West Virginia assistant basketball coach Erik Martin knows a thing or two about March Madness and the Final Four.

“I know that it is a lot easier to be in the Final Four as a player than it is as a coach,” Martin said Thursday morning.

The Mountaineer assistant was in town participating in the Mountaineer Athletic Club golf tournament at The Resort at Glade Springs.

Martin played for Bob Huggins’ lone Cincinnati team that made it to the Final Four in 1992. Playing alongside Corey Blount and Nick Van Exel, Martin averaged 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

As a senior he led the team in rebounds (6.7) and was the second-leading scorer (13.5) on a team that lost to eventual national champion North Carolina in the East Regional final.

Last month, in his fourth year as an assistant to Huggins, Martin was on the bench when WVU lost to eventual national champion Duke.

“It went by too fast,” Martin said. “The whole week was trying to get tickets for family, get family on flights, along with all the work we were doing to prepare. It was over really fast.”

Martin’s ascent up the coaching ladder has gone by at equal light-speed.

After playing for Huggins, Martin played professionally for 10 years.

“I stayed in contact with coach (Huggins) during that time and I told him I wanted to go into coaching,” Martin said. “He told me that you have to do more than want to go into coaching. There was a lot of stuff to learn.

“So after I retired (as a player) I taught high school and then coached at a junior college for two years. It was probably the best thing I could do.”

He was an assistant at Cincinnati State for two years.

In 2004 his old coach called him.

“That was the year coach Huggins was between jobs,” Martin said. “He had seen us play and when he got the Kansas State job, he called and told me he wanted me as an assistant. I was surprised.”

Of course, that job lasted one year before Huggins’ alma mater called.

“The day I found out Huggs was going to West Virginia I was in California, recruiting,” Martin said.

“I tried to call him but he didn’t answer. It’s understandable. I’m sure Kansas State was trying to persuade him to stay.”

Martin didn’t have to worry.

“Frank (Martin, Huggins’ top assistant at K-State and the man tabbed to replace Huggins) said they had a spot for me,” Martin said. “But I wanted to go with coach Huggins. He was my mentor and I am very loyal to coach. I came into the business with coach and I wanted to be where he was going.”

And Huggins remained loyal too, bringing Martin home with him to WVU.

He is a member of a staff that includes former head coaches Larry Hairston and Billy Hahn.

“I rely a lot on those three guys,” Martin said. “I’ve learned a lot. Like the NCAA manual. It’s about this (four inches) thick. But I can ask them something and they know it like the back of their hand.”

He said that people have painted the wrong picture of his boss, Bob Huggins.

“The national media, they like to have a villain, but coach is not that,” Martin said. “Maybe they just don’t know him like I do. When he went to Da’Sean (Butler, when he was injured with nine minutes left in the game), who else but Huggs would have done that?”

Martin thinks WVU will be fine next season, despite losing Butler, Devin Ebanks (who left early) and Wellington Smith.

“We have Danny Jennings and Deniz Kilicli, and they give us something we haven’t had since we’ve been there, a true five (post player),” Martin said. “The thing is, there are asterisks beside their names because they haven’t played a lot. Deniz has to rebound or he isn’t going to be in there.”

He thinks Butler’s stock fell because of his injury, but ...

“I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that he could go in the first round, from what I’ve heard talking to NBA people,” Martin said. “They know his body of work this year and for his career is worthy of a first-round pick. Whether or not that happens, he will still be on somebody’s roster next year.”

As for Ebanks leaving, Martin understood.

“I think it was acknowledged when he came (to WVU) that he wasn’t going to be a four-year guy,” Martin said.