Martinville

It only took about 24 hours for Kansas State to act quickly and name a new basketball coach.

Frank Martin, who was an assistant under Bob Huggins last year, was named head coach, and Dalonte Hill, also an assistant last year, was named associate head coach (associate -- to quote one of my favorite movies -- "it means less than....*weeping quietly to self*"). A press conference was held yesterday.

Basically, there are two groups of people that formed after this news was announced.

One group thought it was good that Tim Weiser and Jon Wefald acted so quickly. Also, they promoted the two guys who have the best chance of keeping this current crop of recruits that several are deeming to be the "#1 recruiting class in the country next season." I'm in this group of folks.

There is another group of negative-nelly naysayers who are crying foul about all sorts of things. Among others, they're saying that Martin was an awful choice of coach. He has no collegiate coaching experience. They only kept him and Hill around to keep these recruits onboard. They're going to have talent, but no coaching to go along with it. After all these recruits play for a year or two, they're gone, and the Wildcats are back to square one with no talent and no coach. And, of course, they bring up mention of recruiting violations that happened while he was a high school coach back in Florida. And, they mention what an angry, foul-mouthed man he can become on the sidelines (they say he makes Bobby Knight look like a therapist).

Jason Whitlock is one of the idiots who is lambasting K-State's choice of Martin as coach. Here are a few of his articles recently.

Huggins' con continues on
Martin OK, but kids in control

And here are a few more of the articles that seemed to pop up almost instantly after Frank Martin was promoted:

New Kansas State Coach Frank Martin's Unethical History
Shaky past for new KSU coach Frank Martin?
Wildcats' panic yields big gamble

The media is so quick to jump on this decision or that, but it really comes down to good reading. Heck, yes, I'll try to dig up all these articles that I can find, so it can be that much sweeter when they're proven wrong.

Who knows what's going to happen, both this coming season and the next several? Time will tell. We'll at least get a solid season or two out of it.

Frank Martin is a recruiter, not a coach. I've heard that a couple times from different sources. OK -- then maybe this will give K-State the chance to become one of those schools that all the recruits take a look at as they're finishing up high school. Maybe he can actually coach, too.

I'm thinking positively about this situation (probably because I'm such a KSU fan), but I think that's how all K-Staters need to look at it. Let the naysayers nay, and then look dumb as we cruise to the Final Four next season.

(Here's a few links to some more positive articles -- I don't want to give the cranky side all of the attention:

Martin: 'I'm a fighter'
Anatomy of a grinder