Tuesday, February 29, 2000
C-USA NOTEBOOK
Martin player of the week for 5th time this season
It seems a week can't pass this season without Kenyon Martin winning another award.
Martin, a senior center for the Bearcats, earned his fifth player-of-the-week award in Conference USA for the period of Feb.21-27. He averaged 28.5 points and 13 rebounds, making 22-of-34 shots from the field in victories over Southern Mississippi and Louisville.
There have been only eight players since 1990 who've won their league's player of the week at least five times, including Glenn Robinson of Purdue in 1993-94 and Marcus Camby of Massachusetts in 1995-96, both of whom became national player of the year.
Martin has reached double figures in points and rebounds in each of his past six games and improved his scoring average to 18.9 points, which ranks him 38th among NCAA players. He also stands No.11 in rebounding (10.1), No.8 in blocks (3.5) and No.28 in field goal percentage (.568).
“I don't think there's been a guy in Conference USA, since I've been in the league, that's controlled things the way he has,” said Southern Miss coach James Green.
FREEDOM RIDE: Having let an important game in the pursuit of an NCAA Tournament bid get away against Marquette, South Florida almost certainly needs to win tonight's 7:30 game against Louisville at Freedom Hall to have any chance to gain an at-large berth.
The Bulls lead the Ameri can Division with an 8-6 record and are 17-10 overall. After the Louisville game, they will have only a home game left against Memphis.
The game is equally important to Louisville (17-10, 8-6), which is trying to claim a first-round bye and the No.2 seed in the C-USA tournament next week in Memphis.
BAD TRIP: Conference USA might have cost itself a fourth NCAA bid through an unfortunate piece of scheduling and a fair dose of bad luck.
The Marquette win over South Florida in Tampa began at 9 p.m. Thursday and ended roughly two hours later. The Golden Eagles then had to get back to Milwaukee in time for a 1p.m. start Saturday against Memphis.
The school chose not to take a charter back because of the expense, and the Golden Eagles paid for it. They had a 5:45 a.m. wakeup call Friday for a 7:30 flight that was scheduled to get them home by 12:30 p.m. When fog cov ered the Milwaukee airport, they wound up stranded in Minneapolis for the afternoon and had to fly to Chicago and bus home from there.
The Golden Eagles shot 18-of-49 and scored only 49 points in defeat.
“It's tough, because South Florida was such an emotional victory that you hope you can play on those fumes for a while,” said Marquette coach Tom Crean.
With the Golden Eagles now 14-11, they're likely playing for the NIT. After Cincinnati, Louisville and DePaul, it's tough to come up with a solid NCAA contender from C-USA.
AROUND THE LEAGUE: For the first time, DePaul is selling standing room only tickets for a game at the AllState Arena. The Blue Demons are expecting a crowd in excess of 18,000 for UC-DePaul Thursday night.
• DePaul forward Lance Williams played 30 minutes and scored nine points in a 55-54 victory over Saint Louis, his longest appearance in more than a month. He missed most of November and December with a foot injury and returned out of shape.
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