess up some stuff here this week,” Martin said. “I spoke with Billy Donovan and Huggs yesterday so they can kind of give me perspective as to how to best manage this week so I can prevent distractions for our staff, players, because there is a lot of windows for a lot of distractions.”

Martin said the purpose for this trip isn’t for press conferences or celebrating how they got there; it’s two one-game seasons, as the team refers them to, to win a national championship.

The discussions with both coaches helped him clear his mind and provide clarity to the situation he, his staff, and his team will face when stepping off that plane on Wednesday.

“I’m sure I’m going to mess up some stuff here this week. I feel pretty good about the Xs and Os, but there are some other things that I’m going to mess up,” Martin said. “It cleared my of a lot of things. I’m still going to mess up stuff because I’m a stubborn S.O.B and I’m eventually going to do stuff my way, but that gave me clarity, allowed me to think so I can put my own flavor in how we want to manage this week. That’s what we spoke about.”

Everything will be new to Martin and the Gamecocks, but he knows he has dear friends like Huggins, Donovan, Billy Kennedy, Anthony Grant, etc. to help him battle the distractions.

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