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Frank and Anya Martin looked like a million bucks when they took part in a casual meet-and-greet last week at the UMass Club of Boston.

To be more precise — and a little snarky, to boot — they looked like $1.65 million, which will be Frank Martin’s approximate annual salary after he agreed to a five-year deal to coach the UMass men’s basketball team. So for Frank to walk into the room sporting a dark suit that looked to be tailor-made, that’s because it was.

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“It’s an Oxford,” he said, trying to be matter-of-fact. “It was made by a tailor in Columbia, South Carolina, I’ve been working with for 10 years. He showed (the material) to me, I loved it and he made it for me.”

And for Anya Martin to be striding along in a maroon-on-black dress under a trim, smart-looking maroon jacket, she earned immediate bonus points for having purchased this just-for-today ensemble that was a close match to UMass maroon. Except that — and fans of UMass athletics who like to sprinkle in a little symbolism with their optimism are going to love this — the jacket was actually an oldie-but-goodie that she wore in 2017, when her husband was coaching the South Carolina Gamecocks in the Final Four.

“The University of South Carolina colors are similar to the UMass colors — very similar,” she explained.

In fact, one might say you’d have to be an expert to distinguish South Carolina’s garnet and black from the maroon and black of UMass. And Anya Martin is just such an expert, considering that: A) She is a former UMass track star, and B) she lived in Columbia, S.C., during the 10 years her husband coached the Gamecocks.

The UMass meet-and-greet was the end of a long day for the Martins, who had been formally introduced at a news conference that morning out in Amherst. Now if you’re wondering why we’re not focusing on the very important things Frank said that day about the future of the UMass men’s basketball program, that’s because it’s rare that any newly-minted coach ever says anything that offers the slightest clue as to whether next season will be a success or a bust.

Suffice to say that Martin, 56, came to UMass after posting a 171-147 record at South Carolina, including that magical 2016-2017 season that culminated with a 77-73 loss to Gonzaga in the national championship semifinal. It was the first trip to the Final Four in the history of the South Carolina program.

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Prior to moving to South Carolina, Martin coached Kansas State for five seasons, and under his tutelage, the Wildcats made four trips to the NCAA tourney. That’s a lot of March Madness, something that’s been in short supply at UMass in recent years.

But if you really, really, really need a press conference quote, here’s a good one: “I get goosebumps thinking about what we can create (at the Mullins Center) again, when we re-energize everybody that’s been a supporter of UMass for so many years and all the new fans,” Martin said, according to the Massachusetts Daily Collegian.

Fine. But while nothing energizes a fan base more than a rapid accumulation of victories and tournament appearances, what UMass fans can embrace right now is that Frank and Anya Martin are two people who worked hard to build a life and who later joined forces to build a life together.

Want to talk humble backgrounds? Anya, remembering the first time she met Frank when they were both working at Northeastern University years ago, said, “The only thing I knew about him was that he coached basketball — and he was that guy who was always walking around in wrinkled clothes. It didn’t matter what he had on. I used to sit there and think, how do you have wrinkled basketball shorts? How is that possible?”

This is how that’s possible: “I was living first in East Providence, without a car,” Frank said. “Me and (fellow assistant coach) Travis Garrett, we’d take the public bus in the morning to downtown Providence. From there we’d take the commuter rail to South Station. From there we’d take the subway from South Station to Ruggles and then walk to campus.

“I was making $20,000,” he continued. “I couldn’t afford a car at the time. When the day ended, if we didn’t get out of there in time, the farthest the commuter rail would run was North Attleboro, and from there I couldn’t afford the cab to downtown Providence. So I’d just sleep in the office. And when I slept in the office I would have to wash my clothes with the team stuff. And I didn’t have an iron. That’s where the whole wrinkled thing came from.”

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But more than being a funny quote — and, Lordy, it sure is funny — Anya’s disclosure that Frank was the Wrinkle Guy served as a jumping-off point to a longer discussion about hard work, about diligence, about persistence. This applies to their courtship ritual — apparently, they planned four or five or a hundred dates before they ever actually had one — but it also applies to the amount of work they did to get where they are today.

