By Bill Koch
The shock of Kenyon Martin’s season-injury ending wouldn’t wear off for years. In fact, 21 years later you could argue it still hasn’t worn off for UC fans.
But in the immediate aftermath of that devastating blow, there was no time for the Bearcats to feel sorry for themselves. Even though they knew their NCAA Tournament chances had been diminished by the loss of Martin, they also knew that as talented as Martin was, he was not a one-man show. They still had Jermaine Tate, Pete Mickeal, Kenny Satterfield, Ryan Fletcher, future All-American Steve Logan, and DerMarr Johnson, one of the most talented freshmen in the country.
The first order of business was Selection Sunday when the Bearcats would learn if they'd receive the No. 1 seed they believed they had earned regardless of the Martin injury. The answer was no. UC was dropped down a rung to a No. 2 seed, which infuriated Bob Huggins.
“I didn’t think there was any question,” Huggins said. “It’s historical what they just did. This has to be the first time in history that a No. 1 team didn’t get a No. 1 seed.”
I wrote in the next day’s Cincinnati Post that I understood why the Bearcats had been relegated to a No. 2 seed. “We just tried to project the best we could, what the loss of an all All-American candidate would mean,” said committee chairman Craig Thompson.
I wasn’t surprised when I received a slew of angry emails from UC fans. They were still hurting over Martin’s injury and wanted to lash out at somebody because of what was taken from them. I was a convenient target. My own brother, who now lives in Denver, wrote a letter to the editor taking me to task for my column. When I called Barry the other day to ask him about the letter, he tried to start the argument all over again.
But some of the UC players understood Thompson’s reasoning.
“You can justify it either way,” Fletcher said. “I can see them giving us a No. 1 seed because of the regular season we had. But at the same time, there’s the fact that we lost the opening game of our conference tournament and we lost our best player. I can understand that they’re giving us a No. 2.”
The players also understood that Huggins was a master at finding ways to motivate his team. Why would he not use the perceived slight to fire them up for the task ahead?
“That’s Huggs,” Mickeal said. “Everybody else in this whole deal, we’re all positive. Huggs is whatever he is. He’s not negative. He’s just Huggs.”
If anyone could find a way to win after losing the best player in the country, it seemed Huggins would be the guy. One of his strongest attributes as a coach was his ability to adapt to his personnel. But he didn’t have much time. The Bearcats were scheduled to play their first-round game against North Carolina-Wilmington five days later in Nashville, Tenn.
Everyone had their own idea on how UC should proceed without Martin: Press full-court the entire game, use a three-guard lineup, shoot more threes. But in their 64-47 win over UNC-Wilmington on Friday, March 17, 2000, Huggins eschewed dramatic changes in favor of a more reasoned, incremental approach.
“We’re not the same team,” he said. “Offensively, we didn’t have to do much other than throw the ball to Kenyon because he made such good decisions. Now we’ve got to be more of a motion team.”
Four UC players scored in double figures against UNC-Wilmington, led by Mickeal’s 15 points. Johnson scored 13, but made only 1-for-8 from 3-point range. Despite his poor perimeter shooting, he played more aggressively overall, pulling down seven rebounds and blocking four shots.
“I’ve been talking to him,” Martin said, “telling him he’s got to play.”
For most of the season, the 6-foot-9 Johnson had been stationed on the perimeter as the ultimate decoy, shooting effectively enough to keep opponents from packing their defense around Martin.
“Now I feel like I have to do some of the things Kenyon was doing,” Johnson said.
Huggins’ renovation plan called for a starting role for Fletcher, more playing time for Donald Little and B.J. Grove, more emphasis on scoring in transition, and more of a team approach on defense with Martin no longer in the middle to protect the rim. Was it possible this could work after all, that the Bearcats could make a deep run in the tournament without Martin?
Next up was Tulsa.
Late in the second half, it appeared the Bearcats were headed to the Sweet 16. They led the Golden Hurricane, 50-45, having overcome a 16-point first-half deficit. But then, in a span of 3½ minutes, it all came crashing down when Tulsa scored 14 straight points to take a 59-50 lead. Martin could only watch in resignation from behind the UC bench.
“I felt like I was in a cage,” he said. “I could see it, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Tulsa went on to post a 69-61 victory. UC’s season was over.
“This team will never have closure,” I wrote after the game. “The players will always wonder how far they could have gone with Martin on the floor. You don’t envision a conclusion like this when you’re ranked No. 1 in the country in January. You can’t imagine the Player of the Year leaning on a crutch outside the locker room while your head coach philosophizes down the hall about missed opportunities.”
As I listened to Huggins, I remembered what the program was like when he took over in 1989 and he felt compelled to conduct walk-on tryouts because the Bearcats were so short-handed. Still, they made it to the NIT.
Now he had seen what was probably his best UC team lose in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in a game they had a legitimate chance to win even without Martin. I knew how much it hurt him.
“Sometimes life teaches you lessons,” he said. “It’s a hard lesson, but you deal with it and move on.”
