COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina head basketball coach Frank Martin made two major personnel decisions Wednesday and it involves two people who are already on his staff.
"I'm very excited to give Chuck the title of Associate Head Coach and to promote Brian to an Assistant Coach for our program," Martin said in a statement.
"Chuck has been a head coach, he's been an assistant at major universities, and is more than deserving of this title that he has earned during his time here at South Carolina. I fully trust him with every responsibility of our program, and he has done a great job leading us internally as we've continued to deal with good and bad."
With more than 20 years of coaching experience on his resume, Chuck Martin was the head coach at Marist for five seasons (2008-13. He has been an assistant coach at Indiana (2014-17) and Memphis (2006-08) along with stops at Manhattan, UMass, Drexel and St. John's.
In other news, Brian Steele has been elevated to assistant coach after serving this past season as the team's video coordinator. A Greenville native, Steele played at South Carolina from 2012-2015. A series of knee injuries forced Steele to retire from playing but he transitioned to a different role as he served as a student assistant coach during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons before working as a graduate assistant the following season.
Steele would take his first full-time coaching job in the South Atlantic Conference as an assistant at Queens University in Charlotte. After two seasons with that program, Steele returned to the South Carolina program as video coordinator. His promotion to assistant coach fills the opening created when Bruce Shingler left to become an assistant at Maryland.
"Brian spent the early part of his career building our program as a player; a lot of who we are as a program was established with his courage and his fight and his mind. He then became a student assistant coach after injuries stopped his playing career, so he was able to start coaching. He then stayed on as a graduate assistant, and then became an assistant coach at Queens University for two years before he returned last year as our video coordinator. Brian understands what we teach, has a great relationship with players and is a star in the coaching profession. And he is one of us; he is a South Carolinian, he takes pride in this uniform and he is like a young brother to me. I'm excited for this opportunity for Brian and our team."
As mentioned, Chuck Martin has had a successful career on the sidelines in the college ranks, w
"I'm very appreciative of the opportunity that Frank and Coach Tanner have given to me, and I hope that I make those in our program, and those in the community proud," Martin said.
While at Indiana, Martin helped the Hoosiers to three postseason appearances, including two NCAA Tournament berths, as well as the 2016 Big Ten title. During his time at Memphis, Martin saw the Tigers post a 71-6 record behind the play of standouts Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey. Memphis became the first Conference USA squad to finish undefeated in the regular season and conference tournament in 2008, before advancing to the NCAA Championship later that season.
