Texas Tech Guard Returns With Heavy Heart While Brother Ails, Ex-Cougar Guard Martin Tries To Focus On Nit, WSU
Jason Martin can’t seem to get into this “homecoming” thing everyone keeps talking about.
Texas Tech’s starting point guard admits he is amused by the coincidental nature of the Red Raiders’ first-round National Invitation Tournament travels, which have landed him back at Washington State - the very school he left last fall.
But his thoughts, along with his prayers, are drifting nearly 1,200 miles south to Hacienda Heights, Calif., where his 26-year-old brother Todd is dying from throat cancer.
And not even tonight’s 9 o’clock showdown against his former Cougar teammates - let alone all of the trumped-up “homecoming” hype - can ease the grief he feels.
“It’s a difficult time,” Martin, a 5-foot-10 junior, admitted Tuesday after flying from his brother’s bedside to join his Texas Tech team for an early evening practice at Friel Court, the site of tonight’s game.
“Right now it’s kind of hard, because this is a big game and whatever. But it doesn’t mean anything as far as my family comes into play.
“I really kind of wish I was back there (with Todd). But I prayed, and the Lord told me it was OK for me to come here and do this today. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed for my brother.”
At 21, Martin is the youngest of seven children in his family. Todd, the closest in age of his three brothers, was diagnosed with cancer just a short time ago. His kidneys are failing and he is hooked up to a dialysis machine.
Monday afternoon, Todd’s heart quit beating.
“He had a heart attack,” Martin explained. “They had to revive him. He’s still in bad shape right now.”
Martin flew home to be with his brother after Tech lost to Texas in Saturday’s finals of the Southwest Conference Tournament. He learned of the NCAA’s snub of the Red Raiders and their subsequent NIT berth when he arrived home.
“I was surprised to be playing Washington State,” Martin admitted, adding that he never, “not even in a million years,” expected to see Pullman again. “You get to come back to
where your college career was supposed to start.”
That’s not the way it worked out, however.
Martin, after signing with the Cougars in 1993, quit the team early last season before playing in any games and transferred to Texas Tech at the end of the fall semester.
He sat out the first semester this season under the NCAA’s transfer rule but quickly won the starting point-guard job shortly after becoming eligible in mid-December.
He has started every game since and was named to the SWC’s all-newcomer team after averaging nearly five points and five assists during the regular season.
Martin took over a troublesome point guard position that had previously been shared by small forward Mark Davis and shooting guard Koy Smith and led the Raiders to 20-9 overall record and an 11-3 SWC mark that was good for a share of first place with Texas.
His assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly 3-to-1 and Tech is 16-6 in the games he has started. “It was a welcomed change to get a true point guard with a point guard’s body and point guard’s mentality. Jason was one of the main reasons we were able to share the conference championship because he played well when he was in there and he also allowed Koy and Mark to play their natural positions.”
Martin said he decided to leave WSU for several reasons, including differences with then-Cougar coach Kelvin Sampson over the team’s offensive philosophy and the fact that the school did not offer the pre-law program he wanted.
Martin’s problem with Sampson’s offense was that it wasn’t the run-and-gun package he had been sold.
“When you’re being recruited, a long of things get promised to you and they don’t happen,” Martin explained. “My decision to come here was made too quickly. I really didn’t look into the offense the way I should have looked into it.”
But when he sees the up-tempo game the Cougars are playing under first-year coach Kevin Eastman, he almost wishes he had stayed.
“It’s like they freed some catfish or something,” he said. “It looks like they’re having more fun now. They get to run and shoot a little more freely.”
Martin likes the idea of going up against his former teammates. He grew up in Inglewood, Calif., in the same neighborhood as Cougar point guard Donminic Ellison and he became close friends with Isaac Fontaine and Tavares Mack during his short stay at WSU.
He only wishes there was a way to wash away the heartache of knowing that his brother is dying. Then maybe he could enjoy this homecoming thing a little bit more.
xxxx WSU VS. TEXAS TECH Projected Texas Tech starters G (13) Jason Martin, 5-10, Jr. G (4) Lance Hughes, 6-4, Sr. C (20) Darvin Ham, 6-7, Jr. F (33) Jason Sasser, 6-7, Jr. F (42) Mark Davis, 6-7, Sr.
Projected WSU starters G (11) Donminic Ellison, 5-10, So. G (12) Shamon Antrum, 5-10, Jr. G (22) Isaac Fontaine, 6-4, So. F (30) Mark Hendrickson, 6-9, Jr. F (53) Tavares Mack, 6-9, So.