The shock of Kenyon Martin’s season-injury ending wouldn’t wear off for years. In fact, 21 years later you could argue it still hasn’t worn off for UC fans.
But in the immediate aftermath of that devastating blow, there was no time for the Bearcats to feel sorry for themselves. Even though they knew their NCAA Tournament chances had been diminished by the loss of Martin, they also knew that as talented as Martin was, he was not a one-man show. They still had Jermaine Tate, Pete Mickeal, Kenny Satterfield, Ryan Fletcher, future All-American Steve Logan, and DerMarr Johnson, one of the most talented freshmen in the country.
The first order of business was Selection Sunday when the Bearcats would learn if they'd receive the No. 1 seed they believed they had earned regardless of the Martin injury. The answer was no. UC was dropped down a rung to a No. 2 seed, which infuriated Bob Huggins.
“I didn’t think there was any question,” Huggins said. “It’s historical what they just did. This has to be the first time in history that a No. 1 team didn’t get a No. 1 seed.”
I wrote in the next day’s Cincinnati Post that I understood why the Bearcats had been relegated to a No. 2 seed. “We just tried to project the best we could, what the loss of an all All-American candidate would mean,” said committee chairman Craig Thompson.
I wasn’t surprised when I received a slew of angry emails from UC fans. They were still hurting over Martin’s injury and wanted to lash out at somebody because of what was taken from them. I was a convenient target. My own brother, who now lives in Denver, wrote a letter to the editor taking me to task for my column. When I called Barry the other day to ask him about the letter, he tried to start the argument all over again.
But some of the UC players understood Thompson’s reasoning.
“You can justify it either way,” Fletcher said. “I can see them giving us a No. 1 seed because of the regular season we had. But at the same time, there’s the fact that we lost the opening game of our conference tournament and we lost our best player. I can understand that they’re giving us a No. 2.”
The players also understood that Huggins was a master at finding ways to motivate his team. Why would he not use the perceived slight to fire them up for the task ahead?
“That’s Huggs,” Mickeal said. “Everybody else in this whole deal, we’re all positive. Huggs is whatever he is. He’s not negative. He’s just Huggs.”
If anyone could find a way to win after losing the best player in the country, it seemed Huggins would be the guy. One of his strongest attributes as a coach was his ability to adapt to his personnel. But he didn’t have much time. The Bearcats were scheduled to play their first-round game against North Carolina-Wilmington five days later in Nashville, Tenn.
Everyone had their own idea on how UC should proceed without Martin: Press full-court the entire game, use a three-guard lineup, shoot more threes. But in their 64-47 win over UNC-Wilmington on Friday, March 17, 2000, Huggins eschewed dramatic changes in favor of a more reasoned, incremental approach.
“We’re not the same team,” he said. “Offensively, we didn’t have to do much other than throw the ball to Kenyon because he made such good decisions. Now we’ve got to be more of a motion team.”
Four UC players scored in double figures against UNC-Wilmington, led by Mickeal’s 15 points. Johnson scored 13, but made only 1-for-8 from 3-point range. Despite his poor perimeter shooting, he played more aggressively overall, pulling down seven rebounds and blocking four shots.
“I’ve been talking to him,” Martin said, “telling him he’s got to play.”
For most of the season, the 6-foot-9 Johnson had been stationed on the perimeter as the ultimate decoy, shooting effectively enough to keep opponents from packing their defense around Martin.
“Now I feel like I have to do some of the things Kenyon was doing,” Johnson said.
Huggins’ renovation plan called for a starting role for Fletcher, more playing time for Donald Little and B.J. Grove, more emphasis on scoring in transition, and more of a team approach on defense with Martin no longer in the middle to protect the rim. Was it possible this could work after all, that the Bearcats could make a deep run in the tournament without Martin?
Next up was Tulsa.
Late in the second half, it appeared the Bearcats were headed to the Sweet 16. They led the Golden Hurricane, 50-45, having overcome a 16-point first-half deficit. But then, in a span of 3½ minutes, it all came crashing down when Tulsa scored 14 straight points to take a 59-50 lead. Martin could only watch in resignation from behind the UC bench.
“I felt like I was in a cage,” he said. “I could see it, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Tulsa went on to post a 69-61 victory. UC’s season was over.
“This team will never have closure,” I wrote after the game. “The players will always wonder how far they could have gone with Martin on the floor. You don’t envision a conclusion like this when you’re ranked No. 1 in the country in January. You can’t imagine the Player of the Year leaning on a crutch outside the locker room while your head coach philosophizes down the hall about missed opportunities.”
As I listened to Huggins, I remembered what the program was like when he took over in 1989 and he felt compelled to conduct walk-on tryouts because the Bearcats were so short-handed. Still, they made it to the NIT.
Now he had seen what was probably his best UC team lose in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in a game they had a legitimate chance to win even without Martin. I knew how much it hurt him.
“Sometimes life teaches you lessons,” he said. “It’s a hard lesson, but you deal with it and move on.”
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