COLUMBIA, S.C. — With the intense speculation surrounding the future of South Carolina head basketball coach Frank Martin, two high-profile former players from the 2017 Final Four team have taken to Twitter to announce they have their coach's back.
Spring Valley product PJ Dozier, currently with the Denver Nuggets, and Sindarius Thornwell who recently signed a string of 10-day contracts with New Orleans, are using their social media platform to publicly throw their support behind Martin who just completed his ninth season in Columbia.
Dozier fired off a series of tweets where he expressed his gratitude to Martin for his success which has seen Dozier go from undrafted free agent to a solid contributor for the Nuggets.
Thornwell went to Twitter and hinted at Martin's battle with COVID-19 and how the coach still managed to come to work because of his devotion to the players and the program.
Thornwell and Dozier were part of the 2017 team which not only won the program's first NCAA Tournament game since 1973, but led South Carolina to unprecedented heights after running the table in Greenville and Madison Square Garden.
The Gamecocks advanced to the Final Four in Glendale where they lost a hard-fought battle with Gonzaga in the national semis. Carolina ended the season #6 in the final rankings.