Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Martin to win Naismith Award
Bearcats center named AP All-American Monday
BY Mike DeCourcy
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Today, Kenyon Martin gets his first grand prize.
Martin, who was named first-team AP All-American on Monday, will be announced today as the winner of the Naismith Trophy, presented by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club to college basketball's player of the year. It is the first of the three major player of the year honors — the others are the John R. Wooden Award and the Oscar Robertson Trophy.
“He had a great year,” said UC coach Bob Huggins. “I think, as he said, he played as hard as he can play. He's not going to look back and say he didn't give it his all.”
Of course, Martin did not get to play all he wanted. In the first minute of UC's Conference USA tournament game against Saint Louis last Thursday, Martin fell awkwardly on his right leg and broke the fibula, tearing ligaments in the ankle region. The injury will cause him to miss the NCAA Tournament.
The Bearcats will open play 12:30 p.m. Friday against UNC Wilmington in the South Regional. Martin will be there, but only to cheer and to provide helpful tips from the bench.
“I'm just dealing with it like I should: staying strong and being positive,” Martin said. “My life's not over because I got hurt. I still have a future in the NBA. I've got until October to get ready.”
As a senior, Martin led Conference USA in scoring, rebounding, shooting percentage and blocks. Even with his 3-minute appearance against Saint Louis weighing down his averages, he ranked No.43 in the nation in scoring (18.9), No.13 in rebounding (9.6), No.25 in shooting percentage (.568) and No.10 in blocks (3.3).
Martin has been named a first-team All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association and was the leading vote-getter on the AP team Monday.
The Naismith Trophy will be presented at an awards dinner in Atlanta, which is scheduled for April 8. The award is decided by a ballot of sports journalists and previous winners.
Martin will be the first UC player to win the Naismith Trophy, which last year went to Duke's Elton Brand. Previous winners included Pete Maravich of LSU (1970); David Thomp son of North Carolina State (1975); David Robinson of Navy (1987) and the first winner in 1969, UCLA's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, when he was known as Lew Alcindor.
“I think the thing that bothers Ken is, he never came back to be national player of the year or player of the year or any of that stuff,” Huggins said. “All he talks about is the team stuff. He's disappointed he can't be a part of the team and what's going on. He always talked about coming back to win a national championship.”
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