http://www.themercury.com/K-StateSports/article.aspx?articleId=aad582a5be5f45889161f3ed381b12caCurrie: Martin should be at K-State for a long timeIt was bound to happen. When a coach has success, rumors begin to fly.
Following Kansas State 's 71-62 victory over No. 1 Texas Monday night, an Internet rumor circulated that negotiations to extend K-State coach Frank Martin's contract had hit a wall. The rumor filtered over to talk radio the next day. But was there any truth to it?
"I think anytime you see stuff on the Internet or on the radio or in the newsprint or whatever — there's a lot of great information out there but there's also information that really is not based upon anything," K-State athletic director John Currie said Wednesday night. "There's a rumor that's repeated by somebody else as a rumor that's repeated by somebody else as a rumor and all of a sudden you've got a fact."
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It became a hot topic much of Tuesday and Wednesday, as fans flooded Currie's email inbox over the concern of getting Martin a raise. The K-State coach's contract runs through 2012, paying him $760,000 per year. Martin is currently the lowest paid coach in the Big 12 Conference.
Yet in three years, he's produced a 59-26 record and currently has the Wildcats in the Top 10, so it's no surprise people are talking.
Currie wouldn't say whether he and Martin were in negotiation, but did say there has been continued dialog and that he hopes to get Martin an extension in the near future.
"With all of our coaches I try to maintain an active dialog and build a relationship with trust where we can kind of be on the same page," Currie said.
"I think Coach Martin and I are on the same page. It's pretty clear that he's a great fit for Kansas State and he should be at Kansas State for a long time.
"I trust him and I think he trusts me. I think we both want to make sure that happens."
There are other variables in play. Basketball is different than college football. There are 12,528 seats in Bramlage Coliseum. Every one of them is sold out for the remainder of this season.
But the revenue generated by a college basketball crowd isn't nearly as high as the gate produced by a college football game at K-State.
"Our revenue is up over where the budget was and it's up over last year," Currie said. "But we do have to remember that in college basketball, your revenue model is different than college football.
"We sold every ticket in the house for the whole season and we basically made $200,000 more than we made last year, which is a couple hundred thousand more than we made the year before, roughly speaking."
With the success the men's basketball team has had, momentum has built. And because of that, donors are more likely to give money.
"Anytime people feel good about your institution, it helps everybody," Currie said. "It's always better. I'd much rather be 16-2 rather than 2-16 without a doubt.
"We've gotta continue to work on making sure we can capitalize on that energy and giving people ways to help so we can continue to do the things we need to do for all of our sports."
As that success continues, so does the need for a new practice facility, something Currie said is a high priority for both the men's and women's basketball teams.
"The practice facility is a definite need at Kansas State ," he said. "It's not just about recruiting bling, it's a priority. We're continuing to work to build our infrastructure from a relationship-building standpoint to work towards making that project a reality."
Currie has been through all this before. As an associate athletic director at Tennessee , he helped lead a $36 million project that featured renovations to the basketball complex along with a new practice facility.
He also saw other schools come after the Volunteer's men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl. In April, Tennessee renegotiated Pearl 's six-year contract, giving him a substantial raise.
Currie understands that's part of the business, and as long as he's at K-State, that's the way he wants it.
"You can have two kinds of coaches," he said. "You can have coaches who nobody wants and coaches that everybody wants. I expect that because of that fan support, because of the quality of life of this community, because of this conference, because of the quality of our university — that we're going to be able to attract great people to Kansas State.
"Great people are going to perform well in this environment and they're going to be sought after. There will never come a day where we don't have somebody that's interested in one of our coaches because we're going to have great coaches."
