No, Frank Martin’s not our coach anymore, and we don’t care

What can we say? There are two former Wildcat head coaches in the Final Four. There are some few EMAW faithful who are upset about this, but really this just gives us all two teams to root for on Saturday night.

And one of those teams is led by a guy who’s getting a ton of positive press. As numerous people have said over the last 24 hours, good things happen to good people.

There are some people who, faced with all the Frank Martin talk, are lashing out. We’ve lost count of the number of people who seem to think the K-State media is trying to argue we should somehow bring Frank back. Let’s not be silly. It’s not happening, and nobody is suggesting it should. But that doesn’t mean we can’t honor the accomplishments of a guy we — most of us, anyway — miss.

Frank Martin

Martin’s journey to the Final Four has spurred writers to dig into where Frank came from in the first place. The Big Lead’s Tully Corcoran says Martin, himself, is this year’s Cinderella. Matt Norlander of CBS also profiles the man himself.

NBC’s Rob Dauster has some good stuff on the actual decision to leave for South Carolina, which includes a ton of quotes from assistant coach Matt Figger, who followed Martin to Columbia. Andrew Doughty of Hero Sports reflects on what was, at the time, called a lateral move.

Zach Schonbrun of the New York Times highlights Martin’s family reaction in his post-game story.

Quickly, half the women’s Final Four is also set. A pair of two-seeds knocked off one-seeds yesterday, which means two things: Stanford and Mississippi State are moving on, and that wretched monster Kim Mulkey is going home. Tonight, both Oregon and South Carolina will attempt to duplicate the feats of their men’s teams. One is likely. The other? Well, Oregon’s playing Connecticut, so you know the answer.

Other NCAA Tournament Stuff

In the wake of the classic battle between Kentucky and North Carolina, David Ubben writes at Sports on Earth about the greatest March Madness finishes. There’s a game you all remember fondly on his list.

The Washington Post’s Patrick Stevens runs down March Madness from A to Z, including a reminder that five of K-State’s last seven head coaches have been to a final four, just not while they were at K-State. The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff is even more explicit, offering a detailed history of the issue.

Football

Rich Cirminello of Campus Insiders offers three things to watch at K-State’s spring practices. Somehow, Cirminello accomplishes this without explicitly mentioning the linebackers as a unit.

Baseball

The BatCats fell once again in Austin, a 6-5 loss to Texas which drops K-State to 0-3 on the season in conference play, 15-9 overall.

In Sports Extra, Corbin McGuire reports on A.J. Morris’s experience pitching for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

Tennis

The Big 12 season started poorly, but now the Wildcats are back on level footing. After Friday’s 4-0 sweep of Iowa State, the Cats repeated the trick on Sunday against West Virginia. That moves K-State to 2-2 in conference play, 11-8 overall.

Golf

After one round at the John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate in the Atlanta suburb of Stockbridge, K-State is in fourth place at 10-over, five shots off the lead. The Wildcats were led by freshman Tash Carlsson, who carded an even-par 70 and enters today tied for fifth place, four shots back. Madison Talley was one-over, tied for seventh. They’re already underway this morning for the second round.