Frank Martin has edge over Jim Boylen in fright race

Kansas State's Frank Martin vs. Utah's Jim Boylen in a face-off.

Wow, talk about drama.

Martin might win on fright points, but Boylen would have the edge on sideline jumps, hops and out-of-the-box safaris.

It would make a great show with slow-motion video playbacks, music background from famous movie scenes and judges like Jim Carrey and Marty Feldman.

Ready, set, scare somebody.

Martin's stare is said to be such a beam, it can melt objects with actual mass. It will be on display front and center today at the NCAA West Regional semifinals when No. 2 seed Kansas State plays Xavier.

Like Boylen, Martin can turn his face into a viper pit. Emotion shoots out of the eyes of these two men like lightning bolts. Their faces can be scrunched into cartoon characters. They can cuss in full-throat roar with neck veins bulging like braids on twisted tree branches. Witnesses wonder how they avoid cardiac arrest.

These two can produce fried-egg eyes faster than Feldman. They can conjure up cold, empty, mass murder-type pork eyes in an instant over a bad whistle or dumb play.

Yet both men can be as kind as an old-maid aunt and loving as a Scottish shepherd.

Martin does have one thing Boylen probably never will — endorsement from the president of the United States of America.

When President Barack Obama filled out his NCAA Tournament bracket for ESPN, when it got to K-State, he brought up Frank Martin: "He's a scary dude. I could send him to Congress to get them to vote for health care."

Media observers from throughout the country have tried to describe Martin's sideline act. They've used words like hothead, over-his-head, too emotional, a powder keg, intense, tenacious, tough, scowling, a yeller and a cusser.

Those could also apply to the other facial star, the entertaining Boylen.

Last week in Oklahoma City, before his Wildcats defeated BYU, Martin was asked about his famous stare he deploys upon victims, be it players or referees.

"It's kind of like that witch in Greek mythology with the wild hair — Medusa," he said. "They don't want to look me in the eye, I might turn them to stone."

Wichita Eagle columnist Bob Lutz penned: "Watching Martin on the sideline — one of my favorite hobbies — is like waiting for Old Faithful to erupt, except you don't have to wait 90 minutes."