NEW ORLEANS – If you get the precious opportunity to take in a game at college basketball’s greatest venue, or merely to walk through the gym, you might notice above the end zone of Allen Fieldhouse the vast collection of honored jerseys that represent the greatest of the Kansas Jayhawks. What a gathering it is: Clyde Lovellette, Sherron Collins, Paul Pierce, Danny Manning and the amazing Wilt Chamberlain.
And, perhaps one day, Remy Martin.
No, I’m serious.
In his one season with the Jayhawks, Martin has averaged 8.6 points, 2.6 assists and 36 percent 3-point shooting. He missed 10 of their 38 games with an injury. He hast started only 13 times. Not exactly the stuff of legend. However, if Kansas survives this glittering Final Four, which includes traditional powers Duke and North Carolina and the most accomplished team of the past decade, Villanova, there is a very good chance this event will belong to Martin.
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He was the hero in a tough second-round NCAA Tournament victory over Creighton. His 23 points against Providence in the Sweet 16 made such an impression he was named Most Outstanding Player at the Midwest Region immediately after scoring just 9 in the Elite Eight victory over Miami. If he also becomes MOP at the Final Four, he will meet the criteria to have his jersey honored at Allen.
This would be one of the most amazing stories in the history of a program so rich in tradition it once was coached by the inventor of the game, James Naismith.
“Remy is probably different than anybody I’ve ever coached,” KU’s Bill Self told The Sporting News. “But I’ve loved coaching him because I love his personality and I love his energy. It’s just been unfortunate for him this year because he’s probably had as frustrating a year as I can ever remember for somebody that wasn’t out with a season-ending injury.”
Martin injured his knee in a Dec. 29 game against Nevada, a deep bone bruise that was just nonthreatening enough that doctors were able to establish not long afterward that playing would cause no structural damage but just severe enough that playing through the pain was much more than a semantic exercise. Too many days, it hurt like hell.
It went like that for a while: Martin practicing with the belief he would compete, then discovering on game day it would be too much. Eventually, it was agreed the best course was for him to shut it down. He did not play between the team’s disastrous loss to Kentucky on Jan. 29 and its less disastrous loss to Baylor on Feb. 26.
“He comes to practice, works hard every day, does an extra 2 to 3 hours of treatment, whatever it is, and you get to practice and some days maybe he can go and some days maybe he can’t go,” Self said. “Now I see, and have seen, what his presence can actually mean and how it can benefit a team.”
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Which is not to say this is an issue resolved. It’s more like an internet site where sometimes you easily can log in, some days you might have to hit the “Forgot password” button, and sometimes the wifi just shuts down on you.
Martin was named the Big 12 preseason player of the year, and that is not how his season has gone. While he was absent or diminished, wing Ochai Agbaji emerged as a consensus first-team All-American, and partner Christian Braun has become an NBA first-round draft prospect. They and sophomore forward Jalen Wilson were the primary forces in the Jayhawks winning the Big 12 regular-season championship. But Dajuan Harris is not an exceptional creator at point guard, and so sometimes the offense has stalled. This is where Martin became an important factor in the Big 12 Tournament championship and in getting the Jayhawks to New Orleans.
Martin does not like to be thought of as a score-first point guard. It’s part of the reason he chose KU, he told The Athletic. He wanted to win a national championship. He plays like he plays, though, and it’s undeniable his fixation often resembles one of those romance movies where the whole world fades to the background and all that is visible are the man and the woman locking eyes. Sometimes, as in the first half of the Elite Eight win over Miami, it’s Remy and the hoop.
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When he gets the balance right, though, he can devastate an opponent. There wasn’t a player in Division I this season who was better at generating his own shot than Martin, and there is a value to that, especially in March Madness. Coaches spend so much time preparing for these games, to win just that next game, that it can be difficult to generate a quality shot out of a team’s basic system.
“I’m still trying to figure it out, to be honest, how to incorporate him the best I can,” Self told TSN. “But I have to give him credit because he’s figured out how to fit in with what we do.
“We didn’t have anybody that you could run bad offense and come away with a basket, and he’s one of those guys. And that’s so important this year.”