Now I’ll admit I was looking for the cheap laughs when I spoke with Anya — you know, “Wrinkle Guy” — but what I got was so much more, and so much more important.

Anya Martin (she was Anya Forrest during her college days) graduated from UMass in 1998. What she took with her was a lifetime of memories; what she left behind was the distinction of setting school records in the 55-meter hurdles and 100-meter hurdles. She was team captain her senior year.

Later, after landing a job as a financial aid counsellor at Northeastern while simultaneously working on her master’s degree at the school, she rented an apartment in Dorchester near the Ashmont stop on the Red Line. She later moved to Jamaica Plain, and then a little south of the city to Randolph. Such is the housing whirl when you’re just out of college and don’t have much money: You move around a lot.

“I moved to Randolph because I decided I wanted my own place, and it was all I could afford,” she said. “Plus, I was going to night school at the time. The manager at the apartment complex was so nice. She said, ‘Don’t worry about first and last month and deposit. Just pay your rent each month, and we’ll go from there.’ Which was good, because I didn’t have any money at the time.”

Frank Martin, born of Cuban ancestry in Miami in 1966, arrived in 2000, making the leap to college coaching as an assistant at Northeastern after coaching high school ball in Florida for 15 years. He had what could best be described as a nodding acquaintance with Anya until he finally introduced himself to her at Slades, a bar near the Northeastern campus.

“I know who you are,” Anya told him. “You’re the guy who walks around in wrinkled clothes.”

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She was with someone else that night, but Frank, in all his wrinkled splendor, had made an impression. She began to pay attention to him, especially when making her morning pilgrimage to Burger King for hot tea and potato nuggets and then heading upstairs to the financial aid office. When a date was finally arranged, it was only because Adam Ginsburg, another assistant coach on the men’s basketball team, approached her with Frank one day and said, “My guy here wants to take you out.”

Let’s skip past four or five or a hundred dates that were canceled or rescheduled before Frank and Anya finally had a dinner date at P.F. Chang’s in Boston’s Theater District, other than to point out her remembrance that “he had on these pressed jeans, a nice black shirt, his hair slicked back. He has these chains dangling, his watch was really nice. He was clean-shaven. He looked really, really good.”

What matters is that they eventually clicked. They were married on April 30, 2005. They’ve raised three kids, Brandon, Amalia and Christian. Brandon Martin, who is Frank’s son from a previous relationship, played basketball for his father at South Carolina.

Anya finished up her Master of Science in Taxation, which I’m certain is more exciting than it sounds. What’s even more exciting is that after she married Frank and began having kids, she somehow found time to do outreach and fundraising for the UMass women’s track program. That her name and photo are on display in the women’s track locker room is not because her husband is the new men’s basketball coach.

And when she says she has a special affinity for the Curry Hicks Cage, it’s not because the basketball team used to play there. It’s because she used to play there. And then the real fun began, working at Northeastern while working on her master’s.

Frank Martin’s hard work at Northeastern took him first to Cincinnati as an assistant to Bob Huggins, and he followed Huggins to Kansas State. He finally got a seat at the table of Division I head coaches when he replaced Huggins at Kansas State, and then it was on to South Carolina. And now, UMass.

It’s not complicated: If Frank Martin lands some good recruits, and if he can coach them up, the Minutemen will win games and pack the pews at the Mullins Center. That’s all later on. What matters now, today, is that all UMass students, not just basketball players and tracksters, could learn a thing or two from Frank Martin and Anya Forrest Martin.

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Anya’s apartment-hopping in Boston while working and studying at Northeastern … Frank’s long daily commute from East Providence … Anya’s tea and potato nuggets from Burger King … Frank’s wrinkled clothes. That’s the stuff kids should be learning about when they head off to college.

(Photo: Thom Kendall / UMass Athletics)

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